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[[Category:New Reviews|Popular Science]]==Popular science==__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Simon Barnes1787333175|title=Birdwatching With Your Eyes Closed: an introduction You Don't Have to birdsongbe Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=45

|summary=One of my best-ever auditory memories I was tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'' after enjoying Adam Kay's first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is waking up in a tent Going to Hurt}}, a dawn chorus, sung in glorious mixture of insight into the middle workings of Ireland in springthe NHS, humour and autobiography. It was a high-decibel effort and seemed ''You Don't Have to involve hundreds of birdsbe Mad... I'm ashamed to say that I couldn't begin promised the same elements but moved from physical problems to identify mental illness and the multitude work of species I heard that morninga psychiatrist. So I suppose I chose this book expecting did wonder whether it was acceptable to be a field guide that could looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at long last help me get a handle on birdsong. But it isn't yet another handbook, but a much more interesting book situation rather than that, which I thought would make a great present for a new birdwatcherperson and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907595473</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steve Backshall1788360702|title=PredatorsCharles, The Alternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst

|summary=Many readers would probably know that on 'Germs' seems to have become a catch-all word to cover anything unpleasant which has the potential to make you ill. In the simple count of humans they helped first book in what looks to dispatchbe a very promising new series, mosquitoes may be OUP and Isabel Thomas have provided a clear and accessible introduction to the most deadly animals everworld of germs. But did you know that if you take into account We get an informed look at how people originally thought about diseases and what they thought caused them and how the success rate thinking has developed over time. The vocabulary can be confusing but Thomas gives a regular box headed 'speak like a scientist' which explains some of huntsthe trickiest concepts and you'll soon be familiar with bacteria, diversity fungi, protists and spread, ladybirds are more successful predators than tigers? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444004174</amazonuk>viruses – and how we should protect ourselves.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sam Leithgareth_steel|title=You Talkin' To Me?: Rhetoric from Aristotle to ObamaNever Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel|rating=4.5|genre=Popular ScienceAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Over the years Idon've trained myself (fairly successfully) not to judge t often begin my reviews with a book by its cover. Iwarning but with ''ve added Never Work With Animals'not judging a book by its title' it seems to the training, but what do you do when your first impressions be appropriate. Stories of a book - the title vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great andSmall'' but '' Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the cover - scream companion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the author would argue that ''All Creatures'trivia'? Welllacked realism, as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I put this one agree with him. He says that he's written it to one side on the basis that inform and provoke thought, particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it really wasndoesn't likely to lack sensitivity, although there are occasions when you would be a book which would interest me. Picking it up best choosing between reading and looking at the contents was almost accidental - and then I discovered that this book is a gold mineeating.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683157</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Gordon Grice0241480442|title=Healthy Vegan The Book of Deadly AnimalsCookbook: Vegan Cooking Meets Nutrition Science|author=Niko Rittenau and Sebastian Copien

|genre=Popular ScienceCookery|summary=Animals and humans have long mixedEmotionally, I am a vegan. Mentally, even though the one has almost always proven capable of being lethal to the otherI am a vegan. Many scientists I read [[How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World by Henry Mance]] and was appalled by the past decided way in which we treat animals killing humans were aberrant, and that the real animal knew it was second best to humans, having been saved in the Ark, and respected our dominion over themsearch for (preferably cheap) food. Even nowPractically, it seems, there are opinions that creatures attacking mankind are somehow rogue and need destroyingI am not a vegan. But where is It worked for a while apart from the wrong odd blip with regard to cheese but then a perfect storm of those events which you hope don't occur too often in an your lifetime tempted me back to animal behaving as its nature compels it? -based protein. Similarly, It wasn't the human wandering around the wilderness, or even the idiot woman feeding a black bear her own toddler's honeytaste -dripping hand (true story I know that I can get plant- what based food that tastes just as good as anything plundered from the bear thought of animal kingdom - it was the taste ease of honeyed fingers we don't know) is just the same being able to get sufficient protein when meals were often snatched in reverse - humans behaving as only humans cana few spare moments.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0670919675</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Thomas Byrne and Tom CassidyDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=How to Save the World with Salad Dressing|rating=3|genre=Popular Science|summary=The world is under threat from a manic Bond-type baddie. You, A Tattoo on my friendly reader, are the only person with the smarts enough to save it. You'd better not be one of my less intelligent friends, because according to this book one needs a lot of physics-inclined lateral thinking to carry out the dangerous tasks ahead. You'll need to know about gravity and other forces, buoyancy, friction, acceleration and more to get through the puzzles here.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851688552</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Gary Hayden|title=You Kant Make it Up!: Strange Ideas from History's Greatest PhilosophersBrain

