Science
NEW PRESS
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The Math Myth: And Other STEM
Delusions by Andrew Hacker (June 23,
hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-62097-
068-3). A professor of mathematics extols
the glories and goals of math education yet
worries that a frenzied emphasis on STEM
(science, technology, engineering, and
mathematics) is diverting resources from
other pursuits and subverting the spirit of
the country.
NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS
NORTON
Beyond: Our Future in Space by Chris
Impey (Apr., hardcover, $27.95, ISBN
978-0-393-23930-0). With accessible
prose and relentless curiosity, Impey
reports on China’s plan to launch its own
space station by 2020, proves that humans
could survive on Mars, and unveils cutting-edge innovations such as space elevators
poised to replace rockets at a fraction of the
cost.
Domesticated: Evolution in a Man-
Made World by Richard Francis (May,
hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-0-393-
06460-5) weaves history, archeology, and
anthropology to tell the amazing story of
how certain ancient animals chose to live
near humans, thus sealing
their evolutionary fate.
OXFORD UNIV.
Biocode: The New Age
of Genomics by Dawn Field
and Neil Davies (May 26,
hardcover, $29.95, ISBN
978-0-19-968775-6) tells of a
new age of scientific discov-
ery: the growing global effort
to read and map the bio-
code—the sum of all DNA on
Earth—and what that might mean for the
future.
Planck: Driven by Vision, Broken by
War by Brandon R. Brown (June 1, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-0-19-021947-5).
A brilliant man living in a dangerous time,
Max Planck, the father of quantum theory,
gets his rightful place in the history of science; Brown shows how war-torn Germany
deeply influenced his life and work.
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
The Strange Case of the Rickety
Cossack and Other Cautionary Tales
from Human Evolution by Ian Tattersall
(June 9, hardcover, $27, ISBN 978-1-137-
27889-0). A curator emeritus at the American Museum of Natural History, Tattersall
shows how a long tradition of “human
exceptionalism” in paleoanthropology has
distorted the picture of human evolution,
arguing that humans are largely the result
of random happenstance.
PANTHEON
The Upright Thinkers: The Human
Journey from Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos by Leonard Mlodinow (May 5, hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-
0-307-90823-0). In this fascinating and
illuminating work, Mlodinow guides readers through the critical eras and events in
the development of science, all of which, he
demonstrates, were propelled forward by
humankind’s collective struggle to know.
PEGASUS
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Gods of the Morning: A Bird’s-Eye
View of a Changing World by John
Lister-Kaye (June 15, hardcover, $26.95, ISBN 978-1-
60598-796-5). This celebration of birds by one of Britain’s foremost naturalists
reflects a year in the wild,
revealing how these amazing
creatures embody our changing world.
Humankind: How Biol-
ogy and Geography Shape
Human Diversity by Alex-
ander Harcourt (June 15,
hardcover, $27.95, ISBN 978-1-60598-
784-2) is an innovative and illuminating
look at how the evolution of the human
species—from anatomy and physiology to
cultural diversity and population density—
has been shaped by the world around us.
PENGUIN PRESS
A Beautiful Question: Finding
Nature’s Deep Design by Frank Wilczek
(July 14, hardcover, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-
59420-526-2). This mind-shifting book
from Nobel laureate Wilczek thrillingly
synthesizes the age-old quest for beauty
and the age-old quest for truth as it asks,
“Does the universe embody beautiful
ideas?”
PICADOR
A Buzz in the Meadow: The Natural
History of a French Farm by Dave Goul-son (Apr. 28, hardcover, $25, ISBN 978-1-
250-06588-9). In this conservationist’s
deeply personal and fascinating reflection
on owning and revitalizing a farm in rural
France, the author discusses vital issues surrounding insect lives, particularly bee colony collapse.
PRINCETON UNIV.
How to Clone a Mammoth: The Science of De-Extinction by Beth Shapiro
(Apr. 4, hardcover, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-
691-15705-4). Could extinct species, such
as mammoths and passenger pigeons, be
brought back to life? The science says yes.
Shapiro, evolutionary biologist and pioneer
in “ancient DNA” research, walks readers
through the astonishing and controversial
process of de-extinction.
The Physicist and the Philosopher:
Einstein, Bergson, and the Debate That
Changed Our Understanding of Time
by Jimena Canales (May 25, hardcover,
$35, ISBN 978-0-691-16534-9). In 1922,
Albert Einstein and Henri Bergson publicly debated the nature of time, an explosive debate that transformed our understanding of time and drove a rift between
science and the humanities that persists
today.
Life’s Engines: How Microbes Made
Earth Habitable by Paul G. Falkowski
