“Eels in the Stream” is an especially stirring chapter.  We learn about the gap of knowledge about glass eels and the urgency for studying their life cycles as their numbers in lotic systems mysteriously dwindle.  Citizen scientists volunteer in counting eels caught by mops set across ten Hudson River tributaries. Their work begins to answer big questions. Do water temperatures, tide cycles, and precipitation affect eel migration?  Why do eel populations vary over time and between sites? Do they migrate steadily or en masse? How large are these populations and in what ways are they changing?

We also get to know the community that formed around the project, from teenaged students who are driven to satisfy their curiosity and express their passion for conservation, to the environmental scientist leading the effort who remarked, “Look at this delicious little thing…If you look closely, you can see what it’s eaten lately, its tiny eyeballs, its little heart.”  In the midst of all these, Busch is moved and wonders:

“How is it possible to hold something so utterly small and transparent in the palm of your hand and still know so little about it?

“…Maybe there is something in the life cycle of the eel that speaks to the way we ourselves work to navigate the wide waters between the unsure, the nearly sure, and the none absolutely certain; and to the unknown we all feel about where we start and where we end, about our origins and our final destination and what forces deliver us from one to the other.”

As the pages turn, we gain an appreciation for wildlife and ponder what it can teach us about the human experience.

The Incidental Steward reads like a deep conversation with a friend who has come into new insight after an adventure.  Each chapter typically opens with the research task and then reflections unfold, weaving in and out of interesting biology facts, intermittently highlighting issues particular to real-world scientific research, candid opinions from scientists included.  Along the way in this book, citizen science is portrayed as a moral duty and an appeal to get involved becomes its undercurrent.

Discovery, ultimately—whether it is in the context of ground-breaking research or witnessing the translucency of a glass eel as a citizen scientist—will be a permanent motif in the history of science.  We catch a glimpse of how truly clever the world around us is; perhaps, on occasion, we are also inspired to take better care of it. Want to get involved in citizen science yourself to experience such wonders? Akiko Busch concludes The Incidental Steward with a selection of 53 projects you can participate in. SciStarter also has its own handy Project Finder!

This review is part of an ongoing series of book reviews written by members of Dr. Ashley Rose Mehlenbacher’s research team in partnership with Scistarter.com. If you have a recommendation for a book to review, please contact Scistarter Editor Caroline Nickerson at CarolineN@SciStarter.com.

Patricia Balbon

Patricia Balbon is a B.Sc. student taking the Society, Technology, and Values Option at the University of Waterloo, in Canada. Her research interests involve studying open science, collaboration networks, and community values.