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[[Category:New Reviews|Popular Science]]==Popular science==__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Nicholas Mee1787333175|title=Higgs ForceYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=4.5

|summary=Nicholas Mee, I was a Senior Wrangler at Trinity College, Cambridge and having taken his PhD in Theoretical Particle Physics by submitting his thesis on tempted to read ''You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here'Supersymmetric Quantum Mechanics and Geometry'after enjoying Adam Kay', he s first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is uniquely qualified Going to explain the mysteries Hurt}}, a glorious mixture of insight into the Higgs force. He is also a fellow workings of the Royal Astronomical SocietyNHS, humour and autobiography. Whereas other texts rapidly resort to references to erudite constructs like 'non-zero expectation values', You Don'zz Dibosons' and t Have to be Mad...'Bose-Einstein statistics', Dr Mee provides an accurate account of promised the Geneva experiments with the Large Hadron Collider, provides his readers with some insight into same elements but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the character work of eminent physicists, and furnishes a lucid account of current theoriespsychiatrist. Included I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is an exposition of the discovery of elements by Sir Humphry Davy to recent experiments to discover Peter Higg's elusive particledirected at a situation rather than a person and it is always delivered with empathy and understanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0718892755</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Ian Stewart1788360702|title=17 Equations That Changed Charles, The WorldAlternative Prince: An Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst

|genre=Popular ScienceBiography|summary=For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of alternative medicine and complementary therapies. ''17 Equations That Changed the WorldCharles, The Alternative Prince'' takes us through critically assesses the history of mathematics, from Pythagoras through EinsteinPrince's theory opinions, beliefs and aims against the background of relativy and chaos theorythe scientific evidence. It highlights the most influently equations, clearly explains them, There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and establishes his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the full ranges reputation of a man who is proud of breakthroughs they led his refusal to apply evidence-based, logical reasoning tohis ambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685311</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Taggart Siegel and Jon Betz (editors)0192779230|title=Queen of the Sun|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=I kept bees Very Short Introductions for 5 or 6 years and read many books about the subject, all of the 'how to..' or 'the science of… variety. But this book is a revelation as it genuinely tries to celebrate bees, capturing the real 'feel' of beekeeping - I wish I had come across this much sooner. For Siegel and Betz have collected a series of short articles, poems and essays not about the technique and science of the craft, but about the purpose and 'soul' behind it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905570341</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Keith Skene|title=Escape from Bubbleworld|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Before you stifle the inward groan that comes from the thought of another book assaulting population growth, western greed and reckless exploitation of the environment, take time to read the first chapter of Keith Skene's 'Escape to Bubbleworld'. Because this is as entertaining and amusing book as you are likely to read on the subject, while at the same time taking us into to some deep science and fascinating exploration of what turns out to be less certain certainties. For Skene’s writing has two attributes which I can almost guarantee will keep even the non-scientific reading.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0956250122</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Malouf|title=The Happy LifeCurious Young Minds: The Search for Contentment in the Modern Invisible World|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=There's something quite uplifting about the physical brevity of David Malouf's 'The Happy Life' which is subtitled 'The Search for Contentment in the Modern World'. It suggests that it is easy to find, when of course, the whole point of the book is that despite, or perhaps because of, scientific and technological advances that have taken away many of the causes of true unhappiness in the world, it remains elusive for most. Who can say that they are truly happy? The book runs to less than 100 pages if you take out the Notes section, and the typeface is large. It is, by any reckoning a slim offering.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0701187115</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewGerms|author=Marcus Chown|title=Solar SystemIsabel Thomas

|genre=Popular ScienceChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=With beautiful photographs of the wonders of the solar system, this is a gorgeous coffee table book for anyone with even a passing interest in astronomy. Marcus Chown's descriptions are in-depth enough Germs' seems to warrant considered reading, but if you're after have become a simple and casual flick through, you'll still find plenty catch-all word to appeal.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571277713</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mark Forsyth|title=The Etymologicon|rating=5|genre=Trivia|summary=I like words. Words are awesome. End of. But I also like trivia. I like knowing things that perhaps other people don’t, and helpfully passing on this knowledge cover anything unpleasant which has the potential to themmake you ill. So a In the first book about word-related trivia is just in what looks to be a win-winvery promising new series, OUP and this one is so good I think we’ll Isabel Thomas have to call it provided a win-win-win.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848313071</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Simon Barnes|title=Birdwatching With Your Eyes Closed: an clear and accessible introduction to birdsong|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=One of my best-ever auditory memories is waking up in a tent to a dawn chorus, sung in the middle world of Ireland in springgerms. It was a high-decibel effort We get an informed look at how people originally thought about diseases and what they thought caused them and seemed to involve hundreds of birds. I'm ashamed to say that I couldn't begin to identify how the multitude of species I heard that morningthinking has developed over time. So I suppose I chose this book expecting it to The vocabulary can be confusing but Thomas gives a field guide that could at long last help me get regular box headed 'speak like a handle on birdsong. But it isnscientist' which explains some of the trickiest concepts and you't yet another handbookll soon be familiar with bacteria, but a much more interesting book than thatfungi, which I thought would make a great present for a new birdwatcherprotists and viruses – and how we should protect ourselves.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1907595473</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Steve Backshallgareth_steel|title=PredatorsNever Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel

