The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality

  • Richard Panek
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 320 pp. $26 (2011)

The more cosmologists have learned in recent decades, the less they seem to know about the Universe. Just 4% of it is composed of normal matter, made of protons and neutrons. The rest is 'dark matter' of unknown origin, and 'dark energy', a force that pulls space apart. Science writer Richard Panek engagingly tells the story of the discovery of these cosmic ingredients through interviews with the astronomers who unearthed them, charting the often-bitter rivalries between competing researchers.

In the Light of Evolution: Essays from the Laboratory and Field

Edited by:
  • Jonathan B. Losos
Edited by Roberts and Company Publishers 336 pp. $49.95 (2011)

Leading experts in evolution report from the field in this collection of plainspoken essays, providing a valuable resource for non-specialists wanting to improve their understanding of this vital topic. Historian Janet Browne writes on Charles Darwin; writer Carl Zimmer muses on microbes; Daniel Lieberman discusses the evolution of human bipedalism; Marlene Zuk and Teri Orr examine sexual selection; and Neil Shubin unearths tetrapods and evolutionary steps in the fossil record.

Animal Rights: What Everyone Needs to Know

  • Paul Waldau
Oxford University Press 256 pp. $16.95 (2011)

Animal-rights theory has a long history, as legal scholar Paul Waldau describes in this primer. Setting out the basics of animal protection law, he explains our different attitudes to pets and wild animals, research and work animals, and the creatures we eat. He chronicles how our understanding of animal welfare has developed and how it has led to protective measures and legislation as well as a passionate — and often controversial — animal-rights movement. He ends with proposals for a more unified framework for animal rights.

The Sublime Engine: A Biography of the Human Heart

StephenThomas Amidon Amidon and Thomas Amidon. Rodale Books 224 pp. $24.99 (2011)

The human heart is a fundamental organ on which we rely for our life force. For millennia, it has also been imbued with symbolism across many cultures. In their biography of the heart, writer Stephen Amidon and cardiologist Thomas Amidon trace the influence of the body's central pump through history, science, religion, literature and popular culture. From ancient Egypt and Greece, through the Middle Ages to the modern era, they ponder the miracle that is encased within our ribs.

Haldane, Mayr, and Beanbag Genetics

  • Krishna Dronamraju
Oxford University Press 296 pp. $34.95 (2011)

In the mid-twentieth century, two great biologists — J. B. S. Haldane and Ernst Mayr — clashed about the value of mathematical theories to evolution. Mayr, in 1959, queried Haldane's 'beanbag' approach to genetics, which portrayed evolution merely as “the adding of certain beans to a beanbag and the withdrawing of others”. Haldane refuted Mayr's position in a witty essay in 1964. Geneticist Krishna Dronamraju relates their vigorous exchange through the scientists' correspondence.