Climate Shock: The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet

Gernot Wagner and Martin L. Weitzman. (Princeton University Press, 2016)

Global, long-term, irreversible, uncertain: four words used by economists Gernot Wagner and Martin Weitzman in their timely warning on the impacts of climate change. It is not enough to simply hope that we are wrong about worst-case scenarios; the authors' most extreme predictions include a 20-metre sea-level rise and average global temperatures reaching 6 °C above pre-industrial levels. Wagner and Weitzman urge us to act now to insure Earth against uncertainty.

The Upright Thinkers

  • Leonard Mlodinow
(Vintage, 2016)

Carrier pigeons once toted stock prices. Today, instant messaging manages the job. Theoretical physicist Leonard Mlodinow explores how the most human of desires, a thirst for knowledge, grew from Neanderthal hunger pangs to measuring our planet's orbit around the Sun.

Why Information Grows

  • César A. Hidalgo
(Penguin, 2016)

Economies are computers and information is at war with entropy, claims statistical physicist César Hidalgo. He shows how the scientific imagination needs knowledge and resources to grow, such as the Chilean copper that 'feeds' electronics (see Philip Ball's review: Nature 521, 420–421; 2015).

Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells

  • Helen Scales
(Bloomsbury, 2016)

From beachcombing to shipwreck diving, marine biologist Helen Scales shares her love of molluscs, many of which convert seawater into protective homes. Shells, she reveals, have served as everything from jewellery to calcareous currency.

The Triumph of Seeds

  • Thor Hanson
(Basic, 2016)

Biologist Thor Hanson sows the ultimate celebration of seeds and how they conquered Earth. Kernels can be crafty: unripe fruit, for instance, tastes bitter to deter predators from dispersing the seeds too soon (see Sandra Knapp's review: Nature 519, 288–289; 2015).

Infested: How the Bed Bug Infiltrated Our Bedrooms and Took Over the World

  • Brooke Borel
(University of Chicago Press, 2016)

Bed bugs (Cimex lectularius) are perfectly adapted for bloodsucking. Toothed mandibles pierce their victims' skin and inject saliva proteins that widen the blood vessels and prevent clotting, reveals Brooke Borel in her creepy exposé of the household pest.

Life's Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code

  • Matthew Cobb
(Profile, 2016)

Anecdotes abound in zoologist Matthew Cobb's history of the quest to unravel the genetic code. Cobb updates the story with a look at gene-editing tool CRISPR and its role in gene therapy, agriculture and the control of invasive species.

Why Did the Chicken Cross the World?

  • Andrew Lawler
(Atria, 2016)

With 20 billion chickens roaming Earth at any one time, this beleaguered bird truly merits Andrew Lawler's illuminating eulogy. It shows how the red junglefowl (Gallus gallus) strutting in a Borneo jungle became an economic mainstay (see Ewen Callaway's review: Nature 515, 490–491; 2014).

Most Wanted Particle

  • Jon Butterworth
(The Experiment, 2016)

Experimental physics becomes accessible as well as astounding in this insider's account of the hunt for the Higgs boson, detected in 2012. Explaining fermions, jet algorithms and particle-accelerator malfunctions with ease, Jon Butterworth puts a lively spin on atomic science.

Birth of a Theorem: A Mathematical Adventure

  • Cédric Villani
(Vintage, 2016)

Tackling the 140-year-old Boltzmann equation (with Clément Mouhot) led mathematician Cédric Villani to win a share in the 2010 Fields Medal. Documenting this quest, Villani encapsulates the despair and elation that maths can incite (see Amir Alexander's review: Nature 519, 31–32; 2015).

Humankind: How Biology and Geography Shape Human Diversity

  • Alexander Harcourt
(Pegasus, 2016)

Biogeographer Alexander Harcourt ponders the myriad forces that led to the amazing diversity of Homo sapiens as we spread across the globe. He thinks that coastal migration once prevailed: harvesting seafood was easier than hunting.

Pressed for Time: The Acceleration of Life in Digital Capitalism

  • Judy Wajcman
(University of Chicago Press, 2016)

Sociologist Judy Wajcman sagely analyses the disparate experience of time as technology has evolved. Despite the common belief that smartphones heighten stress, she argues that we are not victims of machines, but masters of their role in our lives.

The Cosmic Cocktail: Three Parts Dark Matter

  • Katherine Freese
(Princeton University Press, 2016)

What is the Universe made of? Physicist Katherine Freese chronicles the cracking of this beguiling enigma, from the eccentric, ski-jumping Fritz Zwicky (who coined the term dark matter) to particle-smashing physics (see Francis Halzen's review: Nature 509, 560–561; 2014).