Eco-pragmatism: Making Sensible Environmental Decisions in an Uncertain World by Daniel A. Farber University of Chicago Press, $15, £10.50 “Daniel Farber's is a timely and well-argued contribution to the understanding of how judicial systems can maintain the balance between competing environmental and economical claims. It does more than that: it puts forward a framework for using judicial pragmatism to integrate environmental considerations into economic activities.” Calestous Juma, Nature 399, 653–654 (1999)

The Descent of Mind: Psychological Perspectives on Hominid Evolution  edited by Micheal C. Corballis & Stephen E. G. Lea  Oxford University Press, £17.00

Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice by Paul T. Anastas & John C. Warner University of Chicago Press, £17.99  “… as Anastas and Warner point out in Green Chemistry: Theory and Practice, synthetic chemists have not been particularly environmentally conscious… The book defines the 12 principles of green chemistry — described as the Hippocratic oath for chemists… Anastas and Warner's prediction of future trends is a mixed bag of well-defined goals.” Roger Sheldon, Nature 399, 33 (1999)

Intellectual Impostures by Alan Sokal & Jean Bricmont  Profile Books, £6.99

The Nature of the Book: Print and Knowledge in the Making by Adrian Johns Uiversity of Chicago Press, $22.50, £16 “The publication of science books, as much as any kind of book, is a complex process, involving a range of parties and interests, not all with common aims. It is basically this insight, applied to the burgeoning scientific culture of seventeenth-century England, that underlies Adrian Johns's provocative and stimulating, if ultimately not wholly satisfactory, book.” Michael Hunter, Nature 396, 534– 536 (1998)

Virtual Organisms: The Startling World of Artificial Life by Mark Ward Pan, £6.99

The Great Disruption: Human Nature and the Reconstitution of Social Order by Francis Fukuyama Profile Books, £8.99