The Wild Life of Our Bodies: Predators, Parasites, and Partners That Shape Who We Are Today

  • Rob Dunn
Harper 304 pp. $26.99 (2011)

Ridding our bodies of microbes is one of the goals of modern medical science and sanitation. But antibiotics and cleanliness might be causing us more harm than good, according to biologist Rob Dunn. In his provocative book, he sings the praises of intestinal worms for keeping our guts healthy, and urges us to 'rewild' our internal ecosystems. By distancing ourselves from other wildlife, he argues, humans are harming themselves both mentally and physically. The cure is to get our bodies back in touch with other species.

State of Wonder: A Novel

  • Ann Patchett
Harper 368 pp. $26.99 (2011)

A research scientist is the heroine of best-selling author Ann Patchett's latest novel. Marina Singh is called away from her lab bench at a large pharmaceutical company in Minnesota to search in the Brazilian rainforest for her old mentor, who has disappeared while looking for medicinal plants. The last person sent out to Brazil on the same mission was Singh's research partner and friend, who never returned. Singh tracks down her mentor, but what she finds in the jungle raises questions about her friend's fate, her company's future and her own past.

Nuclear Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know

  • Charles D. Ferguson
Oxford University Press 240 pp. $16.95 (2011)

With concerns about nuclear energy on the rise after Japan's Fukushima disaster, security scholar Charles Ferguson's accessible overview is timely. He sets out how nuclear power is generated, which countries use it and how much electricity they produce. He discusses safety issues, from defending plants against military attacks to technical failures. And he notes the roller-coaster of public attitudes to nuclear power, which have oscillated in the past decade from growing acceptance of its utility in reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to recent proposals to abandon the industry.

Landscape of the Mind: Human Evolution and the Archaeology of Thought

  • John F. Hoffecker
Columbia University Press 288 pp. $50 (2011)

The origins of the human mind may lie in feedbacks between our brains, hands and tools, suggests palaeoanthropologist John Hoffecker. Social, physical and mental experiences combined long ago to form a 'superbrain' network, he suggests, giving rise to consciousness and creativity. Technologies were integral to expanding our horizons and to abstract thinking. Archaeological evidence links the rise of symbolism with tool development, following people's adaptation to different climates as they spread worldwide.

Animals in the Military: From Hannibal's Elephants to the Dolphins of the U.S. Navy

  • John M. Kistler
ABC Clio 343 pp. £44.95 (2011)

Animals have a long history in the military, as writer John Kistler recounts. Horses have lugged men and equipment across the battlefields of history and are still in use today in combating Taliban fighters in remote regions of Afghanistan. Elephants, dogs and stinging insects have been used to attack enemies. Kistler relates the heroics and horrors of animals in warfare, from the dolphins of the US Navy to message-delivering pigeons and mine-sniffing rats.