University of Arkansas Press Publishes Collection of Tales by Arkansas Biologists

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The true tales in Adventures in the Wild: Tales from Biologists in the Natural State, edited by Joy Trauth and Aldemaro Romero (paperback, $19.95), takes readers from the chicken houses of Arkansas to the caves of Venezuela and Mexico to the coast of Alaska. The 15 adventures range from amusing to life threatening. Some are filled with suspense and danger in exotic places, while others document more routine but important biological field and lab work.

There is the roommate with the rash that wouldn’t go away, a friendly bull, some blind cave fish, killer whales, drug smugglers, and hairy roots that are used to produce new medicines. Readers will learn about researchers crawling through rotten-egg-smelling muck in search of an elusive mosquitofish, diving into the cold black water of the White River in search of mussels, flying with bush pilots in Alaska, and working with David Attenborough in Arkansas. The book portrays teachers and researchers, biologists all, from Arkansas State University, real people who get their feet wet and their hands dirty in the pursuit of knowledge.

Adventures in the Wild was launched on April 28 with a successful book signing on the ASU campus. All proceeds from the book will go to fund biology initiatives at Arkansas State, including the development of the Biodiversity Center.

According to Tom Lavoie, University of Arkansas Press marketing director, Adventures is appealing to both adult and young adult readers and to both an academic and nonacademic audience. “The book is being sold to academics in the field, the large numbers of general interest readers who seek out nature and science writing, and young people who want to learn more about what the field of biology is like,” he said. Lavoie added that the book was favorably reviewed by Booklist, the publication of the American Library Association, which said, “These forays into what makes field research fun, as well as what makes researchers tick, will be sought out by fans of popular science writing.”

The evaluation echoes that of Acting Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Christián Samper, who wrote the foreword to the book: “The stories reveal the exhilaration felt by biologists when discovering new information and collecting new specimens of plants and animals.” Joy Trauth is a biology instructor at Arkansas State University. Aldemaro Romero is a professor and chair of the department.