MARY BATTEN is an award-winning author of science books and television documentaries. Her work deals with human behavior, ecology, animals, plants, health, disease, stars and galaxies -- everything in the natural world. Batten has visited tropical rainforests, astronomical observatories, and medical research laboratories during the course of her research.

Batten's first "field station" was the peanut farm in Smithfield, Virginia, where she grew up. The woods and streams where she played taught her to respect and appreciate the plants and animals, and the cycle of seasons, planting, and harvesting. In her books, Batten tries "to convey the diversity of life, and the responsibility that humans have to care for the other species with which we share our global habitat."

Batten has been a guest on "Oprah", "Tom Snyder", and other national television shows. She was nominated for an Emmy for her work on the Children's Television Workshop's science series 3-2-1 Contact, and she has written more than fifty nature documentaries for television, including the syndicated series Wild Wild World of Animals (Time-Life Films) and others for National Geographic and Disney Educational Films.

Batten's articles have appeared in magazines including: Science Digest, National Geographic World, Cosmopolitan, Ladies Home Journal, Modern Maturity, Shape, International Wildlife, Zoo Nooz (San Diego Zoological Society newsletter), Dolphin Log and Calypso Log, the Cousteau Society's award-winning magazine, of which she was also the Editor. Batten is now Editor-in-Chief of Breastlink.org, a website for breast cancer patients and their families.

Batten lives with her husband, composer Ed Bland, in Smithfield, VA. They have two grown children.

Biography provided by Peachtree Publishers.