'It is the question of the century': will tech solve the climate crisis – or...
Robots on coral reefs, vast barriers to hold back the glaciers, simulated volcanic eruptions to offset global heating ... Can technology repair the mess we have made? Elizabeth Kolbert is not...
View ArticleA history of the hedgerow and a love letter to weeds: the best books to...
Whether you are after a novel or informative non-fiction, hope and renewal are in the air at last, writes Lia LeendertzSpring is on its way. Daylight hours will lengthen over the next few weeks and...
View ArticleHow early humans' quest for food stoked the flames of evolution
A love of complex smells and flavours gave our ancestors an edge and stopped hangoversHuman evolution and exploration of the world were shaped by a hunger for tasty food – “a quest for deliciousness” –...
View ArticleThe Code Breaker by Walter Isaacson review – a science page-turner
Designer babies and ethical quicksand ... The biographer of Steve Jobs tells the story of Jennifer Doudna and the development of gene-editingOne of the most striking passages in Walter Isaacson’s new...
View ArticleThe Rag and Bone Shop by Veronica O'Keane review – the nature of memory
A fascinating and compassionate investigation, with vivid case histories, into how our memories make usThe human brain, Veronica O’Keane tells us, contains 68bn neurons. The fact is easily stated, but...
View ArticleThe best books to understand vaccines– and why some refuse them
As Covid-19 vaccinations gain speed around the world, Eula Biss picks books that explore this huge advance in medical scienceExactly one year ago, I began to search my bookshelves for Daniel Defoe’s A...
View ArticleA Curious Boy by Richard Fortey review – the making of a scientist
Fortey’s forte – a compelling autobiography that shows how an awkward youth became a renowned naturalistIt is a fun exercise among naturalists to try to pinpoint a childhood moment when they deviated...
View ArticleCountry diary: the strange beauty of water caught between frost and thaw
Cairngorms, Highlands: Author Nan Shepherd walked these hills and wrote about the ice patterns in The Living MountainIt’s a mid-March day, and though the upper Spey valley has undergone a dramatic...
View ArticleHelgoland by Carlo Rovelli review – the mysteries of quantum mechanics
Having altered how we think about time, the physicist sets his sights on perhaps the most maddeningly difficult theory of allCarlo Rovelli, the Italian theoretical physicist, is one of the great...
View ArticleUnder a White Sky by Elizabeth Kolbert review – the path to catastrophe
A damning survey, drawing on skilful and subtle reporting, that tracks the spiralling absurdity of human attempts to control nature with technologyBeing alive these days means enduring a strange and...
View ArticleHelgoland by Carlo Rovelli review – a meditation on quantum theory
A skilled storyteller reflects on the genius of Werner Heisenberg, who developed the theory that explains the evolution of stars and makes computers possibleThere are two kinds of geniuses, argued the...
View ArticleRichard Mabey: 'Viruses and man-eating tigers and predatory Asian hornets are...
A pioneer of British nature writing, Richard Mabey has always been years ahead of his time. So how does he think the pandemic will change our relationship to the natural world?After a year of...
View ArticleIn brief: Unsettled Ground; Genesis; Inferno – reviews
Twins unravel their family history when their mother dies; myths, science and the origins of the universe; and a harrowing account of postpartum psychosisClaire FullerFig Tree, £14.99,...
View ArticleA World on the Wing by Scott Weidensaul review – incredible journeys taken by...
The acclaimed natural history writer amply conveys his joy and amazement at the ability of birds to navigate the hemisphereAmong the mysteries of migration unfolded by the renowned natural history...
View ArticleInto the woods: Sam Lee, the singer who duets with nightingales
Sam Lee built a studio in a wood, found a nightingale to sing with, hooked up a backing band, and livestreamed their concerts. But it is a race against time – for the song of the nightingale may soon...
View ArticleThe hottest literary travel destinations (to visit when lockdown ends)
From George Orwell’s Isle of Jura to Willa Cather’s Nebraskan frontier … with travel restricted to the imagination, Henry Eliot picks the most memorable and beautiful literary locationsAs a child I...
View ArticleThe healthy child who wouldn’t wake up: the strange truth of ‘mystery illnesses’
Dizzy diplomats, twitching schoolgirls, children in comas ... psychosomatic illnesses are not always as unexplainable as they seem, writes neurologist Suzanne O’SullivanI cannot resist a news headline...
View ArticleRichard Dawkins loses ‘humanist of the year’ title over trans comments
American Humanist Association criticises academic for comments about identity using ‘the guise of scientific discourse’, and withdraws its 1996 honourThe American Humanist Association has withdrawn its...
View ArticleCan our passion for pets help reset our relationship with nature?
As lockdown puppy sales soar and the cats of Instagram are liked by millions, endangered species are vanishing from the planet. Can pets teach us how to care about all animals?It was the carefree...
View ArticleSecrets of a tree whisperer: ‘They get along, they listen – they’re attuned’
Suzanne Simard revolutionised the way we think about plants and fungi with the discovery of the woodwide web. The ecologist’s new book shares the wisdom of a life of listening to the forestWhen Suzanne...
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