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[[Category:New Reviews|Popular Science]]==Popular science==__NOTOC__ <!-- Remove -->{{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sam Kean1787333175|title=The Disappearing SpoonYou Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here|author=Benji Waterhouse|rating=4.5

|summary=If the disappearing spoon of the title doesnI was tempted to read ''You Don't pique your interest, the subtitle is bound Have to be Mad to get your juices flowing: Work Here''after enjoying Adam Kay'and Other True Tales of Madnesss first book {{amazonurl|isbn=1509858636|title=This is Going to Hurt}}, Love and the History a glorious mixture of insight into the World from the Periodic Table workings of the ElementsNHS, humour and autobiography. ''. As far as popular science books goes, itYou Don's got all the ummt Have to be Mad... right '' promised the same elements (sorry, sorry, sorry)but moved from physical problems to mental illness and the work of a psychiatrist. We're taken on I did wonder whether it was acceptable to be looking for humour in this setting but the laughter is directed at a situation rather than a tour through the periodic table, hearing exciting tales of scientific discovery person and it is always delivered with empathy and marvelunderstanding.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0857520261</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Martin Cohen1788360702|title=Mind GamesCharles, The Alternative Prince: 31 Days to Rediscover Your BrainAn Unauthorised Biography|author=Edzard Ernst

|genre=Popular ScienceBiography|summary=The sub-title For over forty years, Prince Charles has been an ardent supporter of Martin Cohenalternative medicine and complementary therapies. 's latest book, Mind Games, promises, rather optimistically in my case I felt'Charles, The Alternative Prince''31 days to rediscover your braincritically assesses the Prince's opinions, beliefs and aims against the background of the scientific evidence. It There are few instances of his beliefs being vindicated and his relentless promotion of treatments which have no scientific support has done considerable damage to the reputation of a man who is rather presumptuous proud of him his refusal to assume that I had ''discovered'' it in the first placeapply evidence-based, but I appreciate logical reasoning to his confidenceambitions.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444337092</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Marcus Chown0192779230|title=We Need To Talk About KelvinVery Short Introductions for Curious Young Minds: The Invisible World of Germs|author=Isabel Thomas|rating=4.5|genre=Popular ScienceChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=Sporting the best title for a popular science book this side of [[:Category:Alex Bellos|Alex Bellos']] Germs''Here's Looking At Euclid'', Marcus Chown shows us what everyday things tell us about seems to have become a catch-all word to cover anything unpleasant which has the universepotential to make you ill. You'll find out how your reflection In the first book in what looks to be a window shows the randomness of the universevery promising new series, how OUP and Isabel Thomas have provided a clear and accessible introduction to the abundance world of iron shows a 4germs.5bn degree furnace exists in space, and We get an informed look at how most of the world's astronomers are wrong people originally thought about diseases and what they thought caused them and how the darkness of night shows usthinking has developed over time.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571244033</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Mick O'Hare|title=Why Can't Elephants Jump?|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Well? Why The vocabulary canbe confusing but Thomas gives a regular box headed 't elephants jump? And while youspeak like a scientist're pondering that, think about why James Bond wanted his martini shaken, not stirred. Why is frozen milk yellow? Does eating bogeys do which explains some of the trickiest concepts and you any harm? What's the hole for in a ballpoint pen? How long a line could you draw ll soon be familiar with a single pencil? For answers to all these questionsbacteria, fungi, protists and so many more, then do yourself a favour viruses – and pick up the latest collection from the New Scientist's [http://www.last-word.com/ Last Word column]how we should protect ourselves. Mick O'Hare was also kind enough to be [[The Interview: Bookbag Talks To Mick O'Hare|interviewed by Bookbag]].|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184668398X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Henry Nichollsgareth_steel|title=The Way of the Panda: The Curious History of China's Political AnimalNever Work With Animals|author=Gareth Steel

