Millipedes and Moon Tigers explores those uneasy places where scientific research meets public policy-making--and the resulting human effect on our natural and historical landscapes. Steve Nash's eye gravitates toward those specific, contemporary stories whose relevance does not diminish with a turn of the calendar's page, for they represent larger, looming issues.

The destruction wrought upon native ecosystems by invasive species such as snakehead fish; the drastic and, in many cases, mysterious reduction in songbird populations in recent decades; the blight of a century ago...