Reviews
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Anthropology
‘The Dawn of Everything’ rewrites 40,000 years of human history
A new book recasts human social evolution as multiple experiments with freedom and domination that started in the Stone Age.
By Bruce Bower -
Science & Society
The spoken word album ‘Experimental Words’ weaves rhyme with reason
The spoken word album Experimental Words, a collaboration between researchers and poets, explores the intersection between science and art.
By Aina Abell -
Climate
‘Ice Rivers’ invites you to get to know our world’s melting glaciers
In her new book, Jemma Wadham brings readers along on her scientific expeditions to the world’s iciest places.
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Animals
Mary Roach’s new book ‘Fuzz’ explores the ‘criminal’ lives of animals
In “Fuzz: When Nature Breaks the Law,” author Mary Roach profiles mugging monkeys, thieving bears and other animal outlaws.
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Science & Society
‘On the Fringe’ explores the thin line between science and pseudoscience
In his latest book, historian Michael Gordin surveys astrology, eugenics and other fringe movements to show how challenging it is to define pseudoscience.
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Cosmology
‘Flashes of Creation’ recounts the Big Bang theory’s origin story
In ‘Flashes of Creation,’ author Paul Halpern tells the story of George Gamow , Fred Hoyle and their decades-long sparring match about the Big Bang.
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Space
Vera Rubin’s work on dark matter led to a paradigm shift in cosmology
‘Bright Galaxies, Dark Matter, and Beyond’ tells the story of how astronomer Vera Rubin provided key evidence for the existence of dark matter.
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Earth
A new book reveals stories of ancient life written in North America’s rocks
In ‘How the Mountains Grew,’ John Dvorak probes the interlinked geology and biology buried within the rocks of North America.
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Life
‘Wild Souls’ explores what we owe animals in a human-dominated world
The new book Wild Souls explores the ethical dilemmas of saving Earth’s endangered animals.
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Humans
‘The Joy of Sweat’ will help you make peace with perspiration
Dripping with science and history, a new book by science journalist Sarah Everts seeks to take the stigma off sweat.
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Science & Society
An ecologist’s new book gets at the root of trees’ social lives
In ‘Finding the Mother Tree,’ Suzanne Simard recounts how she discovered hidden networks in forests.
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Animals
‘Fathom’ seeks to unravel humpback whales’ soulful songs
The film ‘Fathom’ on Apple TV+ follows the quest of researchers on the ocean’s surface to decipher the eerie symphony of humpback whale calls below.
By Jake Buehler