Power, Powerlessness and Addiction, by Jim Orford Philip Murphy on an analysis of addictions, to both legal and illegal substances, with respect to the role of power 17 October
Churchill’s Bomb: A Hidden History of Science, War and Politics, by Graham Farmelo A. W. Purdue on the leader who saw the nuclear future but let it slip 10 October
Gentlemen’s Disagreement: Alfred Kinsey, Lewis Terman, and the Sexual Politics of Smart Men, by Peter Hegarty Donna Drucker on the relationship between intelligence and sex 3 October
The Future Is Not What it Used to Be: Climate Change and Energy Scarcity, by Jörg Friedrichs Jon Turney is dispirited by the rhetoric of collapse in a sober analysis of two global crises 26 September
Magnificent Mistakes in Mathematics, by Alfred S. Posamentier and Ingmar Lehmann Tony Mann examines the argument that miscalculations can lead to triumphs 19 September
Me Medicine vs. We Medicine: Reclaiming Biotechnology for the Common Good, by Donna Dickenson Medical advances have coincided with a decline in healthcare for all, finds Dita Wickins-Drazilova 19 September
Rocket Girl: The Story of Mary Sherman Morgan, America’s First Female Rocket Scientist, by George D. Morgan Margaret Weitekamp on a woman who helped get the US space programme off the ground 12 September
Why Hell Stinks of Sulfur: Mythology and Geology of the Underworld, by Salomon Kroonenberg Alison Stokes enjoys a tour of the physical and metaphorical lands of fire and brimstone 12 September
Better Humans? Understanding the Enhancement Project, by Michael Hauskeller Andy Miah on the pros and cons of humanity 2.0 12 September
Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much, by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir Victoria Bateman counts the costs when there’s not enough to go around 12 September
Rewire: Digital Cosmopolitans in the Age of Connection, by Ethan Zuckerman Tara Brabazon on building difference online 5 September
The Philosopher, the Priest, and the Painter: A Portrait of Descartes, by Steven Nadler Erik-Jan Bos finds that the mystery surrounding a famous painting opens a new window on the French philosopher’s world and life 22 August
The Milky Way: An Insider’s Guide, by William H. Waller Simon Mitton finds much to admire in a grand tour of our home galaxy 22 August
A Tale of Seven Elements, by Eric Scerri The international hunt for chemistry’s ‘missing links’ makes for an engrossing tale, finds Alan Rocke 15 August
On Gaia: A Critical Investigation of the Relationship between Life and Earth, by Toby Tyrrell Jon Turney on the latest scientific findings regarding interactions between life and our planet that do not support the Gaia theory 8 August
The Efficiency Trap: Finding a Better Way to Achieve a Sustainable Energy Future, by Steve Hallett Joanna Depledge is disturbed by advice to be passive in the face of human-induced apocalypse 8 August
Fluid New York: Cosmopolitan Urbanism and the Green Imagination, by May Joseph Laurence Coupe celebrates efforts to rethink urban spaces to give them an ecological dimension 1 August
The Lost Art of Finding Our Way, by John Edward Huth Robert J. Mayhew on how people need to recover their ability to find their way without using technology 1 August
Love, Literature and the Quantum Atom: Niels Bohr’s 1913 Trilogy Revisited, by Finn Aaserud and John L. Heilbron Graham Farmelo on a scientific giant’s debt to his wife 1 August
Crowdsourcing, by Daren C. Brabham John Gilbey on a stimulating discussion of the definition of a widely used term 25 July
Novel Science: Fiction and the Invention of Nineteenth Century Geology, by Adelene Buckland Euan Clarkson discusses a scientific discipline’s literary foundations 25 July
Androids in the Enlightenment: Mechanics, Artisans, and Cultures of the Self, by Adelheid Voskuhl Angela Vanhaelen on the fascination and fear aroused by 18th-century mechanical figures 25 July
Paralysed with Fear: The Story of Polio by Gareth Williams A rogue’s gallery stopped the ‘crippler’, but for how long? asks Helen Bynum 11 July
The Serpent’s Promise: The Bible Retold as Science by Steve Jones Alec Ryrie on an intriguing book that doesn’t do what it says on the tin 11 July
A Child of One’s Own: Parental Stories by Rachel Bowlby Bryony Randall lauds an insightful and overdue study of literary representations of parenting 11 July
Trying Biology: The Scopes Trial, Textbooks, and the Antievolution Movement in American Schools by Adam R. Shapiro Simon Underdown on a key battle between science and religion 4 July
Time Reborn: From the Crisis of Physics to the Future of the Universe by Lee Smolin Michael Berry is unpersuaded by a radical theory that tries to reinstate the concept of absolute time 27 June
