Forensics: The Anatomy of Crime by Val McDermid review – chillingly compelling
Crime writer Val McDermid takes a detour into non-fiction with this often grisly look at the science and culture of forensicsIn this book, crime writer Val McDermid reveals her admiration for the...
View ArticleIsland Biogeography Revisited online bookclub: ch 1 | @GrrlScientist
Some of the comments from my bookclub provoked by the opening chapter of Island Biogeography Revisted, an assessment of the continuing impact of MacArthur and Wilson’s seminal work, The Theory of...
View ArticleSmoke Gets in Your Eyes by Caitlin Doughty review – startling stories from...
‘Death-positive’ mortician Doughty explores attitudes to mortality in her enthralling memoir. Also reviewed: Brandy Schillace’s Death’s Summer Coat and GP Margaret McCartney’s Living With DyingIn...
View ArticleStella prize 2015: the shortlisted authors on the stories behind their books
From shining a light on family secrets to looking for a place to call home, the six writers nominated for Australia’s all-female literary award reveal their inspirationThe real lives of the Heide...
View ArticleNew Books Party: books that arrived recently | @GrrlScientist
Before heading out to a tropical island for your summer holidays, you might be interested to learn more about the critical role that islands play in the evolution of new species. Today, I share two...
View ArticleA Buzz in the Meadow by Dave Goulson review – the joy of insects
A melancholy, humorous look at butterflies, beetles and bees – and how disastrous it would be if we let them die outEdward Lear’s “Calico Pie” has always struck me as powerfully affecting, and so I...
View ArticleThe Vital Question by Nick Lane – a game-changing book about the origins of life
Why sex? Why then only two sexes? Why do we age and die? It’s the energy, stupid! This thinking is as important as the Copernican revolutionThe “Origin of Life” is a conundrum that could once be safely...
View ArticleAdventures in medicine: ‘I journey through the body every day’
From the eyeball to the umbilical cord, from a messy corpse to the value of ECT – doctor Gavin Francis recounts his adventures in medicine and explores the wonders of the human formBefore starting my...
View ArticleNature writing with Sarah Hall and John Lewis-Stempel – books podcast
We follow the call of the wild with Thwaites Wainwright prizewinner John Lewis-Stempel and novelist Sarah Hall Continue reading...
View ArticleThe Vital Question: Why Is Life the Way It Is? review – back to biological...
Nick Lane’s masterful study of the fundamentals of life is both cutting-edge and accessibleIt’s fun to rib physicists by pointing out that while they’ve been hunting a Grand Theory of Everything for...
View ArticleOn my radar: Jemaine Clement’s cultural highlights
The comedian and actor on one of history’s worst films, a touching British drama and Australia’s answer to ThunderbirdsThe comedian and actor Jemaine Clement was born in New Zealand and studied drama...
View ArticleDon’t Trust, Don’t Fear, Don’t Beg review – sobering tale of Greenpeace’s...
A fast-paced account of Greenpeace activists’ ordeal in a Russian jail raises questions about the future of the environmental movementAlmost from the start of the international oil boom of the late...
View ArticleCry fowl! Why the apparently humble chicken has plenty to crow about
Andrew Lawler’s book Why Did the Chicken Cross the World? documents the virtues of our most important source of proteinPervasive, mundane and bland, chicken is the magnolia paint of the meat aisle: a...
View ArticleCoastlines: The Story of Our Shore review – erosion, eccentrics and awe
From the high drama of the sea to the small stories of those who live by it Patrick Barkham explores our coasts in his typical gentle styleAt a party attended by the UK’s most promiment current nature...
View ArticleSmoke Gets in Your Eyes review – a mortician’s dissection of death
Caitlin Doughty’s memoir chronicling her initiation into the death industry is fascinating and often very funnyDeath, the saying goes, is bad for business. But not, it would seem, in publishing. Over...
View ArticleSong thrush bursts with soul
Wenlock Edge, Shropshire: Interpretations of what he’s doing seem inadequate, he fills the place with the sound of his entire beingAs if at the flick of a switch bird song fills the lane. So loud and...
View ArticleA Natural History of English Gardening by Mark Laird review – a...
Gardens in the 18th century were known for formality and controlled design but they were also alive with colours, animals and soundsFor more than 200 years the 18th-century English garden has been...
View ArticleThe Water Book by Alok Jha review – this remarkable substance
Water is everywhere, from the vast glaciers of Mars to the cells in our own bodies. And yet it remains a mystery• Read an extract The Chinese symbol for “political order” is made from the characters...
View ArticleAdventures in Human Being review – a fascinating journey around the body
Doctor and writer Gavin Francis’s essays on the human body, illness and injury are informative, eloquent and often very movingJohn Wirvell was a taxi driver, divorcee and an intermittent heavy drinker...
View ArticleThe Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century by Hugh...
A delightful foray around the brain of the 17th-century scientist and writer who coined the words ‘electricity’ and ‘hallucination’I haven’t myself sat on Sir Thomas Browne’s brain, but it’s possible...
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