The High Frontier: Exploring the Tropical Rainforest Canopy

Rating:
Summary: solid science, unforgettable images
Review: This is a great popular science book, written by an adventurer/explorer who also has a Harvard PhD in biology. He travels all over the world for National Geographic, taking nature photos as well as reporting on cutting-edge discoveries in the rainforests. As such, he succeeds at mixing art and science in this book, which is somewhat technical, but explained in clear language that laymen can understand. THis book changed the way I saw rainforests: fully 9/10s of their biota are in the canopy, in the leaves high above, which you would never from the ground. And Moffet went up there with camera to photograph it with some of the world's best scientists. The result is masterful.

It is truly a pity that this book is out of print. I wrote a review of it for the Boston Globe when it came out and later met the author, Moffet. He was as interesting and colorful as the book, full of hilarious stories of his adventures.