Hell and Good Company: The Spanish Civil War and the World it Made

  • Richard Rhodes
Simon and Schuster (2015) 9781451696219 | ISBN: 978-1-4516-9621-9

His 1986 The Making of the Atomic Bomb (Simon and Schuster) is a towering chronicle of modernity. Now historian Richard Rhodes examines the “little world war”, Spain's hellish 1936–39 civil conflagration (see Nature 494, 34; 2013). As he shows, it was a testing ground for medical and technological advances — in blood transfusion on one hand, and on the other in airborne warfare, which led to the bombing of Guernica immortalized in Pablo Picasso's great painting. Luminaries drawn to the war, he shows, ranged from geneticist J. B. S. Haldane to writer George Orwell.

How to Fly a Horse: The Secret History of Creation, Invention, and Discovery

  • Kevin Ashton
Doubleday (2015) 9780434022908 | ISBN: 978-0-4340-2290-8

This study of creativity by Kevin Ashton — the technical pioneer behind the 'Internet of Things' — is a testament to Thomas Edison's definition of genius (1% inspiration, 99% perspiration). Science, Ashton argues, is less a thing of “eureka shrieks” than of hard work, small steps and understanding of adversity. His case studies compel, from Réunion slave Edmond Albius's 1841 breakthrough in vanilla pollination to surgeon Judah Folkman's “series of repetitive failures” that led to the discovery of angiogenesis, now key to cancer treatments.

Future Arctic: Field Notes from a World on the Edge

  • Edward Struzik
Island (2015) 9781610914406 | ISBN: 978-1-6109-1440-6

In September 2014, dwindling sea ice forced some 35,000 walruses onto the Alaskan coast — just one ecological event in a multitude besetting the 'climate-changed' Arctic. Journalist and explorer Edward Struzik cogently analyses the environmental and policy challenges, drawing on research into past extinctions and present disruptions such as tar-sand exploitation, military territorialism and tundra fires. As he ticks off the costs to indigenous peoples, ocean biodiversity, caribou habitat and more, the case for an Arctic treaty and serious conservation efforts becomes ever clearer.

Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World

  • Naomi S. Baron
Oxford University Press (2015) 9780199315765 | ISBN: 978-0-1993-1576-5

For every digital devotee clutching an e-reader, there is an old-school bibliophile brandishing a physical book. But which works best for reading comprehension? In this thoughtful study, linguist Naomi Baron investigates each platform in the light of recent research, and surveys US, Japanese and German reading habits. E-readers, she finds, democratize access and offer easy storage, but can also discourage tackling more involved texts or rereading, and encourage “power browsing” rather than perusal. She recommends allowing room for both options — letting “form follow function”.

What Nature Does For Britain

  • Tony Juniper
Profile (2015) 9781781253281 | ISBN: 978-1-7812-5328-1

Part research round-up, part manifesto, this treatise on Britain's 'natural capital' is a model of pragmatism. As environmentalist Tony Juniper shows, UK ecosystems were valued at £1.6 trillion (US$2.4 trillion) in 2011 by the Office for National Statistics. Yet poor practices such as overfishing and soil degradation are breaking nature's bank. Juniper offers smart policy action points for switching to sustainability, and ingenious case studies — from 'woodland system' farming to reintroduced beavers that help with riverine flood control.