Radical Abundance: How a Revolution in Nanotechnology Will Change Civilization

  • K. Eric Drexler
PublicAffairs 368 pp. $28.99 (2013)

Nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler bids us to leap in at the technological deep end. We can transform the way we make everything from bridges to circuit boards, he argues, by harnessing molecular machines that operate on digital principles. The result? Desktop or garage facilities that use less fuel, land and energy than today's vast factories and supply chains. The technical and political challenges of unleashing 'atomically precise manufacturing' are substantial, but Drexler cuts deftly through the complexities.

The Body Economic: Why Austerity Kills

David Stuckler and Sanjay Basu.Basic Books 240 pp. $26.99 (2013)

What price a healthy stock market? In this stringent economic analysis, sociologist David Stuckler and epidemiologist Sanjay Basu argue that during a recession, austerity-based cuts to social spending erode public health. Their findings reveal that in cut-riddled Greece, suicide rates soared by 20% between 2007 and 2009, and new HIV cases rose by 52% in the first half of 2011. Meanwhile Iceland, despite its sharp recession, has maintained social safety nets and the health of its population. A sobering call for democratic, informed choices in response to recession.

Stung! On Jellyfish Blooms and the Future of the Ocean

  • Lisa-ann Gershwin
University of Chicago Press 456 pp. $27.50 (2013)

In this bleak take on the future of our seas, Lisa-ann Gershwin chronicles in sometimes exhausting detail how the gelatinous omnivores that are jellyfish are wreaking havoc in waters around the globe. As reams of evidence reveal, human changes to ocean ecosystems are producing perfect conditions for jelly-dominated seas. The switches from chatty to technical language and copious references can jar; but this is a comprehensive summary of the irresistible rise of an arguably unstoppable creature.

The Metamorphoses of Fat: A History of Obesity

  • Georges Vigarello
(translated by C. Jon Delogu) Columbia University Press 296 pp. $29.50 (2013)

Corpulence and humanity's shifting perceptions of it feature in this curious 'history of the body'. In Jon Delogu's translation, sociologist Georges Vigarello takes us from the twelfth century, when 'fat reduction' was attempted by cutting the limbs with razors to allow the escape of 'wind', to today's confused and often destructive dynamics of thinness and obesity. Vigarello offers up a grande bouffe of food for thought, tracing the impact of evolving mores and medicines on society's perception of an often stigmatized condition.

Swordfish: A Biography of the Ocean Gladiator

  • Richard Ellis
University of Chicago Press 272 pp. £18 (2013)

Blue-eyed, bulky, fast and sporting a sword-like upper jaw, the broadbill swordfish (Xiphias gladius) emerges in marine natural historian Richard Ellis's portrait as an 'apex' predator with real charisma. At home anywhere from the ocean surface to 600 metres down, its unusual adaptability stems partly from specialized thermogenic tissue in its head that keeps its brain warm and protects its central nervous system. A fascinating dip into the history and biology of a seagoing sabre fighter.