|genre=Popular ScienceAnimals and Wildlife|summary=The book cover alone, I don't often begin my reviews with its panda hugging a tree, says warning but with ''buy meNever Work With Animals', 'read meit seems to be appropriate.Stories of a vet's life have proved popular since ' A good start. The sections are divided into no-nonsense headings: Extraction, Abstraction 'All Creatures Great and ProtectionSmall'' but ''Never Work With Animals'' is definitely not the companion volume you've been looking for. Maps and Prologue give As a flavour of whatTV show the author would argue that ''All Creatures''s to comelacked realism, as do other similar programmes. The inside front cover states boldly Gareth Steel says that 'Giant pandas have been causing a stir ever since their formal scientific discovery just over 140 years agothe book is not suitable for younger readers and - after reading - I agree with him.He says that he' I think s written it safe to say that many of us would probably say automatically, without thinkinginform and provoke thought, that the panda has immense appealparticularly amongst aspiring vets. But is It deals with some uncomfortable and distressing issues but it only because of the beautifully marked eyes which give the animal a cuddlydoesn't lack sensitivity, teddy bear look?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683688</amazonuk>although there are occasions when you would be best choosing between reading and eating.

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Cindy M Meston and David Buss0241480442|title=Why Women Have SexHealthy Vegan The Cookbook: Understanding Sexual Motivation from Adventure to Revenge (Vegan Cooking Meets Nutrition Science|author=Niko Rittenau and Everything in Between)Sebastian Copien

|genre=Popular ScienceCookery|summary=Many many years agoEmotionally, I am a man who was far too young to be the fustyvegan. Mentally, dusty RE teacher he was shaping to be, asked my best friend and I why we were each having sex with our girlfriendsam a vegan. Even aged fifteen I thought something along the lines of 'well, if he doesn't know read [[How to Love Animals in a Human-Shaped World by now, he never will', Henry Mance]] and listed that it was great funappalled by the way in which we treat animals in our search for (preferably cheap) food. Practically, I am not a very enjoyable sensation, showed an appetite vegan. It worked for a while apart from the relationship, and that sex proved the ultimate in bonding - how much closer, odd blip with regard to be blunt, could cheese but then a perfect storm of those events which you be hope don't occur too often in your lifetime tempted me back to someone than actually inside them? animal-based protein. It wasn't the taste - I'll come clean now and admit said girlfriend was not real, but several have been since, and know that I have had heaps of fun finding out how can get plant- and perhaps why based food that tastes just as good as anything plundered from the animal kingdom - women have sex. I it was never the ease of being able to know, until now, there are 237 reasons for itget sufficient protein when meals were often snatched in a few spare moments.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099546639</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Mary RoachDaniel Gibbs with Teresa H Barker|title=Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in SpaceA Tattoo on my Brain|rating=43.5|genre=Popular ScienceAutobiography|summary=Space is big. Really big. And itAlzheimer's is a long way disease that slowly wears away, tooyour identity and sense of self. I meanhave been directly affected by this cruel disease, I'm having enough trouble deciding what to pack for as have many. Your memories and personality worn away like a year in Africastatue over time affected the elements. I'd be hopeless It seems as if I were off to Marsnature wants that final victory over you and your dignity. But then, no-one's written a book on This is what to stick in your suitcase for Sierra Leone. And Mary Roach makes Daniel Gibbs''has'' written a book on what to take to the red planet.memoir so admirable.. Except, this Daniel Gibbs is so much more than a shopping list. This is the definitive inside scoop for anyone neurologist who was diagnosed with Alzheimers and has ever wondered what goes documented his journey in ''A Tattoo on behind the scenes in a world that is, well, out of this worldmy Brain''.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>1851687807</amazonuk>1108838936

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Conniff0099551063|title=Swimming with Piranhas at Feeding TimeThe Wisdom of Psychopaths: My Life Doing Dumb Stuff with AnimalsLessons in life from Saints, Spies and Serial Killers|author=Dr Kevin Dutton

|summary=This isn't quite the book it seems. From the subtitle, I inferred a memoir or autobiography. Instead Richard Conniff has chosen twenty-three of his journal articles to reprint from a clutch of prestigious magazines, including ''National GeographicDonald Trump outscores Hitler on psychopathic traits'claims Oxford University researcher.' 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>}}

