In Vanity, Vitality, and Virility: The Science Behind the Products You Love to Buy (Oxford University Press, £18.99), John Emsley explains the chemistry behind the ingredients of everyday products such as sunscreens, anti-ageing creams, Viagra and disposable nappies.

Len Fisher's Weighing the Soul: The Evolution of Scientific Beliefs (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, £12.99) takes a look at why common sense has often proved to be the enemy of good science, at the struggles of scientists to overcome scepticism, and at how to distinguish the brilliant from the bizarre.

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004 (Houghton Mifflin, $14) is edited this year by Steven Pinker and contains a thought-provoking selection of essays reprinted from US newspapers and magazines, with contributions from Daniel Dennett, Nicholas Wade and Max Tegmark among others.

Michael Hanlon's The Real Mars (Constable, £25) is a sumptuously illustrated history of our attempts to explore the red planet, culminating with this year's successes in the form of Mars Express and the Spirit and Opportunity rovers.

In Ig Nobel Prizes 2: Why Chickens Prefer Beautiful Humans (Orion, £10.99), Marc Abrahams describes more of the bizarre and obscure areas of scientific research that have been honoured with an Ig Nobel prize.