Science

Virginia Trimble on the search for the mysterious, magical secret ingredient of the universe

Overuse of antibiotics is upsetting the balance of our internal ecosystems, finds Jon Turney

Alison Stokes on a 19th-century volcanic eruption that caused a global climate disaster

Robyn Arianrhod on a compelling tale of Jesuits, geometry and heresy in the turbulent 17th century

Tim Birkhead advocates long-term scientific studies, particularly for natural selection observations

Sally Lowell on our understanding of embryonic development and the possibilities and responsibilities that have arisen

A former Higgs boson sceptic is a formidable guide on the hunt for the elusive particle

Robert Reynolds on how US cultural critics in the 1970s ignored the upside of championing oneself

Tony Mann enjoys a fresh application of complex mathematical thinking to commonplace events

Life history of physicist illuminates undervalued Britons behind the Bomb

Tiffany Taylor on a thought-provoking exploration of alcoholism from an evolutionary perspective

Niall O’Flaherty on a penetrating and nuanced account of Malthus’ insights and the consequent responses

Lynne Segal on an analytic philosopher’s first-hand account of sexual violence and its aftermath

Jeremy Black on the provocative thesis that war has permitted the creation of peaceful societies

Uta Papan on an exploration of pregnancy texts

Luna Centifanti welcomes a disentanglement of popular confusions over brain and behaviour

A good grasp of basic statistics will help us to make the right life choices, finds Omar Malik

Jon Turney on an editor whose work with popular science writers helped to re-establish the genre

William Poole on how a culture of literary commonplacing gradually gave way to one of scientific record-keeping

A US approach to environmental integrity offers useful pointers for the UK, says David Maguire

Advice from an astronomer would have benefited this exploration of connections between two subjects, says Virginia Trimble

Joanne Dickson on innovative mental health approaches to the understanding and treatment of a global problem

Claire Spottiswoode on the history of modern ornithology and how it has contributed to our understanding of evolution

Sigrid Sterckx on a Derrida-inspired analysis of calculation, incalculability and ending life

Laurence Coupe admires scholarly insights of a kind the REF could never hope to measure

Simon Underdown on a gripping account of the reconstruction of the first genome recovered from an extinct human species

Jules Pretty salutes an account revealing an unnerving alteration in a place and its ecosystems

What will we need to know to reboot civilisation after the apocalypse?, asks Alison Stokes

Jon Turney on the possibilities, real and imagined, of engineering the building blocks of life

Eric Michael Johnson is gripped by an evaluation of what it is to be human and our place in nature

Steve Jones considers a reflection on the Origin of Species’ influence on everything (except biology)

Tony Mann admires a book where art and mathematics are in perfect harmony

A study of children in institutions offers a perspective on the cognitive benefits of parenting, find Mary K. Rothbart and Michael I. Posner

An exploration of mannequins as objects of lust makes fascinating reading for Laura Frost

Tara Brabazon ponders an exploration of youth and new technology

Are tales of incredible animal excursions nonsense or did they shape our world? asks Tiffany Taylor

Steven Schwartz on using physical attributes to predict people’s personalities and behaviours

Athene Donald agrees that scientists, although not infallible, do know better about some things

An intellectual adventure that seeks to explain everything through maths captivates John Gribbin

Her Star Trek dream dashed, Noel-Ann Bradshaw is still delighted by the science of impossible tales

Tristan Bekinschtein welcomes a work showing that research into who we are can be based on science

Search differently, says Sarah Ison

When is a disease not a disease? asks Rose Anne Kenny

Reconnecting to the land grounds us, says Steffen Böhm

The astrobiology is up to date but the subbing needs work, says Lewis Dartnell

Nazi ideology may not have adopted evolutionary theory wholesale, but it certainly used its ideas, says Yvonne Sherratt

David Toop is charmed by an exploration of the pains and pleasures of the noises around us

William Poole enjoys the insights but prefers his prose less florid

Is utilitarianism the best way to resolve disputes in the global village? Natalie Gold investigates

Philip Hoare on the global market’s manifest destiny

Helen Bynum on the history of vaccination

Alan Collins considers the ‘reminiscence effect’

Shahidha Bari would like more light and shade in this personal account

Alison Stokes on natural catastrophes and the need to use collective wisdom to cope with them

Peter J. Smith on non-Lit Crit efforts to find the method in the Danish prince’s madness

Laurence Coupe on a grand indictment of the ‘Western epistemological error’

Noel-Ann Bradshaw on a work that unlocks maths’ power and beauty by weaving it into an inspirational autobiography

Andrew Briggs on an effort to cast down faith-based reasoning

Jules Pretty on a combined autobiography of a field biologist and celebration of nature

John Gilbey is reunited with fondly remembered computer hardware that never achieved market success