Changing Planet, Changing Health: How the Climate Crisis Threatens Our Health and What We Can Do About It

Paul R. Epstein and Dan Ferber. (University of California Press, 2012; $24.95)

Public-health expert Paul Epstein and science journalist Dan Ferber confront an under-recognized and crucial issue: the effects of climate change on health. Too great a focus on immediate concerns, such as cost, is threatening the planet's basic life-support systems, they argue. Reviewer Tony McMichael called it “an excellent corrective for climate-change myopia” (Nature 472, 292–293; 2011).

Animal Architects

James L. Gould and Carol Grant Gould. (Basic Books, 2012; $16.99)

James and Carol Gould, an ethologist and a science writer, challenge the idea that a good builder needs a human brain. They show how the constructive skills of termites and birds become built in. (See Tore Slagsvold's review: Nature 446, 730; 2007.)

Not Exactly: In Praise of Vagueness

  • Kees van Deemter
(Oxford Univ. Press, 2012; £11.99)

Computer scientist Kees van Deemter makes the case for vagueness, saying that the idea of 'true' and 'false' statements defies classical logic because language is imprecise. (See Andrew Robinson's review: Nature 463, 736; 2010).

The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood

  • James Gleick
(Vintage, 2012; $15.95)

Science writer James Gleick unpicks our fixation on information as “the driver of just about everything”, said reviewer Thomas Misa. Gleick starts with African 'talking' drums, sidesteps into genetics and cryptography, and ends with the modern information overload (Nature 471, 300–301; 2011).

Unnatural: The Heretical Idea of Making People

  • Philip Ball
(Vintage, 2012; £9.99)

Creating artificial people has been a human obsession from medieval ideas of homunculi to lab-created synthetic microbes, says science writer Philip Ball. But our own myths have bred distrust of 'unnatural' forms of life. (See Chris Mason's review: Nature 471, 297–298; 2011.)

The Epigenetics Revolution

  • Nessa Carey
(Icon Books, 2012; £9.99)

Epigeneticist Nessa Carey brings the emergent and controversial field of epigenetics to a wide audience. Carey's lively vision of how DNA works resembles a film script, with “plenty of room for interpretation and retakes”, noted reviewer Jonathan Weitzman (Nature 477, 534–535; 2011).

The Big Thirst: The Secret Life and Turbulent Future of Water

  • Charles Fishman
(Free Press, 2012; $16)

In what reviewer Margaret Catley-Carson called a “torrential flow of a book”, journalist Charles Fishman argues that we must value water. He shames overusers, praises heroes and sets out policy challenges (Nature 473, 27–28; 2011).

SuperCooperators

Martin Nowak with Roger Highfield. (Canongate, 2012; $15)

In a treatment that reviewer Manfred Milinski said was as pacy as a novel, biologist Martin Nowak sets out cooperation as the driving force of evolution, and defends his objections to kin-selection theory (Nature 471, 294–295; 2011).

Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution

  • Holly Tucker
(Norton, 2012; $15.95)

Medical historian Holly Tucker provides “page-turning insight” into the messy past of blood transfusions, focusing on Anglo-French rivalry during the scientific revolution, found reviewer W. F. Bynum (Nature 472, 164–165; 2011).

The Way of the Panda: The Curious History of China's Political Animal

  • Henry Nicholls
(Pegasus Books, 2012; $15.95)

The panda's cultural history is interwoven with China's development as a global power. The beast's iconic status is double-edged: it is both conserved and hunted, says journalist Henry Nicholls. (See Jane Qiu's review: Nature 468, 503–504; 2010.)

Periodic Tales: The Curious Lives of the Elements

  • Hugh Aldersey-Williams
(Penguin, 2012; £9.99)

Science writer Hugh Aldersey-Williams's cultural history traces chemical elements that have gone in and out of fashion, such as aluminium — once favoured for royal tableware. (See Andrew Robinson's review: Nature 470, 170–171; 2011).

The Planet in a Pebble: A Journey into Earth's Deep History

  • Jan Zalasiewicz
(Oxford Univ. Press, 2012; £9.99)

Palaeontologist Jan Zalasiewicz takes a pebble as the protagonist in a story of Earth's geology. He shows that even the most mundane piece of matter has a history that reaches across time and space to the beginning of the Universe.

Neutrino

  • Frank Close
(Oxford Univ. Press, 2012; £7.99)

As you read this, you are being bombarded with neutrinos — the particle about which we know least. Physicist Frank Close recounts the hunt for the “commonest” and “weirdest” of the things that make up the Universe, and explains how following them could lead us to the farthest cosmos.

Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science

  • Jim Al-Khalili
(Penguin, 2012; £9.99)

Medieval Islam helped to shape science, and physicist Jim Al-Khalili describes the life and work of some of its great thinkers. These polymaths pioneered the study of refraction, were first to use inhalant anaesthetics and calculated the height of the atmosphere.

Quantum Man: Richard Feynman's Life in Science

  • Lawrence M. Krauss
(Norton, 2012; $15.95)

An account of Feynman's science, this book documents the effort and insight informing work that fundamentally defined how we look at quantum theory. (See Leonard Mlodinow's review: Nature 471, 296–297; 2011.)

Incoming! Or, Why We Should Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Meteorite

  • Ted Nield
(Granta, 2012; £9.99)

Geologist Ted Nield charts the history of rocks falling from the sky: from a meteorite worshipped by a Roman emperor to a shower 470 million years ago that coincided with a rise in biodiversity. (See Birger Schmitz's review: Nature 471, 573–574; 2011.)

Weeds: The Story of Outlaw Plants

  • Richard Mabey
(Profile, 2012; £8.99)

The concept of weeds is man-made, says naturalist Richard Mabey. By interweaving history, psychology, literature, art and plant biology, he has created a book of wide scope, wrote reviewer Sandra Knapp (Nature 467, 1037; 2010).