Reviews
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Lone Survivors: How We Came to Be the Only Humans on Earth by Chris Stringer
A paleoanthropologist argues that multiple early human groups arose and competed in Africa. Times Books, 2012, 320 p., $28
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The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care by Eric Topol
A look at new technologies such as genome sequencing and organ growth suggests that digital advances could usher in a new age of personalized medicine. Basic Books, 2012, 304 p., $27.99
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The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg
A journalist explores research on how habits are formed in the brain, how to create new ones and what it takes to break them. Random House, 2012, 371 p., $28
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Virtually You: The Dangerous Powers of the E-Personality by Elias Aboujaoude
A psychiatrist examines online alter egos and how they can affect life offline, sometimes for the worse. W.W. Norton, 2011, 349 p., $17.95
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The Quantum Universe (And Why Anything That Can Happen, Does) by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw
Two physicists use simple analogies to explain the weird world of quantum theory. Da Capo Press, 2011, 256 p., $25
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Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind by Mark Pagel
A biologist examines the development of human culture and argues that evolutionary history has shaped humankind’s social tendencies. W.W. Norton & Co., 2012, 416 p., $29.95
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Vesuvius (Wonders of the World) by Gillian Darley
This history of the famous Italian volcano examines its role as a cultural icon through the ages. Harvard Univ., 2011, 245 p., $22.95
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Across Atlantic Ice: The Origin of America’s Clovis Culture by Dennis J. Stanford and Bruce A. Bradley
A pair of archaeologists explore the earliest days of the first humans in North America and suggest these people may have had European roots. Univ. of California, 2012, 336 p., $34.95
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How Not to Be Eaten: The Insects Fight Back by Gilbert Waldbauer
Insects’ ingenious means of avoiding becoming lunch are examples of evolutionary one-upmanship in action. Univ. of California, 2012, 221 p., $27.95
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The Life of Super-Earths: How the Hunt for Alien Worlds and Artificial Cells Will Revolutionize Life on Our Planet by Dimitar Sasselov
The astronomer who coined the term “super-Earth” reviews the hunt for these possibly life-holding planets. Basic Books, 2012, 240 p., $25.99
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BOOK REVIEW: The Forever Fix: Gene Therapy and the Boy Who Saved It by Ricki Lewis
Review by Alexandra Witze.
