Here are the best new science books.
Transcendence: How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time
by Gaia Vince
"I wrote this book to answer what, for me, is the biggest question: how did we become so different from all the other animals—able to alter our own destiny and that of the rest of life on earth?" —Gaia Vince.
In history, we so often learn about the Tudors or the founding fathers or the American Civil War, but we often know little about the history of the human race. Reading Gaia Vince's Transcendence is one way to put that straight.
Read our interview with Gaia Vince—whose last book, Adventures in the Anthropocene, won the 2015 Royal Society Science Book Prize—on the best books on the Anthropocene.
At The Edge of Time
by Dan Hooper
At The Edge of Time by astrophysicist Dan Hooper is a popular science book that explains, in lay person's terms, not only what we know out about the universe to date, but also what we don't know about it. "Right now, there’s a culmination of mysteries in cosmology that need to be told as a coherent story," he says in his Five Books interview on the Big Bang. "Maybe we’re in the 1904 of cosmology right now, and we're going to tear down everything we think we know to the ground and build something entirely new."
The World According to Physics
by Jim Al-Khalili
"This book is an ode to physics. I first fell in love with physics when I was a teenager" —Jim Al-Khalili.
In The World According to Physics, theoretical physicist, author and broadcaster Jim Al-Khalili continues his mission to explain physics so that the rest of us can understand it, taking readers through the three 'pillars' of modern physics: relativity, quantum mechanics, and thermodynamics.
Read our updated interview with Jim Al-Khalili on the physics books that inspired him.
The Math of Life and Death
by Kit Yates
The Math of Life and Death, by Kit Yates, a senior lecturer in mathematical biology at the University of Bath, is an excellent popular math book, demonstrating the many times math plays a critical role in our daily lives—often without us even knowing it.
Kit Yates chose the Best Math Books of 2019 for us. Is math really a matter of life or death? He spoke to us about his book in a Q&A below:
The Art of Statistics: Learning from Data
by David Spiegelhalter
Statistics can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they have all the guise of a hard objective fact. They can often clinch an argument by providing evidence to substantiate a claim. And yet, we are all too aware of how they can be weaponised in order to manipulate people. And, more benignly, they can just be incredibly confusing. With all this in mind, developing our statistical literacy seems more urgent than ever.
Step forward, The Art of Statistics: Learning from Data by world-renowned statistician Sir David Spiegelhalter — Winton Professor of the Public Understanding of Risk at the University of Cambridge since October 2007. In this new work aimed at the general reader, he aims to teach you the essential principles of how to gain knowledge from data. Preferring concrete real-life examples to dense mathematical formulae, Spiegelhalter introduces the key skills of data analysis, including how to spot questionable methodologies, in an accessible and enjoyable way.
David Spiegelhalter spoke to Five Books about the best books on statistics and risk.
Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime
by Sean M Carroll
Quizzical about the quantum? Convinced you can't get your head around this seemingly baffling yet crucial area of modern science? The upcoming book Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime may well be your new go-to guide.
In his latest book, Sean Carroll, physics professor at the California Institute of Technology, offers a detailed tour of quantum mechanics. Unpacking competing interpretations, Carroll plants himself firmly in the camp of the 'Many-Worlds' interpretation. In Something Deeply Hidden, he charts the history of quantum discoveries, from Einstein and Bohr up to present concerns about reconciling gravity with quantum mechanics. It has been described as "the essential guide to the most intriguing subject in science."
Sean Carroll has spoken to Five Books about the best books on cosmology.