|genre=Children's Non-FictionAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Many readers I don't often begin my reviews with a warning but with ''Never Work With Animals'' it seems to be appropriate. Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since ''All Creatures Great and Small'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. As a TV show the author would probably know argue that on the simple count of humans they helped to dispatch''All Creatures'' lacked realism, mosquitoes may be as do other similar programmes. Gareth Steel says that the most deadly animals everbook is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him. But did you know He says that if you take into account the success rate of huntshe's written it to inform and provoke thought, diversity particularly amongst aspiring vets. It deals with some uncomfortable and spreaddistressing issues but it doesn't lack sensitivity, ladybirds although there are more successful predators than tigers? |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444004174</amazonuk>occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sam Leith0241480442|title=You Talkin' To Me?Healthy Vegan The Cookbook: Rhetoric from Aristotle to ObamaVegan Cooking Meets Nutrition Science|author=Niko Rittenau and Sebastian Copien

|genre=Popular ScienceCookery|summary=Over the years Emotionally, I've trained myself (fairly successfully) not to judge am a book by its covervegan. Mentally, I've added 'not judging am a book by its title' vegan. I read [[How to the training, but what do you do when your first impressions of Love Animals in a book Human- the title ''Shaped World by Henry Mance]] and'' was appalled by the cover - scream 'trivia'? way in which we treat animals in our search for (preferably cheap) food. WellPractically, I put this one to one side on am not a vegan. It worked for a while apart from the basis that it really wasn't likely odd blip with regard to be cheese but then a book perfect storm of those events which would interest you hope don't occur too often in your lifetime tempted meback to animal-based protein. Picking it up and looking at It wasn't the contents was almost accidental taste - and then I discovered know that I can get plant-based food that this book is tastes just as good as anything plundered from the animal kingdom - it was the ease of being able to get sufficient protein when meals were often snatched in a gold minefew spare moments.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683157</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Gordon GriceDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=The Book of Deadly AnimalsA Tattoo on my Brain|rating=43.5|genre=Popular ScienceAutobiography|summary=Animals Alzheimer's is a disease that slowly wears away your identity and humans have long mixed, even though the one has almost always proven capable sense of being lethal to the otherself. Many scientists in the past decided animals killing humans were aberrant, and that the real animal knew it was second best to humans, having I have been saved in the Arkdirectly affected by this cruel disease, as have many. Your memories and respected our dominion personality worn away like a statue over themtime affected the elements. Even now, it It seems, there are opinions as if nature wants that creatures attacking mankind are somehow rogue final victory over you and need destroyingyour dignity. But where This is the wrong in an animal behaving as its nature compels it? Similarly, the human wandering around the wilderness, or even the idiot woman feeding a black bear her own toddler's honey-dripping hand (true story - what the bear thought of the taste of honeyed fingers we donmakes Daniel Gibbs't know) memoir so admirable. Daniel Gibbs is just the same a neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and has documented his journey in reverse - humans behaving as only humans can''A Tattoo on my Brain''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>0670919675</amazonuk>1108838936

 {{newreviewFrontpage|isbn=0099551063|authortitle=Thomas Byrne The Wisdom of Psychopaths: Lessons in life from Saints, Spies and Tom CassidySerial Killers|titleauthor=How to Save the World with Salad DressingDr Kevin Dutton|rating=34

|summary=The world is under threat from a manic Bond-type baddie'' 'Donald Trump outscores Hitler on psychopathic traits' claims Oxford University researcher. You, 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!Until the events of 6 January 2021 that might have surprised, even shocked many readers: Strange Ideas from Historynow they's Greatest Philosophers|rating=3re probably convinced that they knew it all along.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=In You Kant Make The statement has lost a little of its shock value but it Up, journalist and philosopher Gary Hayden takes his readers through some of the biggest and most important ideas right from does help us to understand more about the very beginnings nature of philosophical thought up psychopathy. It's too easy to associate psychopathy with the philosophy of the modern day. He gives a brief explanation and discussion of each ideaYorkshire Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Saddam Hussein or Robert Maudsley, and shows how through the ages philosophers have argued pretty much everything you could think ofreal-life Hannibal Lecter, much of which seems bizarre to but the modern thinkertruth is that having psychopathic traits can sometimes be a good thing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851688455</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Stephen H Segal1849767343|title=Geek WisdomCount on Me|author=Miguel Tanco