|genre=Popular ScienceAutobiography|summary=In You Kant Make it UpAlzheimer's is a disease that slowly wears away your identity and sense of self. I have been directly affected by this cruel disease, journalist as have many. Your memories and philosopher Gary Hayden takes his readers through some of personality worn away like a statue over time affected the biggest elements. It seems as if nature wants that final victory over you and most important ideas right from the very beginnings of philosophical thought up to the philosophy of the modern dayyour dignity. This is what makes Daniel Gibbs' memoir so admirable. He gives Daniel Gibbs is a brief explanation neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and discussion of each idea, and shows how through the ages philosophers have argued pretty much everything you could think of, much of which seems bizarre to the modern thinkerhas documented his journey in ''A Tattoo on my Brain''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1851688455</amazonuk>1108838936

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen H Segal0099551063|title=Geek The Wisdomof Psychopaths: Lessons in life from Saints, Spies and Serial Killers|author=Dr Kevin Dutton|rating=4.5

|summary=I am by no means a fully fledged geek, but on the Big Bang scale I'm probably more of a Leonard than a Penny. I was weaned on ''Star Trek '', chose 'Donald Trump outscores Hitler on psychopathic traits'Hitchhiker’s Guide..claims Oxford University researcher. '' as my reading aloud piece for a Year 7 exam, and think it would be more than a little fun to take a trip to Comic Con. At the same time, there are gaping holes in my knowledge. My first celeb crush might have been ''Blake’s 7’s'' Villa but I've never seen a ''Batman'' film, never read a comic book, never quite understood what all the ''Star Wars'' fuss was about. If Sci Fi is a religion, then this is the book that can fill me in one the stories, the parables, the rules, as it were, of geekdom. I had to have it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594745277</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=Mick OUntil the events of 6 January 2021 that might have surprised, even shocked many readers: now they'Hare|title=Why Are Orangutans Orange?|rating=3re probably convinced that they knew it all along.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Another year The statement has passed, and once again we're treated lost a little of its shock value but it does help us to another offering from New Scientistunderstand more about the nature of psychopathy. It's Last Word column. We've been here beforetoo easy to associate psychopathy with the Yorkshire Ripper, with [[Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? by Mick O'Hare|Penguins]]Jeffrey Dahmer, [[Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? by Mick O'Hare|Polar Bears]]Saddam Hussein or Robert Maudsley, [[How To Make A Tornado by Mick O'Hare|Tornadoes]]the real-life Hannibal Lecter, [[Why Can't Elephants Jump? by Mick O'Hare|Elephants]] and [[How To Fossilise Your Hamster by Mick O'Hare|Hamsters]]. Now it's time for but the orangutan to find out why he's orangetruth is that having psychopathic traits can sometimes be a good thing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685079</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=David Crystal1849767343|title=The Story Of English In 100 WordsCount on Me|author=Miguel Tanco|rating=4.5|genre=Popular ScienceChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=Crystal is a god when it comes The title and format of this book might lead you to language. I’ve known think that since I was quoting him during English A Level, since my university studies, since my TEFL days when students ask it'Why?s either about responsibility - or it' and you need an answer other than s a basic 1-2-3 book for those just starting out on the numbers journey. It isn'Becauset: it's a hymn of praise to maths. This It's about why maths is his new book, but so wonderful and how you don’t need a degree in linguistics to find meet it fascinating, and in addition to the intriguing revelations and chummy writing style, it looks just lovely and would make a fab Christmas presenteveryday life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684277</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Niall McCraeB08B39QNRH|title=The Moon and MadnessCurious History of Writer's Cramp: Solving an age-old problem|author=Michael Pritchard

|summary=A book entitled ''The Moon and Madness'' has the potential to be a pile of New Age hokum. This learned and academic treatise by Niall McCrae Society is very far from hokum, and there is not a whiff of New Age hanging over it. We probably all have an old folklore image in our minds of lunatics in based on speech but civilisation requires the asylum howling at the full moon. Of course, the very written word 'lunatic' has its origins in the moon. McCrae tries to separate myth and fact in this fascinating book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845402146</amazonuk>}}