{{newreview|author=Russell Foster and Leon Kreitzman|title=Seasons Until the events of Life6 January 2021 that might have surprised, even shocked many readers: now they're probably convinced that they knew it all along. The Biological Rhythms That Living Things Need to Thrive and Survive|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary="Seasons statement has lost a little of Life" aims its shock value but it does help us to present a rounded picture of understand more about the way seasonality affects human life as well as the rest nature of naturepsychopathy. Covering everything from Seasonal Affective Disorder It's too easy to associate psychopathy with the Yorkshire Ripper, Jeffrey Dahmer, Saddam Hussein or Robert Maudsley, the potential for animals to adapt to climate changereal-life Hannibal Lecter, this book would but the truth is that having psychopathic traits can sometimes be an interesting read for anyone with an enquiring mind and an interest in the natural worlda good thing.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>186197969X</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark van Vugt and Anjana Ahuja1849767343|title=Selected: Why some people lead, why others follow, and why it mattersCount on Me|author=Miguel Tanco|rating=4.5|genre=Business and FinanceChildren's Non-Fiction|summary=The title and format of this book might lead you to think that it's either about responsibility - or it'Selected'' is based s a basic 1-2-3 book for those just starting out on the psychology of leadershipnumbers journey. Some of us may ask the perfectly reasonable question It isn'Does t: it matter who leads and who follows?' Well, apparently it not only matters but it matters greatly. And the co-authors go s a hymn of praise 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 yearsmaths. Vugt and Ahuja explain that the rather innocent (and even a bit airy-fairy to some) word 'leaderIt' s about why maths is evolved from various academic disciplines. Including the more obvious psychology, there is also biology so wonderful and anthropology how you meet it in the mix. Heady stuff. And yes, I did want to read oneveryday life.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846683270</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Adam PhillipsB08B39QNRH|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 The Curious History of Writer'good work/life balance' we offer s Cramp: Solving an opinion 'on balance' to demonstrate that we have considered various arguments and options.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0241143888</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewage-old problem|author=Geoffrey Miller|title=Must-Have: The Hidden Instincts Behind Everything We BuyMichael Pritchard

|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 Society is based on speech but civilisation requires the written word''i'' in iPod so important?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099437929</amazonuk>}}.

{{newreview|author=Bruce Bueno de Mesquita|title=Prediction: How I came to See and Shape the Future with Game Theory|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=As a rather mediocre recreational poker player IMichael Pritchard's ''ve often been intrigued by game theory. The academic discipline used by politicos during the chilliest days of the Cold War has been utilised by the more mathematically minded players on the professional circuit to improve profitability. Rather than poker, author and politics professor Bruce Bueno de Mesquita uses game theory models to forecast political, economic and international security scenarios and in Prediction he shares some of his secrets.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099531844</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Tim Dee|title=The Running Sky: A Bird-Watching Life|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=Tim Dee may already be known to you as a distinguished critic and adjudicator Curious History of contemporary poetry, or for producing BBC Radio 4Writer's Cramp'Poetry Please'by a rather strange route. So it's hardly surprising that I have problems with my first impression of his birdwatching memoir, hands which orthopaedic surgeons refer to as 'interesting'The Running Sky: I prefer the word 'painful' is of poetic exactitude transferred to another genre. But but I remain dazzled by have an interest in the sustained quality of his writing over 80,000 wordsway that hands work. Opened at any page, paragraphs An exploration of graceful prose enclose figurative language capturing the very essence history of a problem which has defeated some of flight (hence the titlebest medical minds for some three-hundred-years seemed liked excellent background reading and so it proved, from a Philip Larkin poem). To Dee, flight is with the book being as much about the doctors treating the nub of a bird's independence. He describes sufferers and wonders poetically – be it the collective sweep of flock formations, changing medical attitudes as the mysteries of migration, or individual observations of nightjars, carrion crows or peregrinesproblem itself.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099516497</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Paul Bloom1776572858|title=How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We LikeDo You Make a Baby?|author=Anna Fiske and Don Bartlett (translator)

|genre=Popular ScienceHome and Family|summary=How much would you pay for 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. A couple of days later I was handed a jumper that pamphlet (which delivered nothing more than the basics, in clinical language which had never been used to belong to Brad Pitt? in our house before) What about if and I had was told that it wouldn't be discussed any further as it dry cleaned for you first? Chances are, if you were considering the first offer, you've just been put off somewhat. But why? The jumper hasn'wasn't changed, after allsomething which nice people talked about''. Do you honestly and rationally I ''knew'' more, believe that dry cleaning would destroy some of Bradbut was little ''s wiser'essence'. Thankfully, thus making the item less valuable?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847921434</amazonuk>times have changed.

