To what extent are we in control of our actions? Not as much as we think, says neuroscientist Eliezer Sternberg in My Brain Made Me Do It (Prometheus Books, 2010). Exploring thorny issues of moral responsibility in the light of recent developments in neuroscience, Sternberg asks how the brain operates when we exercise our will, whether future criminals might be spotted from their brain chemistry and how consciousness might have evolved.

The Little Book of String Theory (Princeton Univ. Press, 2010) by theoretical physicist Steven Gubser puts into words the abstract maths of some of the most challenging areas of physics, from energy and quantum mechanics to branes, supersymmetry and multiple dimensions. Describing the field as “promising” rather than esoteric, Gubser emphasizes string theory's links to other areas of physics and anticipates forthcoming results from the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, Europe's particle-physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, that will test the theory.

In Elegance in Science (Oxford Univ. Press, 2010), physiologist Ian Glynn examines why we find a good experiment or theory so satisfying. Detailing a range of beautiful and imaginative discoveries across the history of science, from Johannes Kepler's determination of the laws of planetary orbits to elucidation of the structure of DNA, Glynn concludes that economy and creativity are the qualities that bring us most aesthetic pleasure.