Biology

Most of the stories in the collection feature a strong biology theme. The Behavior of the Hawkweeds discusses Mendel and his genetics work, and one of the main characters is a biology instructor. The English Pupil discusses the last few days of Linnaeus's life and contains much information about many of his students. The Littoral Zone begins with a biology retreat and the two protagonists are biology professors. Rare Bird discusses taxonomy and ecology and the two female protagonists have strong biology educations and backgrounds. Birds With No Feet discusses Wallace and the protagonist gathers biological specimens for a living. In The Marburg Sisters, the two sisters are biochemists, one a successful professor at a university. And in Ship Fever the setting is a quarantine station during a time of epidemic—not biology perhaps, but the closely related field of medicine. These biological themes and famous biologists...