{{newreview|author=John L Locke|title=Duels and Duets: Why Men and Women Talk So Differently|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=LockeI came to Michael Pritchard's subtitle ''Why Men and Women Talk So DifferentlyThe Curious History of Writer's Cramp'' might lead you by a rather strange route. I have problems with my hands which orthopaedic surgeons refer to think that this is just another self-help as 'interesting'Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus: I prefer the word 'painful' tomebut I have an interest in the way that hands work. It's not. Rather than focussing upon what we all know from experience – that men and women do not communicate very well because An exploration of the history of a problem which has defeated some of the best medical minds for some fundamental difference in their respective approach to verbal expression – three-hundred-years seemed liked excellent background reading and so it proved, with the book being as much about the doctors treating the sufferers and the changing medical attitudes as the New York City University Professor of Linguistics sets out to explain WHY that might beproblem itself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0521887135</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steven Connor1776572858|title=Paraphernalia: The Curious Lives of Magical ThingsHow Do You Make a Baby?|author=Anna Fiske and Don Bartlett (translator)|rating=45|genre=Popular ScienceHome and Family|summary=It's more than sixty years since I asked how babies were made. My mother was deeply embarrassed and told me that she'd get me a book about it..In A couple of days later I was handed a pamphlet (which our author considers delivered nothing more than the smallerbasics, less noticeable items in clinical language which had never been used in our lives. house before) He finds such objects as sticky tape, combs and keys magical, because "we can do whatever we like to things, but magical things are things I was told that we allow and expect to do things back to usit wouldn't be discussed any further as it ''wasn't something which nice people talked about''. Magical things all do I ''knew'' more, and mean more than they might be supposed tobut was little ''wiser''." Principally these are the little flotsam that wash up on our desksThankfully, the handy things we keep in our pockets and about our person, and never think about - wave about, flick about, fiddle with, but never think abouttimes have changed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682703</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Michael Brooks|title=Free Radicals|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=We often have an image of scientists as quietly plodding away, with small breakthrough after small breakthrough. When the big breakthroughs come, they downplay things, and insist upon logical and level-headed caution. It's all very mild-mannered and polite. ...Or is it? The history of science is splattered with radicals, who'll do anything for success. There are those who mercilessly put down their rivals, those who use drugs to stimulate their breakthroughs, those who put themselves in harm's way in the pursuit of truth, and those who just plain go about things their own way, regardless of what anyone else says.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846684056</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Andrew WheenDanny Dorling|title=Dot-Dash To Dot.ComSlowdown

|genre=Popular SciencePolitics and Society|summary=You know exactly what youWe are living in a time of rapid change, and we're getting when you read worried about it. Dorling tells us that the latter is normal, natural and probably good for us. We are designed to worry and with the summary current state of Andrew Wheenwhat we's ''Dot-Dash To Dotre doing in the world we have much to be worried about.Com''. ''How Modern Telecommunications Evolved from However, over the Telegraph to next three-hundred-and-some pages, if you can follow the Internetarguments, it sets out in scientific detail why either we shouldn't be as worried as we are, or in some cases that we' sums it up perfectlyre worrying about the wrong things. Mostly. Because mostly, things are not changing as rapidly as we think they are. This In fact, the rate of change in many things is a history of technology slowing down and the people involved direction of change will in creating that technology. It serves as a primer for anyone with an interest or need to know about telecommunicationssome cases go into reverse.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1441967591</amazonuk>0300243405

