Reviews

  1. Planetary Science

    Destination Mars

    New Explorations of the Red Planet by Rod Pyle

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  2. Materials Science

    Sensitive Matter: Foams, Gels, Liquid Crystals, and Other Miracles by Michel Mitov

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  3. Health & Medicine

    Internal Time

    Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired by Till Roenneberg.

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  4. Plants

    The Man Who Planted Trees

    Lost Groves, Champion Trees, and an Urgent Plan to Save the Planet by Jim Robbins

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  5. Health & Medicine

    Why Calories Count

    From Science to Politics (California Studies in Food and Culture) by Marion Nestle and Malden Nesheim.

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  6. Animals

    Mr. Hornaday’s War

    How a Peculiar Victorian Zookeeper Waged a Lonely Crusade for Wildlife That Changed the World by Stefan Bechtel.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    Experiment Eleven

    Dark Secrets Behind the Discovery of a Wonder Drug by Peter Pringle

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  8. The Brain: Big Bangs, Behaviors, and Beliefs by Rob DeSalle and Ian Tattersall

    Superbly simple illustrations by Patricia J. Wynne complement this road map to the brain’s evolution. Yale Univ., 2012, 368 p., $29.95

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  9. Learning From the Octopus: How Secrets from Nature Can Help Us Fight Terrorist Attacks, Natural Disasters, and Disease by Rafe Sagarin

    Octopus defenses, marmot lie detection, salmon suicide and other natural phenomena provide inspiration for ways to improve national security. Basic Books, 2012, 320 p., $26.99

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  10. Transit of Venus: 1631 to the Present by Nick Lomb

    This illustrated history recounts the scientific contributions and adventures of the 18th and 19th century astronomers who traveled the world to observe Venus passing in front of the sun. The Experiment, 2011, 228 p., $24.95

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  11. Dolphin Confidential: Confessions of a Field Biologist by Maddalena Bearzi

    A marine biologist chronicles her life in the field and offers an insider’s view of how scientists study marine mammals in the wild. Univ. of Chicago, 2012, 216 p., $26

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  12. Evolution in a Toxic World by Emily Monosson

    A toxicologist traces how life evolved to deal with toxic substances and how this plays into chemical exposures today. Island Press, 2012, 232 p., $35

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