The Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) describes its “most singular strength” as its “convening power [… drawing] a unique mix of researchers ranging from early-career scientists to Nobel Laureates, and students at levels from high school to postdoctoral [whose] interactions have led to multiple, transformative breakthroughs in our understanding of biology.” Therefore when they set out to publish, through The University of Chicago Press, a series of books that would make available to the wider reading public examples of the types of research undertaken at the institution, as well as portraits of how such research is undertaken there, giving the series the title Convening Science was clearly the most logical choice.
Following the publication of the first volume, The Ark and Beyond; The Evolution of Zoo and Aquarium Conservation, in 2018, the series now numbers eight titles as of this month with the publication of a book that carries the decidedly intriguing description “A concise primer that complicates a convenient truth in biology:” Prof. Kate MacCord’s How Does Germline Regenerate?
While the topics presented in the volumes of the series are admittedly a bit higher level in both their subject areas and levels of discourse than those found in works of popular science, they are by no means intended to be exclusively read only by scholars working in the associated respective fields. Those who hold a serious interest in the included areas of study should, thanks to the skillful editorial oversight guiding the series, be able not only to follow but indeed to benefit greatly from each volume’s contents.
For ease of future reference, I have added this series to the growing Natural History Book Series catalog of series worthy of attention.
