Science is Fun! New Science Books
Check out the new science books we’ve added since July!
January 11, 2021
Check out the new science we’ve added since July!
In this list:
- Science!
- Ecology and climate
- Animals
- People and culture
- Stars and space
Don’t miss out! Sign up for our Wowbrary newsletter and get a list of our newest books in your email inbox every Saturday.
Science!
Decoding the World
Po Bronson
Find out where our world is headed with a first-hand account of inventing the future from the #1 New York Times best-selling author of What Should I Do With My Life? and the founder of science accelerator IndieBio.
A Walk Around the Block
Spike Carlsen
The best-selling author of A Splintered History of Wood reveals the science behind an everyday walk in his hometown, explaining how each biological and created component of an urban landscape impacts and shapes its life.
Ecology and Climate
Braiding Sweetgrass
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Explains how developing a wider ecological consciousness can foster an increased understanding of both nature’s generosity and the reciprocal relationship humans have with the natural world.
Entangled Life
Merlin Sheldrake
Citing the ubiquitous role of fungi in the environment, a scientific tour of examples ranging from yeast to psychedelics reveals the complex fungi networks that link plants together and make most biological life processes possible.
The Fragile Earth
David Remnick
A wide-ranging anthology of The New Yorker’s groundbreaking reporting on the front lines of climate change includes Bill McKibben’s seminal The End of Nature, the Pulitzer Prize-winning work of Elizabeth Kolbert and more.
A Furious Sky
Eric Jay Dolin
A best-selling author tells the history of America itself through its 500-year battle with the fury of hurricanes.
The Hidden Life of Ice
Marco Tedesco
A pioneering researcher’s illuminating account of Arctic ice—its secret history and dire future. Tedesco unearths its secrets—from evidence of long-extinct “polar camels” to fantastically weird microorganisms living at freezing temperature in cryoconite holes—and weaves together the bald facts on climate change with poetic reflections on this endangered landscape, epic tales of Arctic explorers, and the legends of the rare local populations.
Lawns into Meadows
Owen Wormser
Landscape designer Owen Wormser makes a case for the power and generosity of meadows. In a world where lawns have wreaked havoc on our natural ecosystems, meadows offer a compelling solution.
Leave It As It Is
David Gessner
An environmental clarion call is told through a New York Times best-selling author’s wilderness road trip inspired by America’s greatest conservationist, Theodore Roosevelt.
Living Without Plastic
Brigette Allen and Christine Wong
An illustrated guide to reducing personal plastic waste counsels readers on how to understand plastic terminology, listing more than 100 alternatives to everyday single-use items, from water bottles and straws to cosmetics and grocery bags.
Notes from an Apocalypse
Mark O’Connell
Both investigative and deeply personal, the award-winning author, in this time of worst-case scenarios, crosses the globe in search of answers on how to come to grips with the future, in this affecting, humorous and surprising hopeful meditation on our present moment.
The Story of More
Hope Jahren
An award-winning geobiologist recognized by Time as one of the most influential people in the world describes how the science behind key inventions has helped us, but ultimately hurt the earth, and offers science-based tools for fighting back.
Superman’s Not Coming
Erin Brockovich
The environmental activist and consumer advocate, whose case against Pacific Gas and Electric was dramatized in an Oscar-winning film, looks at our present situation with water and reveals the imminent threats and shows us how we can each take action.
World of Wonders
Aimee Nezhukumatathil
From beloved, award-winning poet Aimee Nezhukumatathil comes a debut work of nonfiction—a collection of essays about the natural world, and the way its inhabitants can teach, support, and inspire us.
Animals
The Book of Eels
Patrik Svensson
A first book by the Sydsvenskan arts and culture journalist draws on research in literature, history and marine biology in a portrait of the enigmatic European eel that share insights into the species’ complicated origins and nature.
Dog’s Best Friend
Simon Garfield
The award-winning author of Just My Type presents an uplifting meditation on the relationship between humans and their canine companions and how it has endured for millennia, expanding and inspiring science, history and culture.
