Emily Monosson began exploring chemistry under her mother’s sink, mixing home cleaning liquids together to fashion “insect killers” and mystery solutions. “I was always fascinated by these chemicals that could kill you,” she recalls. Since then, her childhood love of chemicals has blossomed into a career as an environmental toxicologist.
Monosson studied biology as an undergraduate at Union College in Schenectady, New York, and earned a PhD in biochemical toxicology at Cornell University. She describes herself as “a scientific vagabond,” as balancing her scientific interests and family has led her to juggle writing, teaching at local colleges, and consulting as an independent toxicologist. Monosson began blogging about chemicals that were in the news at The Neighborhood Toxicologist, a process that eventually led to her first book, Evolution in a Toxic World. A chapter in that book sparked her second book Unnatural Selection: How We Are Changing Life, Gene by Gene, which focuses on how quickly evolution can occur in response to antibiotics, pesticides, herbicides, and even chemotherapeutics. In “Sleep Tight,” Monosson describes the resurgence of ...