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephanie PainLangford_Emily|title=Farmer BuckleyEmily's Exploding Trousers|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=The history of science is filled with many miraculous discoveries. ...It's also filled with exploding trousers, self-experimentation, a coachman's leg that becomes a museum piece and gas-powered radios. ''Farmer Buckley's Exploding Trousers'' regales us with fifty odd events on the way to scientific discovery. Part popular science book, part trivia, each article is a treat to read, either as a fun-sized nugget, or when reading from cover to cover.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685087</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewNumbers|author=Jonah Lehrer|title=Proust Was a NeuroscientistJoss Langford

|genre=Popular ScienceChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=In Troilus and CressidaEmily found words ''useful'', Shakespeare wrotebut counting was what she loved best. Obviously,you can count anything and there'Time hath, my lords no limit to how far you can go, but then Emily moved a wallet at his back, wherin he puts alms for oblivion'step further and began counting in twos. This fully accords with the discoveries of modern brain science She knew all about odd and even numbers. Proust Then she began counting in his famous novel, 'In Search threes: half of Lost Time' anticipates such discoveries by neuroscientists, such as Rachel Hertzthe list were even numbers, that smell and taste are but the only senses that connect directly to the hippocampus. Thus the taste of a petit madeleine evokes a rediscovery by Proust of Combray other half was odd and a flow of associations - it is the part was this list of the brain odd numbers which occurred when you counted in threes which long term memory is centred. Lehrer in she called ''threeven' Proust was a Neuroscientist' weaves an intriguing argument about the relationship between recent neuroscientific discoveries and the novels of George Eliot, Gertrude Stein and Virginia Woolf. A scientist (Actually, who has researched with Nobel Prize-winning, [[:Category:Eric R Kandel|Eric Kandel]], has this confused me a little bit at first as they're a taste for philosophy; Lehrer intends to heal subset of the rift between what C.P.Snow termed the 'Two Cultures'. He wishes odd numbers but sound as though they ought to accord respect to the truths and be a subset of the intuitive discoverieseven numbers, especially of modernist writers and paintersbut it all worked out well when I really thought about it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847677851</amazonuk>)

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=John Lister-Kaye1910593508|title=At the Water's Edge: A Walk in the WildApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins|rating=35|genre=Popular ScienceHistory|summary=This incredible graphic novel is a book that readers feel strongly aboutlove letter to the Moon landings and the passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and one with which I must confess to having Mike Collins. This is a love/hate relationship! I loved the detailed observationstory we know well and because of this, the sharing of knowledge authors take a few narrative shortcuts knowing that Lister-Kaye has built from a lifetime of close study of we can fill in the countrysideblanks. He delights in and pays as much attention These shortcuts are the only downside to the structure book. If you've ever read a comic book adaptation of a spider's web as to film you will be familiar with the rarest of meetings with slight feeling that there are scenes missing and that dialogue has been trimmed. This is a Scottish wildcatgraphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and still felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847674054</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Ian Stewart|title=Mathematics of Life|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Mathematics and biology don't traditionally mix. As science develops, the boundaries between maths and physics, physics and chemistry and chemistry and biology have become more and more blurred. As it is now, biology requires many mathematical techniques, and it's fair to assume that major biological breakthroughs over the next hundred years will also have a strong basis in maths too. Ian Stewart looks at the major steps forward in the history of biology, and the areas where maths is at the forefront of development.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846681987</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Anthony James1999308719|title=The Happy PassionLive Forever Manual: A Personal View of Jacob Bronowski|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Jacob Bronowski was a scientific administrator, poet, philosopher, dramatist, radio ethics and TV personality, best remembered for companies behind the series 'The Ascent of Man'. This short book, about 90 pages long, is partly biographical sketch, partly – in fact largely – an overview of his major published works, occupying about twonew anti-thirds of the book. In the author's words, it is intended as a personal view of Bronowski as a philosopher.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845402200</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewaging treatments|author=Sean Carroll|title=From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of TimeAdrian Cull

