Rain by Melissa Harrison review – in praise of the downpour
An account of four walks through the damp English countryside combines lovely phrase-making with stories of famous poets splashing about in their wellingtonsI have always loved rain, anything from...
View ArticleNot in Your Genes review – blame the parenting not the parents
Oliver James makes a forceful argument for the influence of upbringing on personality“All of us were maltreated sometimes,” writes Oliver James in his latest offering, Not in Your Genes. A cheery...
View ArticleWhat are the best children's books on science?
From the environmental classic Dear Greenpeace to out of this world books about space, the Book Doctor celebrates science week with book choices to inspire the scientists of the futureAs it’s science...
View ArticleWellcome announces 2016 shortlist for £30,000 book prize
Alex Pheby, Sarah Moss, Cathy Rentzenbrink, Amy Liptrot, Suzanne O’Sullivan and Steve Silberman compete for medicine-themed awardA novel that imagines the schizophrenia of the 19th-century German judge...
View ArticleAnimal travellers: a history of exotic animals in the UK – in pictures
Exotic animals have been kept in Britain for more than eight centuries, inspiring wonder and terror in those who saw them – despite the cruelties of their captivity. The zoologist Caroline Grigson...
View ArticleElon Musk by Ashlee Vance review – how one tech billionaire plans to save the...
The Silicon Valley entrepreneur wants to solve humanity’s problems with his electric cars, space travel and solar panels. Where did he come from and what makes him tick?The hype about the information...
View ArticleTop 10 STEM girls in YA
Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) aren’t just for boys - and here’s author Christiane Dorion’s 10 amazing STEM girls from YA to prove itAs an author I really enjoy touring schools...
View ArticleAdventures in Human Being by Gavin Francis review – a tour round our bodies
A beautifully written guide to our wonders and weaknessesAn Edinburgh GP with a love of geography, Francis approaches the human body as a landscape, rich in history and myth. This is not a coldly...
View ArticleRain: Four Walks in English Weather by Melissa Harrison – review
A guided tour of wet English landscapes offers extraordinary insights of the natural worldMelissa Harrison is having a prolific year. Rain: Four Walks in English Weather is the third book bearing her...
View ArticleThe Serengeti Rules by Sean B Carroll review – a visionary book about how...
Carroll argues that life, from genes to ecosystems, is regulated top-down by predators – a powerful idea that can help us devise cures for disease and regenerate natural habitatsAs diagnosed by Thomas...
View ArticleBuilding beyond the Earth: the International Space Station – in pictures
Racing over our heads at five miles per second is a building the size of an art gallery. The International Space Station was bolted together from prefabricated modules launched into the vacuum of...
View ArticleInternational Space Station by David Nixon review – logistics of floating in...
A painstaking account of the construction of the ISS and the daily routine of the astronauts who inhabit itThe International Space Station, that $160bn assemblage of aluminium, titanium, steel and...
View ArticleGeneration Anthropocene: How humans have altered the planet for ever
We are living in the Anthropocene age, in which human influence on the planet is so profound – and terrifying – it will leave its legacy for millennia. Politicians and scientists have had their say,...
View ArticleThe 100 best nonfiction books: No 10 – The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins
An intoxicating renewal of evolutionary theory that coined the idea of the meme and paved the way for Professor Dawkins’s later, more polemical worksWhat is man, and what are we for? Remarkably, it was...
View ArticleStaring at the sun: our local star – in pictures
Human beings have been studying the sun for thousands of years, but our nearest star has only recently begun to reveal its secrets. Lucie Green takes us on a journey to the heart of our local...
View ArticleTop 10 depictions of British rain
If April showers are keeping you indoors, English literature from Shakespeare to Hilary Mantel provides a vivid idea of what you’re missing – with no need to get wetFor the last decade or so I’ve been...
View ArticleThe Abundance by Annie Dillard review – a world of wonder, acutely observed
In his foreword to this collection of essays, Geoff Dyer affectionately calls Dillard ‘scatty’, but it’s when she is at her most unconventional that this Pulitzer prize-winning writer shines most...
View ArticleWhat are the rules that regulate life on Earth? - Science Weekly podcast
Biologist Sean B. Carroll, author of The Serengeti Rules, discusses the logic underpinning life What are the rules that regulate life on Earth?Is there a common logic underpinning those rules,...
View ArticleCelling point: scientist makes Darwin's Origin of Species with bacteria
Molecular biologist Dr Simon Park has made a very unusual edition of the classic text, using bacteria to create the coverCharles Darwin, speculates bacteriologist Dr Simon Park, would have been...
View ArticleLab girl: one woman’s fight to overcome sexism and save the world
Botanist Hope Jahren’s new memoir tells how a lifelong passion for science sustained her in the male-dominated world of the research laboratoryHope Jahren’s memoir of her life in science, Lab Girl, has...
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