 {{newreview|author=John Farndon|title=Do You Think You're Clever?: The Oxbridge Questions|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=My history of interviews with Oxbridge colleges forms a very short dialogue. Me, to university admissions representative, ''You don’t actually do media studies per se, do you?'' He, ''No – our graduates run the media.'' Had I got a lot further, and sat in front of a potential tutor, I would have faced a question designed to baffle, provoke, bewilder – or to inspire a flight of intuitive intelligence. Thus is the media-running wheat separated from the media-consuming chaff. And thus is this book given its basis – sixty of the more remarkable questions, answered as our erudite author might have wished to answer them. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>184831132X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|author=Lisa SandersDanny Dorling|title=Diagnosis: Dispatches from the Frontlines of Medical MysteriesSlowdown

|genre=Popular SciencePolitics and Society|summary=Fans We are living in a time of ‘’Houserapid change, Mand we're worried about it.D.’’ may recognise Dorling tells us that the name of Lisa Sanderslatter is normal, natural and probably good for us. She’s the technical advisor We are designed to worry and with the TV show as well as being the writer current state of the ‘’Diagnosis’’ column what we're doing in the New York Timesworld we have much to be worried about. Many of the stories which appear in the column are recounted in this bookHowever, which is a look at the way in which doctors reach a diagnosis and how the method has changed (or not) over the years. I’m not a fan of the hospital dramas which seem to be a major feature of the TV schedules, but I was fascinated by what is, essentially, a series of medical detective stories.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848311338</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stefan Klein|title=Leonardo's Legacy: How Da Vinci Reinvented the World|rating=5|genre=Biography|summary=This excellent combination of science history and biography starts with the most populist next three-hundred-and -some of the most awkwardly scientific. Basically it throws modern-day science at the Mona Lisapages, which if you might think is a little unfair – can she cope with being analysedfollow the arguments, and the neuroscience it sets out in scientific detail why either we shouldn't be as worried as we now know used are, or in interpreting her? some cases that we're worrying about the wrong things. Mostly. Of course she can – she’s the world’s best-known masterpiece of Italian artBecause mostly, and she’s survived much worsethings are not changing as rapidly as we think they are. Klein’s approach fully worksIn fact, when we see also the science da Vinci did know rate of change in many things is slowing down and that he worked on himself, which all helps us know partly why the truths of La Gioconda are still unknowable.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306818256</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Paul Parsons|title=30-Second Theories|rating=3|genre=Popular Science|summary=Take fifty direction of science's most thought-provoking theories, and try to explain each change will in thirty seconds or one page. It's all here, from Schrodinger's cat, to cosmic topology, via the Gaia hypothesis and chaos theorysome cases go into reverse.|amazonukisbn=<amazonuk>184831129X</amazonuk>0300243405

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mark GriffithsLangford_Emily|title=The Lotus QuestEmily's Numbers|author=Joss Langford

|summary=Ever wanted to know about evolutionEmily found words ''useful'', nature and stuff? Unsurprisinglybut counting was what she loved best. Obviously, this is the book for you. If can count anything and there's no limit to how far you're interested can go, but then Emily moved a step further and began counting in [http://wwwtwos.amazon She knew all about odd and even numbers.co.uk/gp/product/0330508938?ie=UTF8&tag=thebookbag-21&linkCode=as2&camp=1634&creative=6738&creativeASIN=0330508938 space Then she began counting in threes: half of the list were even numbers, black holes but the other half was odd and stuff], then Glenn Murphy has also written a sister book it was this list of odd numbers which occurred when you counted in the threes which she called ''threeven'Science: Sorted!'. (Actually, this confused me a little bit at first as they' series packed full re a subset of all the information you'd want odd numbers but sound as though they ought to know. It's be a subset of the even numbers, but it all written with the fabulous quality that made [[Why is Snot Green? by Glenn Murphy|Why is Snot Green?]] such a must-readworked out well when I really thought about it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0330508946</amazonuk>)

