Six Legs Walking: Notes from an Entomological Life

by Elizabeth Bernays

Overview

WINNER - 2020 New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Autobiography/Memoir

"This is a most interesting read, scientific discussion with the occasional diversion into personality and comedy . . . Most of all, her patient dedicated passion for detailed observation of the minute interactions between predator and insect prey impressed this reviewer." -Entomologist's Gazette

Like the painted lady butterflies that fascinated her as a child in Queensland, Australia, entomologist Elizabeth Bernays has lived a migratory adventure, following her scientific curiosity around the world before landing at the University of Arizona. In Six Legs Walking: Notes from an Entomological Life, Bernays takes us along on her evolution from backward child to accomplished biologist as she explores scholarship, culture, and love, all while immersed in the wonders of some of the smallest creatures on earth.

Young Liz becomes enamored with insects in her home garden while working beside her mother, who worries over her daughter being deemed intellectually impaired. An introduction to a working scientist and the encouragement of a beloved teacher inspire Elizabeth to go on to the University of Queensland to study biology.

While in graduate school in London, Elizabeth meets established entomologist Reg Chapman, who will become her partner in work and in life. As a British government scientist, she researches the habits of bugs in the hopes of finding biological solutions to controlling pests that damage crops in Nigeria, India, and Mali, working alongside local scientists and discovering the diversity of human cultural customs.

As a professor at the University of California Berkeley, she learns about American individualism and advocating on her own behalf. At last, Bernays settles in the Sonoran Desert, where she is visited by a hawk moth that launches her on yet another entomological expedition.

In this collection of autobiographical essays, Elizabeth Bernays educates readers on the progression and significance of biological research while sharing her sheer joy in the discoveries she makes. Six Legs Walking is the inspiring story of one woman's lifelong love affair with science.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781949259032
Publisher:	Raised Voice Press
Publication date:	09/24/2019
Pages:	194
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.45(d)

About the Author

Elizabeth Bernays grew up in Queensland, Australia, before moving to England where she taught high school and earned a PhD in entomology at University of London. She worked as a British government scientist for thirteen years, in London as well as in developing countries. In 1983, she became professor of entomology at the University of California Berkeley, and, in 1989, she was appointed Regents' Professor at the University of Arizona. After retiring, Elizabeth earned a MFA in creative writing at the University of Arizona. Her poems and essays have appeared in a variety of literary journals. She lives in historic downtown Tucson.

Editorial Reviews

Elizabeth Bernays has written a beautiful memoir. Her sense of amazement at nature and boundless curiosity make this account of the attention, inventiveness, global spirit, and fun of a life in science shine. Insects, under her devoted scrutiny, prove to be spellbinding theater—“a performance of great skill.” This book offers a window into how and why to care about the smallest among us.

—Alison Hawthorne Deming, author of Zoologies: On Animals and the Human Spirit

From her childhood in Australia and schooling in England to the wilds of Hungary, India, and Africa, Elizabeth Bernays asks the reader to become her entomological lab assistant, to suffer the tropical heat and grime and army ant bites of a true field researcher. Six Legs Walking is a fascinating, beautifully descriptive, and lyrical narrative that captures the essence of some strange agricultural pests and the exotic places where they dwell.

—Ken Lamberton, author of Wilderness and Razor Wire and Chasing Arizona

Elizabeth Bernays’s memoir illustrates what drives a life in science—persistent curiosity and a healthy dose of fearlessness. These serve her well in the face of obstacles encountered as she makes her way to success as a rare female researcher. Most enjoyable are her clear-sighted observations and original thoughts about living things and about the connections between insects and people she meets along the way.

—Nancy A. Moran, evolutionary biologist, 1997 MacArthur Fellow

I very much enjoyed reading these engagingly written memoirs of a great naturalist and superb entomologist. Her deep love for nature, the acute commitment to her pioneering research, and her warm sense for the people around her shine through on every page.

—Bert Hölldobler, Pulitzer Prize–winning coauthor of The Ants

Elizabeth Bernays transforms the structure and function of grasshopper jaws into poetry, metamorphoses hours of insect observations into applecart-upsetting scientific directions, and shares her life with passion and humility. It is an honor to view the marvel of insects through her creative magnifying lens.

—Marla Spivak, entomologist, 2010 MacArthur Fellow

Six Legs Walking: Notes from an Entomological Life is a sparkling series of linked essays by a famous entomologist with a lifetime of close observation and experience behind her. She speaks of “the image of insects, those primordial creatures that had been my passion for so long” and the effect the insects have had upon her life. Passion is the right word. A terrific book.

—Richard Shelton, author of Going Back to Bisbee and Nobody Rich or Famous

Deftly, Bernays unravels the process of scientific inquiry, mindful of the capricious influences of gender, culture, and funding, but without losing sight of its joy. Six Legs Walking is the kind of book that will make you look at a blade of grass or a cactus pad with new eyes, searching for the "small wonders" that abound within its pages.

— Melissa L. Sevigny, author of Mythical River and Under Desert Skies

From the Publisher