|genre=Popular ScienceLifestyle|summary=The Prologue sets For many years now I've (half) joked that I intended to live forever and that so far, it was working out what this book is aboutOK. ItTime has passed though and although I's about ' ... the nature m a great deal fitter and healthier than most people of time, the beginning of the universe, and the underlying structure my age there were a few nagging health problems which were tipping my life out of physical reality.' OK? Bring on those questionsbalance. Yes, it's It was time to look for a weighty tome in terms of size new approach and subject matteras so often happens, but I would certainly describe the front cover as reader-friendly, so therefore should have broad appeal. I love reviewing gods brought me the title of this book, lots of thought has been put into it and it certainly grabbed my attention - and I'm no scientistneeded. The classic movie from the classic book ... I also loved Carroll's language - 'The Elegant Universe' Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the new anti-ageing treatments'a preposterous universe' These are phrases seemed like the answer to make my problems - only you stop and thinkget so much more than just 101 tips. And I certainly did.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851687955</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Robert Rowland Smith1847941834|title=Driving with Plato: The Meaning of Life's MilestonesAtomic Habits|author=James Clear

|genre=Popular ScienceLifestyle|summary=I''Driving with Plato'' is a companion book to [[Breakfast with Socrates by Robert Rowland Smith|Breakfast with Socrates]]ve said this before but there are some books that you seek out, in which former Oxford Fellow Robert Roland Smith took various elements of a 'typical' day some books that you stumble across and provided insight some books that drop into what a collection of thinkers might have to offer to make these mundane routines more interesting. Here, in the company of a similarly eclectic range of writers and thinkers, he considers the key aspects of a life, from birth, through school and riding a bike, to your first kiss, losing your virginity, having a family before a mid-life crisisbecause you really MUST read them, leading to divorcelike, old age and deathright now! ''Atomic Habits'' is in the last category. Montaigne said that to philosophise was to learn how to die, and here Roland Smith ensures that we think about each stage leading up to that moment.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668305X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark StevensonHoneyborne BlueII|title=An Optimist's Tour of the FutureBlue Planet II|author=James Honeyborne and Mark Brownlow

|genre=Popular ScienceAnimals and Wildlife|summary=In 1968, You may well remember when the film sticking of a number '2001 A Space Odyssey2' had an optimistic view after a film title was suggesting something of prestige - that the future we would soon be living infirst film had been so good it was fully justified to have something more. In terms That has hardly been proven correct, but it has until recently almost been confined to the cinema - you barely got a TV series worthy of technological advancement we're not quite there yeta numbered sequel, even though that date and never in the world of non-fiction. If someone has made a decade since passednature series about, say, so maybe itAlaska (and boy aren's time for t there are a revised view lot of what is those these days) and wants to come. Enter Mark Stevensonmake another, a stand up comic slash scientistwhy she just makes another - nothing would justify the numeral. It's perhaps not But some nature programmes do have the most familiar of combinationsprestige, but take the best bits of each energy and the result is this wonderful book that combines humour and fun with proper nittyheft to demand follow-ups. And after five years in the making, gritty, science stuffthe BBC's Blue Planet series has delivered a second helping.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683564</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde1783099593|title=Sleights of Mind|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=I have a passing interest in both magic and neuroscience. Not only am I ''quite'' the hit with the ladies, but I was also very keen to read ''Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Brains''. Husband and wife team Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde work at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Arizona, and as a way of promoting their field of visual neuroscience, developed the [http://illusioncontest.neuralcorrelate.com/ Illusion of the Year contest]. From this, they slipped into the world of magic, investigating, discussing and researching the neuroscience of magic with James Randi, Mac King, Teller (of Penn and...) and Johnny Thompson.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683890</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSpeaking Up|author=Sam Kean|title=The Disappearing Spoon|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=If the disappearing spoon of the title doesn't pique your interest, the subtitle is bound to get your juices flowing: ''and Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements''. As far as popular science books goes, it's got all the umm... right elements (sorry, sorry, sorry). We're taken on a tour through the periodic table, hearing exciting tales of scientific discovery and marvel.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857520261</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Martin Cohen|title=Mind Games: 31 Days to Rediscover Your BrainAllyson Jule

