Patricia Patterson Sturges (1930-2002) devoted much of her life to educating children about science. With degrees in childhood education from San Jose State College (BA) and Temple University (MA), she taught elementary school in Oregon, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. As a science teacher at Shepherdstown Elementary School, she initiated the local science fair that later was named after her. Participating in the national Teacher In Space competition as the alternate for the state of West Virginia, she witnessed first-hand the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle, an event that stayed with her for the rest of her life. Inspired by Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring, Sturges developed her own skills in natural history writing, publishing several magazine articles and The Endless Chain of Nature. She retired to Camarillo, California, where she lived with her husband Frank Sturges, an ecologist who studied birds at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest. Her daughters, Sheryl and Karen, updated the book for this 2013 edition.