|genre=Popular ScienceChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=I am by no means a fully fledged geek, but on the Big Bang scale I'm probably more The title and format of a Leonard than a Penny. I was weaned on ''Star Trek '', chose ''Hitchhiker’s Guide... '' as my reading aloud piece for a Year 7 exam, and this book might lead you to think that 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 's either about responsibility - or it'Blake’s 7’s'' Villa but I've never seen s a ''Batman'' film, never read a comic basic 1-2-3 book, never quite understood what all for those just starting out on the numbers journey. It isn't: it'Star Wars'' fuss was about. If Sci Fi is s a religion, then this is the book that can fill me in one the stories, the parables, the rules, as it were, hymn of geekdom. I had praise to have itmaths.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594745277</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mick O'Hare|title=Why Are Orangutans Orange?|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Another year has passed, and once again we're treated to another offering from New Scientist It's Last Word column. We've been here before, with [[Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? by Mick O'Hare|Penguins]], [[Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? by Mick O'Hare|Polar Bears]], [[How To Make A Tornado by Mick O'Hare|Tornadoes]], [[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 the orangutan to find out about why he's orange.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846685079</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=David Crystal|title=The Story Of English In 100 Words|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Crystal maths is a god when it comes to language. I’ve known that since I was quoting him during English A Level, since my university studies, since my TEFL days when students ask 'Why?' so wonderful and how you need an answer other than 'Because'. This is his new book, but 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=...In which our author considers the smaller, less noticeable items in our livesIt's more than sixty years since I asked how babies were made. He finds such objects as sticky tape, combs My mother was deeply embarrassed and keys magical, because "we can do whatever we like to things, but magical things are things told me that we allow and expect to do things back to usshe'd get me a book about it. Magical things all do more, and mean A couple of days later I was handed a pamphlet (which delivered nothing more than they might be supposed to." Principally these are the little flotsam that wash up on our desksbasics, the handy things we keep in clinical language which had never been used in our pockets house before) and I was told that it wouldn't be discussed any further as it ''wasn't something which nice people talked about our person, and never think about - wave about, flick about, fiddle with''. I ''knew'' more, but never think about.|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. Itwas little ''wiser'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 Thankfully, 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 saystimes have changed.|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 the rarest of meetings film you will be familiar with a Scottish wildcat.|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 slight feeling that there are scenes missing and physics, physics and chemistry and chemistry and biology have become more and more blurredthat dialogue has been trimmed. As it This is now, biology requires many mathematical techniques, and it's fair to assume a graphic novel that major biological breakthroughs over the next hundred years will also could easily have a strong basis in maths been three times as long and still felt tooshort. 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 BronowskiScience, ethics and companies behind the new anti-aging treatments|author=Adrian Cull

|genre=Popular ScienceLifestyle|summary=Jacob Bronowski For many years now I've (half) joked that I intended to live forever and that so far, it was working out OK. Time has passed though and although I'm a scientific administrator, poet, philosopher, dramatist, radio great deal fitter and TV personality, best remembered for the series 'The Ascent healthier than most people of my age there were a few nagging health problems which were tipping my life out of Man'balance. This short bookIt was time to look for a new approach and as so often happens, about 90 pages long, is partly biographical sketch, partly – in fact largely – an overview of his major published works, occupying about two-thirds of the reviewing gods brought me the bookI needed. In ''Live Forever Manual: Science, ethics and companies behind the authornew anti-ageing treatments's words, it is intended as a personal view of Bronowski as a philosopher' seemed like the answer to my problems - only you get so much more than just 101 tips.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845402200</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sean Carroll1847941834|title=From Eternity to Here: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of TimeAtomic Habits|author=James Clear

