Natural High

Wiley, who writes personal essays for Smithsonian magazine, here offers a lively and appealing collection of 23 of those pieces touching on science, nature and the ``ecology of human beings.'' His vision encompasses the entire horizon, as when he reveals that, according to quantum mechanics, ``the whole universe may be a single hologram: The information about all of it is encapsulated in every part of it.'' Conversely, Wiley also focuses on the particular, as when, after a heart attack, he learns it is less pleasant to have a catheter threaded through his arteries than to report about such new treatments as a journalist; he resultingly bids a fond and reluctant farewell to cigarettes. Casting an eye over nature can prompt Wiley to sound a warning. He discusses, for example, the need for a long-range study of the results of oil spills and notes that damage caused by the Exxon Valdez has been greater and will last longer than previously expected. However, nature stands ready to take back territory from us as well: when the National Park Service added cattails, water irises and ``a postage-stamp island'' to a Washington, D.C., concrete pool, wild ducks promptly moved in to raise their young. (Jan.)