Happiness by Design by Paul Dolan and How We Are by Vincent Deary review
Stuck in a rut? Imprisoned by habit? Two major books offer insights into how to be happy and when to make a major life changeA few years ago, in a survey conducted by an accident prevention charity,...
View ArticleThe Lagoon review Armand Marie Leroi's rewarding study of Aristotle's science
A sumptuous, beautifully written account of the Greek philosopher's forays into biology reveals the intellectual debt we owe himWe see further by standing on the shoulders of giants. When Isaac Newton...
View ArticleNew books party | @GrrlScientist
What good is a weekend without a good book to read? Take a look at these books -- hot off the presses -- that you may enjoy!Continue reading...
View ArticlePost-pigeon: 100 years since most common bird's extinction
Mark Avery on the lessons we need to learn from the loss of the passenger pigeon billions once flew across the USOn 1 September 1914 a pigeon died in Cincinnati zoo, around lunchtime, and with her died...
View ArticleA feathered river across the sky by Joel Greenberg - review | @GrrlScientist
This comprehensive book meticulously documents much that is known about the iconic extinct passenger pigeon.One hundred years ago today, the last passenger pigeon, a captive-bred adult named Martha,...
View ArticleThe passenger pigeon by Errol Fuller | review | @GrrlScientist
Written by an artist and authority on extinct species, this book shares rare photographs and other visual materials to provide a general overview to the history of the extinct passenger pigeon.Men...
View ArticleThe Sense of Style review lessons in how to write
What makes some prose compelling and some soggy? And do split infinitives matter? Steven Pinker has written a new and jaunty style guideSteven Pinker on grammar rules it's OK to breakIf you want to...
View ArticleWere we happier in the stone age?
Does modern life make us happy? We have gained much but we have lost a great deal too. Are humans better suited to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle?We are farĀ more powerful than our ancestors, but are we...
View ArticleThe Copernicus Complex by Caleb Scharf review a cosmic quest
Is the Earth really so special, asks the celebrated astrobiologist in this intoxicating study. And what are the chances of life beyond?The Copernican principle changed everything. It was not formulated...
View ArticleSapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari review
A swash-buckling account that begins with the origin of the species and ends with post-humansHuman beings (members of the genus Homo) have existed for about 2.4m years. Homo sapiens, our own wildly...
View ArticleThe Incredible Unlikeliness of Being review a masterful account of why...
Alice Roberts combines embryology, genetics, anatomy, evolution and zoology to tell the incredible story of the human bodyYou're not that different from a mouse. Or a fruit fly. Or even a lancelet....
View ArticleA Buzz in the Meadow review a passionate plea on behalf of our six-legged...
Dave Goulsons wide-ranging essays about the insect kingdom and the impact of neonicotinoids on the natural world are important and, at times, terrifyingDave Goulson is a professorial bee manĀ (at the...
View ArticleSapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - podcast
Ian Sample meets the historian Yuval Noah Harari to discuss his international bestseller, in which he suggests we'd have been better off without agriculture, and puts our species' dominance down to our...
View ArticleFaith and Wisdom in Science by Tom McLeish, review rich and discursive | Tim...
McLeish doesnt buy the argument that religion is about turning untested belief into truth. Science, he points out, also makes claims that turn out to be falseDecades ago, when I first started writing...
View ArticleThis Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate by Naomi Klein review
Klein wants this book to be read by people who don't read climate-change books it addresses a potential catastrophe yet is calm and welcomingEight years ago, Richard Branson, the tie-loathing...
View ArticleRoyal Society 2014 Winton Prize for Science Books shortlist announced |...
The Royal Society just announced the six books that were shortlisted for the 2014 Winton Prize for Science books.Ive got some excellent news that youve all been waiting for: After a summer spent...
View ArticleSapiens: A Brief History of Humankind review thrilling story, dark message
Yuval Noah Hararis account of how we conquered the Earth astonishes with its scope and imaginationWhere do we come from? Our insatiable curiosity about our origins has provoked a raft of different...
View ArticleThis Changes Everything: Capitalism vs the Climate review Naomi Kleins...
Naomi Klein pins the blame for climate crisis squarely on capitalism. John Gray fears the problem is much biggerThis Changes Everything is as much about the psychology of denial as it is about climate...
View ArticleTop 10 science and tech books for September: photography, meteorology and...
From breath-taking wildlife pictures to what makes homo sapiens tick and the secrets of Colin the CloudRandall MunroeContinue reading...
View ArticleThe grisly history of forensics by crime writer Val McDermid
Blood-sucking flies, exhumed stomachs and DNA profiling the tools of forensic science have, over the centuries, solved many a gruesome murderIn the public mind, forensic science means cutting-edge...
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