You Are Here: From the Compass to GPS, the History and Future of How We Find Ourselves

  • Hiawatha Bray
Basic Books (2014)

Getting lost — that adjunct to exploration — is rare in our minutely mapped world. Hiawatha Bray traces the technologies that have driven us to this state of hyper-visibility. Kicking off with Tudor physician William Gilbert's finding that Earth is a colossal magnet, Bray covers radio and gyroscope, global positioning satellites, Wi-Fi, smartphones, Google maps, chip-and-reader tracking and more. The implications of this Orwellian “locational transparency” are amply discussed, to unsettling effect.

The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons

  • Sam Kean
Little, Brown (2014)

Oliver Sacks's 1985 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (Summit Books) set off a tsunami of interest in brain anomalies and linked behaviours. Sam Kean braves that wave, revealing how intercranial calamities have built neuroscience case by puzzled-out case, gross anatomy to consciousness. However pop the science, there is much to compel. Victorian explorer James Holman, for instance, was blinded by an infection yet, Kean writes, travelled 400,000 kilometres by echolocation (sounding out surfaces by tapping them with a cane) and was cited by Darwin for work on island seed dispersal.

Hope on Earth: A Conversation

Paul R. Ehrlich and Michael Charles Tobias. University of Chicago Press (2014)

For those wearied by the malaise enveloping high-level negotiations on planetary ills, these 'bilateral talks' between biologist Paul Ehrlich and ecologist Michael Charles Tobias offer relief. Their often heated dialogue on the scientific, ethical and conceptual approaches to our global predicament is cogent on details such as the realities of unsustainable livestock farming, or the broken equation of population and resources. Despite the grim litany, their action plan for humanity — such as limiting family size — is convincing.

The Carnivore Way: Coexisting with and Conserving North America's Predators

  • Cristina Eisenberg
Island Press (2014)

The “carnivore way” is a vast, fragmented wildlife corridor stretching along the Rocky Mountains from Alaska to Mexico. In this call for a unified vision in conservation, ecologist Cristina Eisenberg argues that big carnivores such as grizzly bears underpin the corridor's ecological health, and need it in turn for dispersal into new territory. She interweaves multiple skeins of science — on predator population resilience, the success of highway wildlife crossings and more — to build a putative scenario of human–carnivore coexistence.

Umami: Unlocking the Secrets of the Fifth Taste

Ole G. Mouritsen and Klavs Styrbæk. Columbia University Press (2014)

From Parmesan's savoury tang to the deep complexities of the Japanese soup stock dashi, umami adds a fifth dimension to the flavour universe. Biophysicist Ole Mouritsen, whose Seaweeds (University of Chicago Press, 2013) seamlessly meshes science and gastronomy, here reprises that recipe with chef Klavs Styrbæk. Research into areas such as umami's role in appetite regulation alternates with a stunning menu featuring, for instance, braised monkfish liver with peanuts and raspberries.