The Quantum Exodus: Jewish Fugitives, the Atomic Bomb, and the Holocaust

  • Gordon Fraser
Oxford University Press 267 pp. £25 (2012)

It is no accident that the Holocaust and the Manhattan Project occurred at the same time, says science writer Gordon Fraser. Adolf Hitler's policies created a diaspora of exceptional Jewish physicists, who realized both the potential of atomic weaponry and the ambitions of the Nazi regime. Fear of the regime drove them to develop the weapons, convinced that they were locked in a race, Fraser says. However, as he notes, the Nazis' focus on the Final Solution actually distracted them from pursuing the bomb.

Waking the Giant: How a Changing Climate Triggers Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Volcanoes

  • Bill McGuire
Oxford University Press 320 pp. £18.99 (2012)

Volcanologist Bill McGuire uses the relationship between atmosphere and geosphere as his springboard for a wide discussion of how climate change could affect what happens on and below Earth's surface. Arguing that sea-level rise, melting ice and other factors could trip already unstable geological systems such as active fault lines, he trawls deep history and new research to examine the evidence. He makes the case for a subterranean dimension to the unfolding drama of climate change.

Bird Sense: What it's Like to Be a Bird

  • Tim Birkhead
Bloomsbury 266 pp. £16.99 (2012)

Anyone who has watched a soaring gull must have wondered how it feels to be up there, alone and aloft. Animal-behaviour expert Tim Birkhead seeks to tell us, one sense at a time. Even familiar capabilities have alien elements in birds — many species can see ultraviolet light, for example. Sight also has a crucial role in birds' ability to navigate using Earth's magnetic field: a robin with a blurry contact lens on its right eye, for example, loses its sense of direction. Finally, Birkhead speculates about birds' emotions. Is a goose that seems to stand vigil over its dead partner truly grieving?

How Economics Shapes Science

  • Paula Stephan
Harvard University Press 367 pp. $45 (2012)

A big biomedical lab spends 18 cents a day to keep one lab mouse, amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars for animals each year. Economist Paula Stephan takes an exhaustive look at how publicly funded science pays such bills, and how this affects research, researchers and the economy. She argues that expanding universities and stagnant budgets have made funders and scientists more risk-averse, and stunted the development of young investigators. She recommends decoupling research and training to reduce the over-production of PhDs, and forcing universities to bear more salary costs.

What did the Romans Know? An Inquiry into Science and Worldmaking

  • Daryn Lehoux
University of Chicago Press 288 pp. $45 (2012)

If you rub a magnet with garlic, wrote the Roman philosopher Plutarch, it loses its power to attract. The tale inspired classicist Daryn Lehoux to investigate how these educated people came to believe silly things, and why we now realize they're risible. He defends Roman knowledge, arguing that figures such as Galen, Ptolemy and Cicero forged a distinctive investigative approach shaped by their religious, cultural and political environment.