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alex Bellos1910593508|title=Alex's Adventures In NumberlandApollo|author=Matt Fitch, Chris Baker and Mike Collins

|genre=Popular ScienceHistory|summary=Maths This incredible graphic novel is a wonderful thing. ...Waitlove letter to the Moon landings and the passion for the subject drips off every Apollo by Matt Fitch, don't run awayChris Baker and Mike Collins. It really This is. The way numbers interact with each other, the way counting systems developed, how mathematical breakthroughs are coming from the world a story we know well and because of crochetthis, and how people can mentally calculate the 13th root of authors take a 200 digit number few narrative shortcuts knowing that we can fill in almost less time than it takes the blanks. These shortcuts are the only downside to read it out loudthe book. ThereIf you's all sorts ve ever read a comic book adaptation of weird a film you will be familiar with the slight feeling that there are scenes missing and wonderful stuff going on in Numberlandthat dialogue has been trimmed. This is a graphic novel that could easily have been three times as long and still felt too short.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0747597162</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Fortey1999308719|title=The Hidden Landscape|rating=4|genre=Popular Live Forever Manual: Science|summary=The purpose of this book is to explore the connection between the landscape and the geology underlying it, which in one of his many vivid similes Fortey compares the surface personality with the workings of the unconscious mind beneath. He starts by describing a journey he once made from Paddington Station to Haverford West, a market town in Pembrokeshire and with it a passage back into the plutonic depths of geological aeons, indicated by the large 60cm monster trilobites that have been found in the Cambrian rocks near St David's. Fortey describes the magnificence of the Cathedral constructed from the local purple sandstone ethics and mottled with moisture-loving lichens. He contrasts this with companies behind the anonymous character of a nearby brightlynew anti-coloured service station, anonymous and synthetic, an invader cheaply built and out of context.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847920713</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Alexandra Horowitz|title=Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell and Know|rating=5|genre=Pets|summary=I've long been aware that our two dogs have methods of communication which are far more subtle than anything a mere human can muster. They sense exactly how we are feeling – a slight change in the atmosphere and they will be alert. The reactions to a frown or a smile, laughter or tears are all different and they're capable of communicating with us in ways which have no need of words. For a while I thought it was our dogs who were special (well, ''obviously'' they are…) but I've noticed other dogs communicating with each other and with humans and the more that I see the more that I wonder why they are referred to as 'dumb animals'.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184737347X</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewaging treatments|author=Philip Ball|title=The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do without it |rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary='We need to talk about music, but it is hard. Very few people can do it.' So says Philip Ball after 400 pages of talking about music. Very few readers who make it that far will disagree with his conclusion, but most will have gained some enlightenment about how music works and why we enjoy it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847920888</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Derrick Niederman|title=Number Freak: A Mathematical Compendium from 1 to 200Adrian Cull

|genre=Popular ScienceLifestyle|summary=This is a book For many years now I've (half) joked that I intended to live forever and that definitely does what so far, it says on the tinwas working out OK. Our author Time has the capacity to grab each number between one passed though and two hundred, although I'm a great deal fitter and wring it for all its worth - all the special status it might have in our culture (more easy with seven healthier than, say, 187), all the special properties it might possess (perfect, triangular, prime), and as many other things mathematicians and so on would find most people of my age there were a few nagging health problems which were tipping my life out of interestbalance. Luckily there is enough here It was time to make look for a new approach and as so often happens, the reviewing gods brought me the book well worth a browse for us who would not deem themselves number buffsI needed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>071563710X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Kees van Deemter|title=Not Exactly - In Praise Of Vagueness|rating=3.5|genre=Popular ''Live Forever Manual: Science|summary=How warm is a warm day? Or rather, given ethics and companies behind the weather at new anti-ageing treatments'' seemed like the moment, how chilly is a chilly day? Is it better answer to know I want a small helping of peas, or to know that I want 82 peas? There are times when vagueness is my problems - only you get so much more useful than being specificjust 101 tips. Kees van Deemter makes this point, sharing many examples from a number of fields, including maths, philosophy, linguistics and AI.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0199545901</amazonuk>

