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Nature and Science August 2025 |
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| More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to... by Adam BeckerMany of today’s tech industry leaders advance wildly optimistic visions of a future in which people will live on Mars, become immortal, and exist in simulation. Interrogating these scenarios with real science, journalist Adam Becker runs through the multitude of reasons why they aren’t achievable, and why we wouldn’t want them to be. Try this next: Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism by Yanis Varoufakis. |
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| Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance by Laura DelanoLaura Delano shares her experiences as an over-prescribed psychiatric patient. After being diagnosed with several psychiatric “conditions” starting in her teens, Delano came to the stark realization in her late twenties that the combination of psychotropic drugs that she was taking was causing a cascade of interrelated symptoms. Unshrunk is an emotionally powerful cautionary tale, suitable for readers who enjoyed Sociopath: A Memoir by Patric Gagne. |
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| Slither: How Nature's Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World by Stephen S. HallScience writer Stephen S. Hall has been fascinated by snakes since childhood, and his enthusiasm comes through in this sweeping overview of all things herpetological. Hall covers topics including people’s fear of snakes, snake venom, locomotion, evolutionary history, religious symbolism, and the ease with which snakes adapt to their surroundings. An enticing choice for snake lovers (and haters!). |
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What's Left: Three Paths Through the Planetary Crisis
by Malcolm Harris
Malcolm Harris cuts through the noise and gets real about our remaining options for saving the world. Harris outlines the three strategies--progressive, socialist, and revolutionary--that have any chance of succeeding, while also revealing that none of them can succeed on their own. What's Left shows how we must combine them into a single pathway: a meta-strategy, one that will ensure we can move forward together rather than squabbling over potential solutions while the world burns.
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| Dimming the Sun: The Urgent Case for Geoengineering by Thomas RamgeTechnologist Thomas Ramge advances the provocative argument for slowing global warming through short-term geoengineering projects, like human-made clouds that would temporarily dampen the greenhouse effect. Ramge contends that such measures, though widely criticized, could buy valuable time, considering the high stakes of environmental disasters. For more controversial perspectives on climate change, try False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet by Bjorn Lomborg.
The eAudiobook is available on Hoopla. |
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| In Praise of Floods: The Untamed River and the Life It Brings by James C. ScottAgrarian scientist James C. Scott urges the reader of his posthumously published book to think of a river watershed as a vast organism, expanding and contracting with an annual flood pulse, and supporting a complex biodiverse ecology through the seasons. This biome enables the flourishing of humans and other animals, but is grievously harmed by dams, levees, and artificial canals. Try this next: Is a River Alive? by Robert Macfarlane.
The eAudiobook is available on Hoopla. |
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Turning to Birds: The Power and Beauty of Noticing
by Lili Taylor
An actor recounts her journey into birdwatching, blending vivid observations of birds in urban and natural settings with reflections on mindfulness, creativity, and the beauty of everyday moments, encouraging readers to embrace a deeper connection with the natural world.
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The Story of Astrophysics in Five Revolutions
by Ersilia Vaudo
When Neil Armstrong first set foot in the lunar dust, his action forever changed our view of what was possible. Once something new alters our perspective, a transformation starts. In The Story of Astrophysics in Five Revolutions, Ersilia Vaudo explores five such turning points in the history of Newton’s realization that gravity governs the celestial world; Einstein’s two theories of relativity, linking space with time and gravity with acceleration; Hubble’s revelation of an expanding universe; and the emergence of antiparticles and their implications for our cosmic evolution.
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