Breasts

Winner, L.A. Times Book Prize, Science & Technolgy, United States, 2012

Feted and fetishized, the breast is an evolutionary masterpiece. But in the modern world, the breast is changing. Breasts are getting bigger, arriving earlier and attracting newfangled chemicals. Increasingly, the odds are stacked against us in the struggle with breast cancer - even among men.

What makes breasts so mercurial, and so vulnerable?

The intrepid science journalist Florence Williams sets out to uncover the latest science from the fields of anthropology, biology, and medicine. Her investigation follows the life cycle of the breast from puberty to pregnancy to menopause.

Endowed with a witty and inquisitive voice, Williams explores where breasts came from, where they have ended up, and what we can do to save them.

Florence Williams is a contributing editor at Outside Magazine and a freelance writer for the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, New Republic and numerous other publications. Her work often focuses on the environment, health and science. In 2007-2008, she was a Scripps Fellow at the Center of Environmental Journalism at the University of Colorado.

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'Breasts is less a primer on anatomy than a catalog of environmental devastation akin to Rachel Carson's 1962 classic Silent Spring, which detailed the impact of industrial chemicals - notably, the pesticide DDT - on animal life. But Williams, who cites Carson as an inspiration, has written a far scarier book. Carson examined birds and fish. Williams looks at us.' New York Times

'A must read for owners and admirers alike.' North & South Magazine

'Florence Williams's double-D talents as a reporter and writer lift this book high above the genre and separate it from the ranks of ordinary science writing. Breasts is illuminating, surprising, clever, important. Williams is an author to savour and look forward to.' Mary Roach

'A wonderful and entertaining tour through the evolution, biology and cultural aspects of the organ that defines us as mammals!' Susan Love MD author of Dr Susan Love's Breast Book