Women After All: Sex, Evolution, and the End of Male Supremacy

  • Melvin Konner
W. W. Norton (2015) 9780393239966 | ISBN: 978-0-3932-3996-6

The mammalian body plan is basically female, and maleness is a syndrome. So declares anthropologist Melvin Konner in this biologically based study (although recent research points to complexities; see Nature 518, 288–291; 2015). Positing that women are more altruistic and pragmatic — and so are best-equipped for the future — Konner mines evolution and anthropology to probe gender identities in the light of biology, sexual conflict across species and more. The provocative scenarios he lays out include a man-free world where women reproduce using DNA from other women's eggs.

The Last Unicorn: A Search for One of Earth's Rarest Creatures

  • William deBuys
Little, Brown (2015) 9780316232869 | ISBN: 978-0-3162-3286-9

Discovered in 1992, the saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) is one of the rarest large mammals, a beautiful ruminant found in the mountains between Laos and Vietnam. In 2011, nature writer William deBuys and field biologist William Robichaud set out to gauge poaching pressures on the saola. DeBuys' account of destitute villages and endangered animals left to die in snares is a familiar narrative of conservation in poor countries. But, like Peter Matthiessen's 1978 The Snow Leopard (Viking), this is less an homage to an iconic species than a meditation on our compulsion to harry and hem in the wild.

The Powerhouse: Inside the Invention of a Battery to Save the World

  • Steve LeVine
Viking (2015) 9780670025848 | ISBN: 978-0-6700-2584-8

Journalist Steve LeVine's chronicle of the race to develop a rechargeable lithium-ion electric-car battery makes for a propulsive techno-saga. The action centres on the Argonne National Laboratory outside Chicago, Illinois, where an international group led by engineer Jeff Chamberlain worked on the knotty physics. LeVine interweaves the geopolitical jostling of the US lab and others in Asia, climaxing with Argonne's 2012 win of more than US$120 million to build the 'Hub' — a powerhouse intended to create a sustainable battery industry.

Energy Revolution: The Physics and the Promise of Efficient Technology

  • Mara Prentiss
Harvard University Press (2015) 9780674725027 | ISBN: 978-0-6747-2502-7

In this crisp, evidence-based treatise, physicist Mara Prentiss makes a remarkable assertion: that solar and wind power could supply 100% of average US energy needs for the next 50 years. Prentiss argues that a transition to renewables is probable, given that energy revolutions are a historical norm. She stacks up reams of salient data, such as the fact that US energy use per capita has remained steady since 1965, thanks to increasing fuel efficiency. Although optimistic, her analyses of energy sources, combinations, conservation and storage compel.

House Guests, House Pests: A Natural History of Animals in the Home

  • Richard Jones
Bloomsbury (2015) 9781472906236 | ISBN: 978-1-4729-0623-6

Urban nature lovers relish the sight of birds or hedgehogs in their gardens. “Something odd, though, happens at the back door,” notes Richard Jones — and that is zero tolerance for wild unbidden guests, from tapestry moths to rats. Jones, a fellow of the Royal Entomological Society, is a learned guide to this alarming panoply of intruders, from the bacon beetle (Dermestes lardarius), a vagrant of old-fashioned larders, to the noisy edible dormouse (Glis glis), which can infest the attics of rural houses.