In Smart Swarm (Collins, 2010), journalist Peter Miller explains how the collective intelligence of swarms, shoals and flocks can be applied to solve practical problems. Ant colonies inspire factory production lines, telephone networks and transport routes; termites offer clues to climate control; and fish shoals suggest ways in which military robots might patrol and interact. Miller explains how understanding the intricacies of group behaviour can help us build improved systems and make better decisions.

Nature and nurture are often described as unrelated opposites. In her critique The Mirage of a Space Between Nature and Nurture (Duke Univ. Press, 2010), philosopher–historian Evelyn Fox Keller asks why we separate the two. She shows that the divisive concept arose in the late nineteenth century, based on a tangle of ambiguous definitions of terms such as nature, nurture, gene and environment. Fox Keller suggests that the contemporary vocabulary of genetics can put an end to debates about nature versus nurture.

Climatologist Heidi Cullen describes how our weather will change if we do not curb carbon dioxide emissions. In The Weather of the Future (HarperCollins, 2010), she draws on the latest climate models and interviews with experts to paint pictures of the local impacts of global warming. Focusing on seven locations around the world, from New York to Bangladesh, Cullen highlights the range of risks that threaten us, including sea-level rise, flooding and drought. She also sketches the possible weather patterns for US cities in 2050.