PESTS

In a fascinating, wide-ranging study, Pests will bring storytelling, scientific and journalistic approaches together under a new big idea: that those animals we consider pests - such as mice, deer, rats, pigeons and more -- is a question of our own perception, beliefs and actions, not a matter of the animals themselves, but of the subjective way we see and label them.

And the way we see such creatures changes over time - with Bambi becoming the destroyer of gardens and instigators of car crashes - and depends on matters of geography and culture - Western city dwellers abhor the dirty, disease carrying rat scurrying behind the garbage can, but people in parts of India revere that same rat as intelligent and resourceful and consider them honored pets. Even cats, beloved members of the family when indoors and pampered become pests when living outside as strays, cold-blooded assassins of song birds and butterflies. What is going on with our relationship with these creatures? Pet or pest, is a clearly a matter of perspective.
Written with a wonderful combination of wit and expertise, Pests will offer a new look at those animals that for various reasons disturb, annoy and scare us and delve into the reasons why, many of which reside deep in our shared consciousness and with others springing into being due to recent developments in human activity. The stories of the accomplishments of "pests" - the frustrating, charming and incredibly successful pigeons, rodents and gulls of the world - underlie this book, but the focus is on human nature and our fluid and flexible perceptions of the natural world around us. As Bethany writes, "our efforts to deal with the vermin in our lives have impacted the way we live from the earliest moments of human civilization. But pests aren't out to eat us or kill us. Instead, at core they threaten our sense of security, our idea that we've got this nature thing locked down and out of the house, unless we welcome it in."
Bethany will travel to points across the globe to see how innovative programs to deal with problem elephants, deer, bears and other animals who now find themselves in direct conflict with humans are being developed and deployed. As Bethany writes, "this book is about us. It's about how we define a pest, and what that says about us, how we live, and what we want. It's a story about human nature, and what it means for the animals in our midst, who have clawed their way to success even as we try to ensure their failure."

Bethany Brookshire is an award-winning science writer who is a 2019-2020 fellow at the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship. Her academic credentials and her research experience which are in the proposal are exceptional. She is the staff writer at Science News for Students, a digital magazine that covers the latest in scientific research for kids ages 9-14.
Bethany is also a contributor to Science News magazine, a host on the podcast Science for the People, and winner of the 2012 Society for Neuroscience Next Generation Award.
Bethany has built a following as a science communicator. Her Twitter feed, @BeeBrookshire, has more than 64k followers, and her recommendations on Pocket (an app for reading and sharing online content) reach more than 140k readers. Bethany is the most popular host on the podcast Science for the People, where each episode receives ~12k downloads per week. She has contributed to Slate, the Guardian, Discover and more
She is an accomplished public speaker and has given numerous talks at conferences including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the World Conference of Science Journalists, The National Association of Science Writers, and the Society for Neuroscience and has contributed freelance pieces to Slate, Scientific American, The Guardian and Discover among others
Pests represents the best of inspiring and approachable science writing for a general audience, focusing on a fascinating subject in the human-animal relationship that readers today are so eager to explore.