Tom Easton written short stories, novels, textbooks, poetry, and magazine articles for half a century. He spent thirty years as the book columnist for the science fiction magazine Analog. With a doctorate in theoretical biology, he also spent more than thirty years as a college professor.He started reading science fiction in 1957. The appeal to a callow thirteen-year-old was downright traditional, for that was about the age when an awful lot of science fiction fans and writers got hooked. But there was something more in his case. His Dad was a biologist, his Mom a nurse, so science was in the family. He turned thirteen in 1957, the year of Sputnik.

The newspapers were full of Rockets! Satellites! Space! Very soon, he experienced Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. Wernher von Braun and Willy Ley were beating the drums for space stations and moon bases.He earned a doctorate in Theoretical Biology from the University of Chicago. When he started writing in the 1970s, it seemed very natural to write science fiction, some of which dealt with those interactions of science, technology, and society. But only a very small number of people can actually make a living writing science fiction . When that penetrated, he became a college professor, teaching biology, including environmental science and ecology, as well as other science courses. It was only a part-time gig at first, while he continued to try to make writing generate a full-time income. In due time, the college asked him to develop a course on philosophy and methods of science, which eventually became a science, technology, and society (STS) course.

Using his course materials, he edited an issues anthology (Taking Sides: Controversial Issues in Science, Technology and Society, McGraw-Hill, now in its 14th edition) and developed an anthology of stories on STS themes (Gedanken Fictions, Wildside, 2000). A few of the nineteen issues in the Taking Sides book dealt with the environment. It seemed a natural progression when the publisher asked him to take over Taking Sides: Controversial Environmental Issues (now in its 17th edition), a somewhat more focused STS book.