Permanent Present Tense: The Man with No Memory and What He Taught the World by Suzanne Corkin Patient H. M.’s personal tragedy was humanity’s gain, says Morgan Barense 27 June
Happy Money: The New Science of Smarter Spending by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton Steven Schwartz considers some sound investment decisions 20 June
G8 science ministers endorse open access Science ministers from the G8 group of the world’s richest countries have jointly endorsed the need to increase access to publicly-funded research. By Jack Grove 13 June
Falling Upwards: How We Took to the Air by Richard Holmes Robert J. Mayhew lifts off with a true balloon enthusiast 13 June
Paging God: Religion in the Halls of Medicine by Wendy Cadge Pamela Klassen measures hospitals’ sacred dimensions 6 June
Tesla: Inventor of the Electrical Age by W. Bernard Carlson Jon Turney on the generator of the AC power grid 6 June
Weird Life: The Search for Life that is Very, Very Different From Our Own by David Toomey Lewis Dartnell regrets that a discussion of extreme life forms focuses on faint possibility rather than wondrous reality 30 May
Making Scientists: Six Principles for Effective College Teaching by Gregory Light and Marina Micari Averil Macdonald on a US system of collaborative learning in which facilitator students help their peers to learn 23 May
The Lost World of Fossil Lake: Snapshots from Deep Time by Lance Grande Euan Clarkson is inspired by a detailed history and guide to the richest cluster of fossilised remains 16 May
Spam: A Shadow History of the Internet by Finn Brunton Unsolicited emails can be a costly nuisance, says John Gilbey 16 May
Darwin Deleted: Imagining a World Without Darwin by Peter J. Bowler Simon Underdown discusses an evolutionary counterfactual 9 May
Letters to a Young Scientist by Edward O. Wilson Michelle Harvey agrees with inspiring advice to young science researchers to never forget what initially attracted them to the discipline 9 May
Alexander Wilson: The Scot who founded American Ornithology by Edward H. Burtt, Jr and William E. Davis, Jr Tim Birkhead on the first comprehensive documenter of North American birds 2 May
Physics in Mind: A Quantum View of the Brain by Werner R. Loewenstein Tristan Bekinschtein recommends a challenge to our notions of consciousness and cognition 25 April
To Touch the Face of God: The Sacred, the Profane, and the American Space Program 1957-1975 by Kendrick Oliver Margaret Weitekamp on a historical study of the relationship between religion and spaceflight 25 April
The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism Among the Primates by Frans de Waal Eric Michael Johnson reviews the argument that human moral feelings have been shaped by natural selection 25 April
Napalm: An American Biography by Robert M. Neer Marilyn Young on the harrowing history of a chemical used to kill hundreds of thousands of people 18 April
America’s Assembly Line by David E. Nye Howard Segal pieces together the fascinating history of a key innovation in US manufacturing 11 April
Paleofantasy: What Evolution Really Tells Us about Sex, Diet and How We Live by Marlene Zuk Camilla Power enjoys a demolition of prelapsarian pseudoscience 11 April
The Earthquake Observers: Disaster Science from Lisbon to Richter by Deborah R. Coen Luciana Astiz on how seismology evolved from the combined observations of scientists and citizens 4 April
The Art of Failure: An Essay on the Pain of Playing Video Games by Jesper Juul Steve Redhead takes a byte from a fascinating but flawed analysis 4 April
Eco-Business: A Big-Brand Takeover of Sustainability by Peter Dauvergne and Jane Lister Isabelle Szmigin on how big companies sustain their profits first, and the environment second 4 April
Death or Disability: The ‘Carmentis Machine’ and Decision-making for Critically Ill Children by Dominic Wilkinson Deborah Bowman praises the compassion and logic offered in deciding outcomes for sick children 28 March
Earthmasters: The Dawn of the Age of Climate Engineering by Clive Hamilton Steve Yearley assesses a timely critique of controversial plans to manage climate change 28 March
To Save Everything, Click Here: Technology, Solutionism, and the Urge to Fix Problems that Don’t Exist by Evgeny Morozov Tara Brabazon on the hypocrisy of digital utopianism 21 March
Extremes: Life, Death and the Limits of the Human Body by Kevin Fong David Green on the risks and rewards of medical progress 14 March
Warrior Geeks: How 21st Century Technology Is Changing The Way We Fight and Think About War by Christopher Coker Steve Redhead on how the increasing sophistication of military technology affects modern warfare 7 March
The Blue Sapphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology by Douglas Christie Jules Pretty agrees that, for sustainable living, people need to feel a connection with the natural world 7 March
