Oxygen: The Molecule that Made the World

by Nick Lane

Oxford University Press, £8.99, $15.95

“Nick Lane's enjoyable and informative book would have us believe that without the threat of oxygen toxicity, life would never have evolved beyond a green slime. A nicely crafted account of an important element's place in our lives ... deserves to be read widely.” Tom Kirkwood, Nature 419, 785 (2002).

Who Owns Academic Work? Battling for Control of Intellectual Property

by Corynne McSherry

Harvard University Press, $16.95, £10.95, €15.70

What it means to be 98% Chimpanzee: Apes, People, and Their Genes

by Jonathan Marks

University of California Press, $17.95, £11.95

The Discovery of the Germ

by John Waller

Icon Books, £6.99

Dreaming: An Introduction to the Science of Sleep

by J. Allan Hobson

Oxford University Press, £8.99, $14.95

A Brain for All Seasons: Human Evolution and Abrupt Climate Change

by William H. Calvin

University of Chicago Press, $15, £10.50