Humanity 2.0: What it Means to be Human Past, Present and Future

  • Steve Fuller
Palgrave Macmillan 288 pp. £19.99 (2011)

Forget Frankenstein and Metropolis, says sociologist Steve Fuller. Neuroscience and technology are on a collision course that will catapult us to 'transhumanity', a future in which the state of being human starts to look decidedly alien. Fuller works his way through science, policy, history and philosophy, covering human biological roots and our aspirations to transcend them; the possibility of enhanced evolution as technologies converge; a 'new theology' inspired by figures such as Jesuit palaeontologist–philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin; and our necessary quest for moral horizons.

The Lost Photographs of Captain Scott

  • David M. Wilson
Little, Brown 192 pp. $35 (2011)

'Lost' is a refrain commonly associated with Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott — lost race, lost hopes, lost lives. Now, a stunning record of his last months has been found, giving a glimpse of fieldwork at the 'final frontier'. In keeping with the research aims of the expedition, Scott shot 120 photographs between Cape Evans and Beardmore Glacier before his team's final, ill-fated push. Most of the images — icy panoramas, portraits, snaps taken on the move — are published here for the first time, with text by polar historian David M. Wilson, great-nephew of Scott's science chief Edward Wilson.

Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America

  • Shawn Lawrence Otto
Rodale 384 pp. $25.99 (2011)

Less than 2% of US senators and representatives have a scientific background, but more than 40% are lawyers. Shawn Lawrence Otto suggests that is why US policy-making is rich in rhetoric and poor in reasoning. Reminding us of the crucial separation of church and state at the birth of the United States, Otto traces shifts in national attitudes to science and technology — from early wonder through atomic-era fear to widespread rejection. That these shifts are happening precisely when big science is needed to tackle global challenges should, he says, push researchers to re-engage with politicians.

But Will the Planet Notice? How Smart Economics Can Save the World

  • Gernot Wagner
Hill and Wang 272 pp. $27 (2011)

The plastic-bag militants have got it wrong, says economist Gernot Wagner. We can save the planet by cutting out scientists, politicians and environmentalists in favour of economists. It's they, he claims, who have revealed our mixed-up thinking, as we buy locally grown apples chilled for months, or clear rainforests to grow soya. Wagner calls for smart economics, such as capping pollution and paying for free resources. Billions of us must be motivated for change to be meaningful — and the best incentive is market forces, he says.

On Extinction: How We Became Estranged from Nature

  • Melanie Challenger
Granta 272 pp. £20 (2011)

Writer and poet Melanie Challenger explores extinction, both biological and cultural. Roving through wild landscapes — Antarctica and the Arctic, disused Cornish tin mines and old whaling stations in South Georgia — she interweaves the science on ecological loss and climate change with histories of failed industries, extinguished languages and wars. From albatrosses on Bird Island, South Georgia, to the Inuit of Canada's Frobisher Bay, Challenger combines her meditations on our fragmenting world into a finely integrated study of loss.