If you find yourself in the reality show doldrums, pining for the rivalries of Top Chef or American Idol … perk up. The biggest reality show in Science Town kicks off October 4. That’s right: it’s Nobel prize season. Unfortunately, the decision making has gone on behind the scenes; there will be no calling in or texting to vote for your laureate of choice. Nor will you see footage of a winner answering an early morning phone call (or conversely a loser hurling a cell phone across a room). But you can comment on the winners on our website — Science News will be covering the science...

Delve deep into the far right of the periodic table with a chemist who appreciates noble gases’ many uses. Oxford Univ. Press, 2010, 264 p., $24.95. (p. 30)

Eighty-eight tales tell of science and superstition in the ancient world (including Alexander the Great’s mellification, or embalming in honey). Walker, 2010, 308 p., $17. (p. 30)

A survey of science and engineering breakthroughs that may lead to technological leaps. OxfordUniv. Press, 2010, 295 p., $29.95. (p. 30)

Arachnid evolution is woven into this history of one of the strongest natural materials. Yale Univ. Press, 2010, 229 p., $30. (p. 30)

Tour Earth’s hottest, coldest, stormiest and stinkiest neighbors, plus the solar system’s weirdest phenomena. Harvard Univ. Press, 2010, 290 p., $27.95. (p. 30)

If aliens ever land on Earth, Kean writes, one of the few things humans could present that might actually be understood by the visitors is the periodic table of the elements. That observation is typical of this quirky, thoughtful and thorough book. Remembered by many as a daunting chart looming over a teacher’s shoulder and typically “less than frickin’ helpful” on exams, the periodic table is actually a map, writes Kean, a science journalist. It is a map on which geography is destiny, a map of rivalries and antagonisms, a map that — accompanied by a guide like Kean — can tak... (p. 30)

The 2000 U.S. presidential election should have been decided by a coin flip. Or so argues Seife, a mathematician-turned-journalist who tackles some of society’s biggest math problems in his new book. The race between George W. Bush and Al Gore was, mathematically speaking, too close to call. So, Seife suggests, instead of counting chads, the contested state of Florida should have relied on an age-old procedure for breaking a tie: drawing lots. Seife is somewhat obsessed with the flaws in the country’s electoral system, but he makes an eloquent case that all citizens should be so co... (p. 30)