 {{newreview|author=Druin Burch|title=Taking the Medicine|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=In 1898, Burch points out that a new drug was developed and marketed for the treatment of tuberculosis by Bayer & Co. TB is such an ancient enemy of man that there is apparently evidence of an earlier strain to be found in Egyptian mummies. The German firm had discovered a chemical that seemed to work well, and patients and indeed their own staff, who were tested seemed to respond well - it was named Heroin - and its addictive effects were at first missed.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845951506</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Roger Scruton1847941834|title=I Drink Therefore I Am|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Roger Scruton is a conservative philosopher and composer, best known for his work on philosophy and music, but who shares Plato's belief that 'nothing more excellent or valuable than wine was ever granted by the gods to man' and in this book seeks to combine his two interests of philosophy and the fruits of the vine.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847065082</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewAtomic Habits|author=Keith Laidler|title=AnimalsJames Clear

|genre=Popular ScienceLifestyle|summary=I''Animals'' is described as a visual guide to the animal kingdom, ve said this before but please don't think of it as a picture book as it's far more than there are some books that. Don't think of it as a coffee table book either – despite the fact you seek out, some books that its size – midway between A2 you stumble across and A3 – might tempt some books that drop into your life because you to think that way. really MUST read them, like, right now! It's a journey through the complex diversity of the animal kingdom based on sound scientific principles.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184916004X</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Bill Butterworth|title=Reversing Global Warming For Profit |rating=3.5|genre=Politics and Society|summary=There aren't many climate change deniers left, are there? We all know itAtomic Habits's there. We all know, too, that the world's population growth is on a collision course with in the dwindling of its resources. The world's going to get hotter, its weather more extreme. Fossil fuels are going to run outlast category. More and more people will compete for fewer and fewer of civilisation's luxuries. We're all worried. |amazonuk=<amazonuk>1904312810</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Richard Wrangham Honeyborne BlueII|title=Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human Blue Planet II|author=James Honeyborne and Mark Brownlow

|genre=Popular ScienceAnimals and Wildlife|summary=Humans are cooking apes. According to Richard Wrangham, mastery You may well remember when the sticking of fire and cooking a number '2' after a film title was suggesting something of prestige - that the food that resulted from first film had been so good it was at the root of human evolutionary development and ultimate successfully justified to have something more. Various factors have That has hardly been proven correct, but it has until recently almost been proposed as the crucial stimulus which led confined to the appearance cinema - you barely got a TV series worthy of a numbered sequel, and never in the first recognisably human creatures: leaving aside divine intervention world of non-fiction. If someone has made a nature series about, say, Alaska (be it from Godand boy aren't there are a lot of those these days) and wants to make another, extrawhy she just makes another -terrestrials or future humans travelling in time)nothing would justify the numeral. But some nature programmes do have the prestige, the candidates for what made our ancestral apes stand straighter energy and start growing brains range from socialised hunting the heft to chattering about kinship to eating seafooddemand follow-ups. And after five years in the making, the BBC's Blue Planet series has delivered a second helping.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682851</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Alexandra Bruce1783099593|title=2012: Science or Superstition|rating=3.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=The fuss about 2012 has not started just recently. The first book to feature the story was from a Yale professor, in 1966. We've also had prog rock bands named after Popol Vuh, the Maya creation myth. But as the crunch date of December 21st, 2012 - the winter solstice that year - nears, it's becoming a very big story indeed. Even though it sounds absurd - the end of a 5,125-year long cycle of the Maya calendar, which started on August 13th, 3114BCE - or was judged to start then, when they came across this concept a couple of thousand years into that period. Surely they couldn't predict the future from their 'primitive' state with such accuracy?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1934708283</amazonuk>}} {{newreviewSpeaking Up|author=Stephen Baker|title=They've Got Your Number|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=If you are in the slightest bit paranoid, worry that ''Big Brother'' is always watching or like to believe that you are not a number, but a free man (or woman), then this may not be the book for you, as it will do nothing to dispel any of those worries. If, on the other hand, you think 'the mathematical modelling of humanity' sounds like one of the sexiest things ever, and are chomping at the bit to learn more about it, then you might well be interested in what Business Week journalist Baker has to say.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099507021</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dr Aaron Carroll and Dr Rachel Vreeman|title=Don't Swallow Your Gum|rating=5|genre=Lifestyle|summary='''BANG'''. That's the sound of copious urban myths being shot down. '''BANG'''. That's the sound of the old wives slamming the door, as their tales get revealed as baseless. '''CLICK'''. That's the noise lots of ill-informed websites make as they get closed down. All noises come due to this brilliant book.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0141043369</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Robert Rowland Smith |title=Breakfast with SocratesAllyson Jule