|summary=The sub'Speaking Up' has a fascinating subject matter -title how language reflects and shapes our notions of Martin Cohen's latest bookgender. It looks at our use of language in media, Mind Gameseducation, promisesreligion, rather optimistically in my case I felt, '31 days to rediscover your brain'the workplace and personal relationships. It is rather presumptuous Author Allyson Jule calls on an encyclopedic body of him research from the mid-twentieth century to assume the present day. Reading it, we feel that she has studied everything that I had ''discovered'' it in has ever been said on gendered linguistics; she references Foucault and the first place, but I appreciate his confidenceKardashians with equal rigour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444337092</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marcus ChownCampbell_Astra|title=We Need To Talk About KelvinAd Astra: An illustrated guide to leaving the planet|author=Dallas Campbell|rating=4.5

|summary=Sporting So… you want to leave the best title for a popular science book this side of [[:Category:Alex Bellos|Alex Bellosplanet? Before you do you']] ''Here's Looking At Euclid'', Marcus Chown shows us what everyday things tell us about d better study the universewhole history of human space flight to get up to speed. You'll find out how your reflection in That could take a window shows the randomness of the universe, how the abundance of iron shows while… if only there was a 4handy guide that could condense it all down for you.5bn degree furnace exists in space, and how most of Enter Dallas Campbell with this book: An illustrated guide to leaving the world's astronomers are wrong about what the darkness of night shows usplanet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571244033</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mick O'HareAdrian_Sock|title=Why Can't Elephants Jump?Sock (Object Lessons)|author=Kim Adrian|rating=43.5

|summary=Well? Why canThe subject of this book has been around for several millennia, and yet my partner't elephants jump? And while you're pondering thats daughter has been employed for several years designing it, think about why James Bond wanted his martini shaken, not stirredor them. Why is frozen milk yellow? Does eating bogeys do you any harm? WhatIt's the hole something I use for in about 200 days of every year, at a ballpoint pen? How long a line could you draw with a single pencil? For answers guess (well, I have my self-diagnosed over-active eccrine glands and other people to think about) – which clearly puts me at the opposite end of the scale to all these questionswell-known mass-murderer of women, and so many moreTed Bundy, then do yourself who was into stealing credit cards to fund his desire of having a favour and pick up fresh pair every single day. On which subject, the latest collection from amount of them we create every year could stack to the New Scientist's [http://wwwfreaking moon and more.last-word.com/ Last Word column]Some idiots buy more than six pairs a year, apparently, which is plain stupid. Mick OI'Hare was also kind enough to be [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Mick O'Hare|interviewed by Bookbag]]m talking, as you can tell, of the humble sock.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668398X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Henry NichollsGermano_Eye|title=The Way of the Panda: The Curious History of China's Political Animal|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=The book cover alone, with its panda hugging a tree, says 'buy me', 'read me.' A good start. The sections are divided into no-nonsense headings: Extraction, Abstraction and Protection. Maps and Prologue give a flavour of what's to come. The inside front cover states boldly that 'Giant pandas have been causing a stir ever since their formal scientific discovery just over 140 years ago.' I think it safe to say that many of us would probably say automatically, without thinking, that the panda has immense appeal. But is it only because of the beautifully marked eyes which give the animal a cuddly, teddy bear look?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683688</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewEye Chart (Object Lessons)|author=Cindy M Meston and David Buss|title=Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivation from Adventure to Revenge (and Everything in Between)William Germano

|summary=Many many years agoIt's happened to me, and like as not it has or will happen to you, too. I mean the receipt of certain little numerical results, with a man who was far too young positive or negative before them to be prove the fusty, dusty RE teacher he was shaping correction needed to be, asked my best friend vision to make me see with the intended clarity and I why we were each having sex with our girlfriendsnormality. Even aged fifteen I thought something along 've had that gizmo that photos the lines back of my eye to check for diabetes and other problems, I'wellve had different tests to check the pressure inside my eye, if he doesnand I've come away with glasses I don't know by nowneed to wear all the time, he never will'but certainly benefit from on holiday, or when watching TV or a cinema or theatre production. And above and listed beyond that it was great funI've stared at – and got wrong – the simple, a very enjoyable sensationseemingly ageless test, showed an appetite for the relationship, and of various letters in various configurations that sex proved the ultimate diminish in bonding - how much closersize, to be bluntprove to the relevant scientist at what stage things get blurry for me. Of course, could you be to someone than actually inside them? Iit'll come clean now and admit said girlfriend was s not realageless, but several have been sincethe scientific progress that led to it, the changes other people made to it, and I have the cultural impact it's had heaps of fun finding out how - and perhaps why are all on these eye- women have sex. I was never to know, until now, there are 237 reasons for itopening small pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546639</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mary RoachBall_Wonders|title=Packing for MarsWonders Beyond Numbers: The Curious Science A Brief History of Life in SpaceAll Things Mathematical|author=Johnny Ball|rating=4.5

