Writers and beekeepers Benjamin and McCallum have traveled across Europe and North America investigating the plight of the honeybee, which is disappearing across the globe at an alarming rate, addressing different causes for this growing catastrophe (dubbed colony collapse disorder or CCD), including viruses, parasites, pesticides, climate change, and the demands of commercial beekeeping.

She loved the ocean and wrote three books about its mysteries, including the international bestseller The Sea Around Us. But it was with her fourth book, Silent Spring, that this unassuming biologist transformed our relationship with the natural world.Rachel Carson began work on Silent Spring in the late 1950s, when a dizzying array of synthetic pesticides had come into use. Leading this chemical onslaught was the insecticide DDT, whose inventor had...