|summary=In 'Speaking Up'Breakfast with Socrates'', subtitled A Philosophy of Everyday Life, former Oxford Fellow Robert Roland Smith takes various elements of has a 'typical' day fascinating subject matter - how language reflects and provides insight into what an eclectic collection shapes our notions of thinkers might have to offer to make these mundane routines more interestinggender. After allIt looks at our use of language in media, education, religion, as Socrates declared 'the unexamined life is not worth living'workplace and personal relationships.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682371</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=James Hannam|title=God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations Author Allyson Jule calls on an encyclopedic body of Modern Science|rating=5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Everybody knows that research from the Medieval people thought mid-twentieth century to the world was flat and that present day. Reading it wasn't until Columbus proved otherwise that they found out it was a sphere. Everybody knows that the inquisition burned people at the stake for their scientific ideas and , we feel that Copernicus lived in perpetual fear of persecution. Everyone knows she has studied everything that the Pope banned human dissection has ever been said on gendered linguistics; she references Foucault and the number zero, and everybody is wrongKardashians with equal rigour.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848310706</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Sally Kindberg and Tracey TurnerCampbell_Astra|title=The Comic Strip History of SpaceAd Astra: An illustrated guide to leaving the planet|author=Dallas Campbell

|summary=Ian Stewart has been collecting mathematical curiosities, puzzles and stories since he So… you want to leave the planet? Before you do you'd better study the whole history of human space flight to get up to speed. That could take a while… if only there was 14a handy guide that could condense it all down for you. He published his ''Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities'' in 2008, and hot on its success, he's sharing Enter Dallas Campbell with this second volume with usbook: An illustrated guide to leaving the planet.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682924</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Mick O'HareAdrian_Sock|title=How To Make A TornadoSock (Object Lessons)|author=Kim Adrian|rating=43.5

|summary=Another year, another must-read The subject of this book from the New Scientist. We've has been here before with [[Do Polar Bears Get Lonely? by Mick O'Hare|polar bears]]around for several millennia, [[Why Don't Penguins' Feet Freeze? by Mick O'Hare|penguins]] and [[How To Fossilise Your Hamster by Mick Oyet my partner'Hare|hamsters]]s daughter has been employed for several years designing it, or them. Now itIt's time something I use for about 200 days of every year, at a guess (well, I have my self-diagnosed over-active eccrine glands and other people to turn our attention think about) – which clearly puts me at the opposite end of the scale to how well-known mass-murderer of women, Ted Bundy, who was into stealing credit cards to make fund his desire of having a tornadofresh pair every single day. On which subject, the amount of them we create every year could stack to the freaking moon and all the other crazy experiments that scientists have done over more. Some idiots buy more than six pairs a year, apparently, which is plain stupid. I'm talking, as you can tell, of the yearshumble sock.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846682878</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Eva HoffmanGermano_Eye|title=Time Eye Chart (Big IdeasObject Lessons)|author=William Germano

|summary=It''Time'' is one s happened to me, and like as not it has or will happen to you, too. I mean the receipt of ''Big Ideas'' series of books aiming certain little numerical results, with a positive or negative before them to revisit prove the greatest notions and concepts and correction needed to my vision to provide them make me see with a modern summary the intended clarity and understandingnormality. The series strives I've had that gizmo that photos the back of my eye to cause people to think check for diabetes and debateother problems, I've had different tests to re-evaluate check the pressure inside my eye, and doubt. Another 'I'Big Ideas'' books deal ve come away with topics such as glasses I don't need to wear all the time, but certainly benefit from on holiday, or when watching TV or a cinema or theatre production. And above and beyond that I'Democracy've stared at – and got wrong – the simple, seemingly ageless test, of various letters in various configurations that diminish in size, to prove to the relevant scientist at what stage things get blurry for me. Of course, it's not ageless, but the scientific progress that led to it, the changes other people made to it, ''Identity'' and the cultural impact it''Bodies''s had are all on these eye-opening small pages.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1846680387</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Brian Cox and Jeff ForshawBall_Wonders|title=Why Does E Equal mc Squared?Wonders Beyond Numbers: A Brief History of All Things Mathematical|author=Johnny Ball|rating=4.5

|summary=Why does E=mc² and why should we care? Two questions that every intelligent person should be able to answerLike many people of a ''certain age, but I'll bet that 95% couldn't. Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw explain this most famous I have fond memories of equations tuning in to watch Johnny Ball enthusiastically extolling the layperson in such a way that they wonvirtues of maths and science; succeeding where our schoolteachers had failed and actually making these subjects ''fun.'t need anything more complicated than Pythagoras' theorem to understand itAlthough decades have passed since those classic TV shows, his latest book proves that he has lost none of his passion and enthusiasm for his subject.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0306817586</amazonuk>