Fathoms
Rebecca Giggs
Blending together natural history, philosophy and science, this stunning meditation on the extraordinary lives of whales takes readers on an exploration of the natural world to reveal what whales can teach us about ourselves, our planet and our relationship to other species.
Honey and Venom
Andrew Coté
A fourth-generation beekeeper describes the work of the Bees Without Borders organization, the quirky personalities he has encountered throughout his career and the remarkable apiaries he maintains on iconic buildings throughout New York City.
The Language of Butterflies
Wendy Williams
The New York Times best-selling author of The Horse explores the lives of one of the world’s most resilient creatures—the butterfly—shedding light on the role that they play in our ecosystem and in our human lives.
The Meaning of Meow
Pamela Weintraub
Some of the world’s top experts, including devoted veterinarians, open a window into the minds of our feline friends.
The Meaning of Woof
Pamela Weintraub
Learn how to decipher all the barks, licks, growls and wags and get a greater understanding of what your dog is trying to communicate to you, and why.
Owls of the Eastern Ice
Jonathan C. Slaght
A field conservationist tracks his five-year study of the elusive Blakiston’s fish owl of eastern Russia, where his small scientific monitoring team immersed themselves in local culture while learning about the species’ survival behaviors and shrinking habitat.
Tales From the Ant World
Edward O. Wilson
The Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard professor emeritus and author of Anthill shares eloquent descriptions of his natural-world encounters with ants, from his boyhood explorations in the Alabama woods to his perilous journeys into the Brazilian rainforest.
People and Culture
Clean: The New Science of Skin
James Hamblin
A lively introduction to the new science of skin microbes and probiotics draws on expert and alternative-treatment insights to clarify contradictory recommendations and explain how to cultivate a healthy and natural biome for optimal skin health.
Fossil Men
Kermit Pattison
Profiling remarkable contributing scientists from Tim White to Owen Lovejoy, a behind-the-scenes account of the 1994 discovery of Ardipithecus ramidus, a 4.4 million-year-old early human, explains how her fossil remains inform current understandings about human evolution.
Humankind: A Hopeful History
Rutger Bregman
Challenges popular conceptions of an innately selfish human race to offer new historical and evolutionary perspectives that argue we are more hardwired for kindness, cooperation and trust.
Humans
Brandon Stanton
The best-selling creator of Humans of New York draws on his international travels to chronicle the universal experiences of real people in 40 countries whose everyday hardships reflect the state of the world today.
An Outsider’s Guide to Humans
Camilla Pang
An investigation into human nature and its social norms, written by a scientist with Asperger’s syndrome perspectives, includes such subjects as the role of proteins in relationships and what thermodynamics can reveal about life balance.
Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain
Lisa Feldman Barrett
The author of How Emotions Are Made shares seven concise essays on such topics as how the human mind evolved, common misunderstandings about the brain and what is being discovered on the front lines of neuroscience research.
The Unidentified
Colin Dickey
The co-editor of The Morbid Anatomy Anthology and author of Ghostland examines the world’s most persistent unexplained phenomena, from Atlantis and alien encounters to Flat Earth and the Loch Ness monster, to explore their origins and historical endurance.
The Upswing
Robert D. Putnam
The Harvard political scientist and best-selling author of Bowling Alone analyzes the economic, social and political trends that have transformed America from an individualistic to a communitarian society, and back again, throughout the past century.
The WEIRDest People in the World
Joseph Henrich
An anthropologist investigates WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic) people and their peculiar traits, like being highly individualistic, self-obsessed, control-oriented, nonconformist and analytical, that have impacted cultural transformations and profoundly shaped the modern world.
Stars and Space
The End of Everything
Katie Mack
From one a dynamic rising star in astrophysics comes an accessible and eye-opening look at five ways the universe could end, and the mind-blowing lessons each scenario reveals about the most important concepts in cosmology.
The Last Stargazers
Emily Levesque
An award-winning astronomer shares findings from her remarkable career, detailing how today’s scientists are going beyond mechanical limitations to innovate creative new approaches to exploring space and her own role in discovering a new species of star.