Physics of the Future: How Science Will Shape Human Destiny and Our Daily Lives by the Year 2100

  • Michio Kaku
Doubleday 416 pp. $28.95 (2011)

What will the world be like in the year 2100? Full of new life forms, emotional robots and antimatter rockets, according to string theorist and author Michio Kaku. Limiting himself to extensions of current technology, he synthesizes the ideas of 300 experts in diverse fields from neuroscience to nanotechnology. Whereas researchers expect predictions such as limitless computing and synthetic organisms to be fulfilled, others, such as prolific space travel, will be harder to pull off.

Cricket Radio: Tuning In the Night-Singing Insects

  • John Himmelman
Belknap Press 272 pp. $22.95 (2011)

Warm summer nights resonate with the chirruping of crickets and other night-singing insects. Amateur naturalist and writer John Himmelman seeks to reconnect us to these often-unseen musical creatures by mingling tales of his own searches for grasshoppers, cicadas and katydids with the latest professional research investigating why and how they sing, to attract mates and ward off predators. Himmelman collects the sounds of cricket calls on a website that accompanies the book (see http://go.nature.com/czodcg).

The Ragged Edge of the World: Encounters at the Frontier Where Modernity, Wildlands, and Indigenous Peoples Meet

  • Eugene Linden
Viking 272 pp. $26.95 (2011)

In 40 years of reporting, environmental journalist Eugene Linden has witnessed great changes to swathes of the globe. Dense forests in New Guinea and Borneo have been opened up for timber and minerals; tourism has invaded remote areas such as Machu Picchu in Peru and the Antarctic. Linden calls for the expansion of ecological corridors and 'peace parks' to help species adapt to globalization and combat exploitation of the environment by the increasing human population.

The Most Human Human: What Talking with Computers Teaches Us About What It Means to Be Alive

  • Brian Christian
Doubleday 320 pp. $27.95 (2011)

When it comes to good conversation, humans are usually better than a machine. Why artificial intelligence so often fails to live up to our emotional expectations, and what that tells us about being human, is the focus of science writer and poet Brian Christian's book. He relates what it was like to take part in a Turing test, which pitted him against a computer in an anonymous chat with a third-party judge in 2009, and the lengths to which he went to make sure that a human won.

Technological Nature: Adaptation and the Future of Human Life

  • Peter H. Kahn
MIT Press 240 pp. $24.95 (2011)

From watching wildlife documentaries to stalking animals with video cameras, we increasingly interact with nature through technology. After studying people's responses to real-time broadcasts of natural scenes and their play with robotic pets, psychologist Peter Kahn concludes that exposure to digital nature is better than having no natural experience at all. But, he finds, you cannot beat the real thing, arguing that we should view this 'technological nature' as a bonus rather than as a substitute for tangible natural wonders.