|summary=Space is big. Really big. And itLike many people of a ''s a long way awaycertain age, too. I mean, I'm having enough trouble deciding what to pack for a year in Africa. I'd be hopeless if I were off have fond memories of tuning in to Mars. But then, no-onewatch Johnny Ball enthusiastically extolling the virtues of maths and science; succeeding where our schoolteachers had failed and actually making these subjects ''s written a book on what to stick in your suitcase for Sierra Leonefun. And Mary Roach ''has'' written a Although decades have passed since those classic TV shows, his latest book on what to take to the red planet... Except, this is so much more than a shopping list. This is the definitive inside scoop for anyone who proves that he has ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes in a world that is, well, out lost none of this worldhis passion and enthusiasm for his subject.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851687807</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard ConniffYong_Contain|title=Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding TimeI Contain Multitudes: My Life Doing Dumb Stuff with Animals|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=This isn't quite the book it seems. From the subtitle, I inferred microbes within us and a memoir or autobiography. Instead Richard Conniff has chosen twenty-three grander view of his journal articles to reprint from a clutch of prestigious magazines, including ''National Geographic'' and ''Smithsonian''. Taken together, they illustrate his wide range of interests in the animal world. While this glimpse of some of the most peculiar creatures on the planet makes for fascinating reading, it's definitely not a book to be galloped through in a single sitting.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393304574</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewlife|author=Russell Foster and Leon Kreitzman|title=Seasons of Life: The Biological Rhythms That Living Things Need to Thrive and SurviveEd Yong|rating=3.5

|summary="Seasons of Life" aims to present The world you know is a rounded picture of the way seasonality affects human life lie. There is no such thing as well as the rest of naturegood or bad microbes. Sickness and health are all far more complex than we thought. Covering everything from Seasonal Affective Disorder Things designed to the potential for animals to adapt save us may kill us and things we think would kill us may save us. Welcome to climate change, this book would be an interesting read for anyone with an enquiring mind and an interest in the natural worldmodern study of microbes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>186197969X</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Mark van Vugt and Anjana Ahuja|title=Selected: Why some people lead, why others follow, and why it matters|rating=4|genre=Business and Finance|summary=''Selected'' is based Move on the psychology of leadership. Some of us may ask the perfectly reasonable question 'Does it matter who leads and who follows?' Well, apparently it not only matters but it matters greatly. And the co-authors go to great lengths to tell us why. The useful prologue informs us that the whole area of leadership can be traced back in time, by no less than several million years. Vugt and Ahuja explain that the rather innocent (and even a bit airy-fairy to some) word 'leader' is evolved from various academic disciplines. Including the more obvious psychology, there is also biology and anthropology in the mix. Heady stuff. And yes, I did want to read on.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683270</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Adam Phillips|title=On Balance|rating=4|genre=Politics and Society|summary=Essential for a tightrope walker, prized as an intellectual objective, balance is generally considered something to which we can aspire. We praise someone who makes a balanced decision, we envy people who have a 'good work/life balance' we offer an opinion 'on balance' to demonstrate that we have considered various arguments and options.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241143888</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Geoffrey Miller|title=Must-Have: The Hidden Instincts Behind Everything We Buy|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=If no one can tell the difference, why shell out $30 000 for a real Rolex when a 'mere' $1200 will get you a virtually identical replica? Why do luxury manufacturers such as BMW spend money advertising in mass media whose typical readership most likely won't ever be able to afford their products? And just why is the ''i'' in iPod so important?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099437929</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Reference Reviews]]