|genre=Popular ScienceLifestyle|summary=The Prologue sets out what I've said this book is about. It's about ' ... the nature of time, the beginning of the universe, and the underlying structure of physical reality.' OK? Bring on those questions. Yes, it's a weighty tome in terms of size and subject matter, before but I would certainly describe the front cover as reader-friendly, so therefore should have broad appeal. I love the title of this book, lots of thought has been put into it and it certainly grabbed my attention - and I'm no scientist. The classic movie from the classic book ... I also loved Carroll's language - 'The Elegant Universe' and 'a preposterous universe' These there are phrases to make some books that you stop and think. And I certainly did.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1851687955</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert Rowland Smith|title=Driving with Plato: The Meaning of Life's Milestones|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=''Driving with Plato'' is a companion book to [[Breakfast with Socrates by Robert Rowland Smith|Breakfast with Socrates]]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 death. 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>}} {{newreview|author=Mark Stevenson|title=An Optimist's Tour of the Future|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=In 1968, the film '2001 A Space Odysseyright now! ' had an optimistic view of the future we would soon be living in. In terms of technological advancement we're not quite there yet, even though that date has a decade since passed, so maybe itAtomic Habits's time for a revised view of what is to come. Enter Mark Stevenson, a stand up comic slash scientist. It's perhaps not the most familiar of combinations, but take the best bits of each and the result is this wonderful book that combines humour and fun with proper nitty, gritty, science stuff.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683564</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde|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 Thompsonlast category.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683890</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sam KeanHoneyborne BlueII|title=The Disappearing SpoonBlue Planet II|author=James Honeyborne and Mark Brownlow

|genre=Popular ScienceAnimals and Wildlife|summary=If You may well remember when the disappearing spoon sticking of a number '2' after a film title was suggesting something of prestige - that the title doesn't pique your interestfirst film had been so good it was fully justified to have something more. That has hardly been proven correct, but it has until recently almost been confined to the subtitle is bound to get your juices flowing: ''and Other True Tales cinema - you barely got a TV series worthy of Madnessa numbered sequel, Love and never in the History world of the World from the Periodic Table non-fiction. If someone has made a nature series about, say, Alaska (and boy aren't there are a lot of those these days) and wants to make another, why she just makes another - nothing would justify the Elements''numeral. As far as popular science books goesBut some nature programmes do have the prestige, it's got all the ummenergy and the heft to demand follow-ups... right elements (sorryAnd after five years in the making, sorry, sorry). Wethe BBC're taken on s Blue Planet series has delivered a tour through the periodic table, hearing exciting tales of scientific discovery and marvelsecond helping.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857520261</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Cohen1783099593|title=Mind Games: 31 Days to Rediscover Your BrainSpeaking Up|author=Allyson 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?|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Well? Why can't elephants jump? And while you're pondering that, think about why James Bond wanted his martini shaken, not stirred. Why is frozen milk yellow? Does eating bogeys do you any harm? What's the hole for in a ballpoint pen? How long a line could you draw with a single pencil? For answers to all these questions, and so many more, then do yourself a favour and pick up the latest collection from the New Scientist's [http://www.last-word.com/ Last Word column]. Mick O'Hare was also kind enough to be [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Mick O'Hare|interviewed by Bookbag]].|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668398X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSock (Object Lessons)|author=Henry Nicholls|title=The Way of the Panda: The Curious History of China's Political AnimalKim Adrian|rating=43.5

|summary=The subject of this book cover alonehas been around for several millennia, with its panda hugging a tree, says 'buy meand yet my partner's daughter has been employed for several years designing it, 'read meor them.It' A good start. The sections are divided into no-nonsense headings: Extractions something I use for about 200 days of every year, Abstraction and Protection. Maps and Prologue give at a flavour of what's to come. The inside front cover states boldly that 'Giant pandas guess (well, I have been causing a stir ever since their formal scientific discovery just my self-diagnosed over 140 years ago.' I -active eccrine glands and other people to think it safe about) – which clearly puts me at the opposite end of the scale to say that many well-known mass-murderer of us would probably say automaticallywomen, without thinkingTed Bundy, who was into stealing credit cards to fund his desire of having a fresh pair every single day. On which subject, that the panda has immense appealamount of them we create every year could stack to the freaking moon and more. But Some idiots buy more than six pairs a year, apparently, which is it only because plain stupid. I'm talking, as you can tell, of the beautifully marked eyes which give the animal a cuddly, teddy bear look?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683688</amazonuk>humble sock.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cindy M Meston and David BussGermano_Eye|title=Why Women Have Sex: Understanding Sexual Motivation from Adventure to Revenge Eye Chart (and Everything in BetweenObject Lessons)|author=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. Covering everything from Seasonal Affective Disorder to the potential for animals to adapt to climate change, this book would be an interesting read for anyone with an enquiring mind Sickness and an interest in the natural worldhealth are all far more complex than we thought.|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 on the psychology of leadership. Some of Things designed to save us may ask the perfectly reasonable question 'Does it matter who leads kill us and who follows?' Well, apparently it not only matters but it matters greatly. And the co-authors go to great lengths to tell things we think would kill us why. The useful prologue informs may save 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 Welcome 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 optionsmodern study of microbes.|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 Move on to afford their products? And just why is the ''i'' in iPod so important?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099437929</amazonuk>}}[[Newest Reference Reviews]]