 {{newreviewFrontpage|authorisbn=Tadg FarringtonYong_Contain|title=The Average Life I Contain Multitudes: the microbes within us and a grander view of the Average Personlife|author=Ed Yong

|summary=Back in school, we would often bemoan the idea of 'average', saying that like being 'normal', if there were The world you know is a lie. There is no such a thing, who would even want to be it? There could be nothing worse, as good or bad microbes. Sickness and health are all far more complex than we thought, than being average. Except...there is by definition a whole lot worse than 'average' – the exact same amount that is better than average, in fact. And that was the problem.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0224086235</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Richard D Ryder|title=Nelson, Hitler and Diana|rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=Was Horatio Nelson, a navy officer of great renown, forever thrusting himself into the limelight, doing it because his mother passed away when he was nine? Was Hitler overly affected by his father dying in a time of paternal disapproval, and a kind of Oedipal reaction Things designed to being the man in the house making him suffer when she herself died? And can Diana, Princess of Wales' parents' divorce lead to a claim she was a sufferer of borderline personality disorder?|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1845401662</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Evalyn Gates|title=Einstein's Telescope: The Hunt for Dark Matter save us may kill us and Dark Energy in the Universe|rating=4|genre=Popular Science |summary=Subtitled ''The Hunt for Dark Matter and Dark Energy in the Universe'' Gates' introduction to astro-physics and cosmology is everything that you things we think would expect of such a bookkill us may save us. Gates' tries '''so''' hard Welcome to be readable, and mostly succeeds, but at the same time, the subject matter is well-nigh incomprehensible. Or maybe, that's just me.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0393062384</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Stuart Sutherland|title=Irrationality|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=The belief that humans are, essentially, rational dates to the Greek antiquity, and although intellectual and philosophical fashions changed throughout the epochs, the capacity to reason and behave in a rational manner is often considered to be a defining characteristics modern study of mature humanity. Irrational behaviours have been seen as an evidence of psychiatric or otherwise pathologymicrobes.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1905177070</amazonuk>

{{newreview|author=Brian Dunning|title=Skeptoid 2: More Critical Analysis of Pop Phenomena |rating=4|genre=Popular Science|summary=Brian Dunning is the author responsible for a series of weekly podcasts debunking and analysing a variety of dubious, pseudo-scientific, un-scientific and downright loony ideas, claims and myths common or persistent in the pop (and not so pop) culture. ''Skeptoid 2'' is essentially a written version of those podcasts, a collection of fifty pieces of which many can be also read or listened Move on to at his [http://skeptoid.com/ website[Newest Reference Reviews]].|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1440422850</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Dan Gardner|title=Risk: The Science and Politics of Fear|rating=4.5|genre=Popular Science|summary=Picture a world terrorised by just two words. A civilised, healthy, wealthy world no less, in thrall to and under threat from two words. Not what those two words represent even, just the actual small phrase. It sounds ridiculous, but when I say those two words – ''bird flu'' – and you've stopped laughing, you may well remember how the panic started, the non-existent worry was the biggest concern of the western media for some time, and then it went away again.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0753515539</amazonuk>}} {{newreview|author=Iain McCalman|title=Darwin's Armada: Four Voyagers to the Southern Oceans and Their Battle for the Theory of Evolution|rating=3.5|genre=Biography|summary=A look at Darwin's journey on The Beagle, as well as journeys by Joseph Hooker, Thomas Huxley and Alfred Wallace. Darwin's Armada provides a broad overview that strikes a different tone to other books in a crowded market. Casual readers who usually steer clear of non-fiction will enjoy it.|amazonuk=<amazonuk>184737266X</amazonuk>}}