Final Jeopardy: Man vs. Machine and the Quest to Know Everything

  • Stephen Baker
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt 288 pp. $24 (2011)

For the past year, IBM researchers have been building a robot clever enough to compete in the US television quiz show Jeopardy! In mid-February, viewers in the United States will be able to watch a real contest between man and machine, when two previous winners take on the drone. Technology writer Stephen Baker describes in his book how artificial-intelligence researchers constructed the robot and the challenges they faced in getting 'Watson' to understand language, spot puns and recall general knowledge.

The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern World

  • Edward Dolnick
Harper 400 pp. $27.99 (2011)

From a modern perspective, seventeenth-century science can appear strange. Rational descriptions of a clockwork Universe sat happily beside belief in omens, alchemy and the devil. By portraying the lives and discoveries of Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, science writer Edward Dolnick fleshes out these contradictions in the thinking of the time. Emphasizing their social relationships and collaborations, he also brings to life the network of the Royal Society in London.

How Cancer Crossed the Color Line

  • Keith Wailoo
Oxford University Press 264 pp. $27.95 (2011)

Cancer awareness and treatment have a strong socio-political element. Attitudes to race have influenced cancer concerns throughout the twentieth century in the United States, finds historian Keith Wailoo in his study of medical, cultural and sociological factors around the illness. From being an affliction that was mainly associated with white women, cancer has crossed cultural boundaries. But race, class and gender issues linger, for example in reports of high rates of breast cancer in affluent parts of California and in the poor health outcomes for black men with prostate cancer.

Discoverers of the Universe: William and Caroline Herschel

  • Michael Hoskin
Princeton University Press 272 pp. $29.95 (2011)

With the help of his sister Caroline, the eighteenth-century German–British astronomer William Herschel discovered the planet Uranus, revealed infrared radiation and coined the term asteroid. In this joint biography, written with the cooperation of the Herschel family, historian of astronomy Michael Hoskin portrays the siblings' shared passion for the night sky, and the triumphs and pitfalls of their work. Using an amateur telescope, the pair charted thousands of stars and nebulae in catalogues that are still used today. Caroline's role as one of the first professional women astronomers is also recognized.

Life in a Shell: A Physiologist's View of a Turtle

  • Donald C. Jackson
Harvard University Press 192 pp. $29.95 (2011)

Over 200 million years of existence, turtles have shared the planet with dinosaurs, witnessed the diversification of mammals and seen the spread of humans. Physiologist Donald Jackson conveys his love of the reptile in his book. He explains how its slow movements help it to survive winters under ice and describes how its shell functions as a home, armour and a buoyancy aid. By focusing on the physiology of this one familiar beast, he also reveals how scientific understanding evolves by building on the work of others.