Einstein on the Road

  • Josef Eisinger
Prometheus 270 pp. $25 (2011)

The 1920s and early 1930s saw Albert Einstein gripped by wanderlust. Prompted by Germany's political upheaval and a curiosity about other cultures — as well as a liking for contemplation on the high seas — the scientific celebrity roved from Japan to Uruguay and from California to Britain, encountering such luminaries as Charlie Chaplin, Niels Bohr, Edwin Hubble and Franklin Delano Roosevelt on the way. Einstein's travelogues form the core of physicist Josef Eisinger's portrait, an account that brings to life the artistic and scientific revolutions that were then in full swing.

The Darwin Economy: Liberty, Competition, and the Common Good

  • Robert H. Frank
Princeton University Press 256 pp. $26.95 (2011)

The premise of economist Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' — a tenet of market economics — is that competitive self-interest shunts benefits to the community. But that is the exception rather than the rule, argues writer Robert H. Frank. Charles Darwin's idea of natural selection is a more accurate reflection of how economic competition works, he says, because individual and species benefits do not always coincide. Highlighting reasons for market failure and the need to cut waste, Frank argues that we can domesticate our wild economy by taxing higher-end spending and harmful industrial emissions.

Fascinating Mathematical People: Interviews and Memoirs

Edited by:
  • Donald J. Albers &
  • Gerald L. Alexanderson
Princeton University Press 352 pp. $35 (2011)

What do a Beatles expert, a professional magician and a Los Angeles dentist have in common? If they're Joseph Gallian, Arthur Benjamin and Leon Bankoff, it's mathematics. The words of these and other researchers, mentors and teachers in the maths community feature in this compilation by educator Donald Albers and mathematician Gerald Alexanderson. There is much to relish in these accounts — not least geometer Thomas Banchoff's friendship with Salvador Dalí, who explored the nexus of atomic science, maths and art late in life.

The Art of Medicine: Over 2,000 Years of Images and Imagination

Julie Anderson, Emm Barnes and Emma Shackleton. University of Chicago Press 256 pp. $50 (2011)

Portrayals of our grapplings with disease pop up throughout history. Medical historian Julie Anderson, with science communicators Emm Barnes and Emma Shackleton, survey a range of works from London's Wellcome Collection that highlight medical practices, including paintings, anatomical drawings, scrolls and digital art. Two millennia of visual exploration from cultures such as ancient Persia and Renaissance Europe provide a stunning overview of how ideas about healing the body and mind have evolved.

Brain Bugs: How the Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives

  • Dean Buonomano
W. W. Norton 240 pp. £16.99 (2011)

Neurobiologist Dean Buonomano reframes the brain as a glitch-ridden lump of neural 'wetware' that often gets in the way of well-being. Information saturation in the man-made environment may threaten to overwhelm our brains' capabilities. But by getting to grips with its 'bugs' — including a vulnerability to advertising, gambling, fears, phobias and beliefs, an unreliable memory and a predilection for immediate gratification — we can uncover solutions to strengthen key mental functions, he says.