Searching for the Oldest Stars: Ancient Relics from the Early Universe Anna Frebel (translated by Ann M. Hentschel). Princeton University Press (2015)

9780691165066

As a “stellar archaeologist”, Anna Frebel tracks metal-poor stars — the “ancient messengers” that kick-started the cosmos's chemical evolution. Her discoveries include a Milky Way star 13.2 billion years old and superannuated stars in dwarf galaxies that orbit our own. In this account of her work, she neatly balances the technical and the personal — not least in chapters on the mesmerizing slog of nightly observations, many using Chile's 6.5-metre Magellan telescopes.

Patternalia

  • Jude Stewart
Bloomsbury (2015) 9781632861085 | ISBN: 978-1-6328-6108-5

We are often only half-aware of graphic patterns such as paisley or polka dots, or the patterns that pulsate in nature, from fractals to flocking birds. Jude Stewart here brings “patternalia” to the fore and crisply decodes the mathematical, scientific and cultural connotations behind it. Dip in for some pointed erudition on the tension between comforting algebraic numbers and their 'transcendental', patternless cousins; varieties of military camouflage from chocolate chip to tiger stripe; and the revolution wrought by the programmable, futuristic Jacquard loom, demonstrated in 1801.

Great Soul of Siberia: Passion, Obsession, and One Man's Quest for the World's Most Elusive Tiger

  • Sooyong Park
Greystone (2015) 9781771641135 | ISBN: 978-1-7716-4113-5

Just 350 Siberian tigers from a once thousands-strong population pad through Russia's northeastern birch forests: massive, elusive, “burning bright”. For this astonishing ethological study, South Korean film-maker Sooyong Park spent two decades alternately tracking the beasts and holed up in underground bunkers, seeking glimpses of them in subzero weather. His paean to one of the world's biggest cats has a piercing immediacy distilled from thousands of heart-stopping sightings and encounters. A landmark achievement.

First Bite: How We Learn to Eat

  • Bee Wilson
Basic (2015) 9780465064984 | ISBN: 978-0-4650-6498-4

With televised cake-baking compulsive viewing and Western obesity levels at an all-time high, humanity's relationship with food is a strange melange. For her lucid survey, journalist Bee Wilson uses how we eat as children as a springboard for discussions of the wilder shores of adult consumption. Along the way, she dishes up an impressive range of research in neuroscience and nutrition on topics from the evolution of the Japanese diet to babies' self-directed preferences for, say, turnips, as demonstrated in the fascinating, flawed work of twentieth-century US paediatrician Clara Davis.

What Kind of Creatures Are We?

  • Noam Chomsky
Columbia University Press (2015) 9780231175968 | ISBN: 978-0-2311-7596-8

At 87, linguist Noam Chomsky is still nimbly tackling big questions about human nature — here, in less than 200 pages. Hanging his analysis off palaeontologist Ian Tattersall's theory that the human sensibility was born 50,000–100,000 years ago, he remakes his case for biology-based linguistics, discusses the “new mysterianism” that is delimiting humanity's capacity for comprehension, and extols libertarian socialism. However, although thoughtful individually, these arguments betray their origins as lectures and fail to gel.