Nature and Science
August 2025

Recent Releases
More Everything Forever: AI Overlords, Space Empires, and Silicon Valley's Crusade to...
by Adam Becker

Many 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.
Unshrunk: A Story of Psychiatric Treatment Resistance
by Laura Delano

Laura 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.
The Neck: A Natural and Cultural History
by Kent Dunlap

Anatomist Kent Dunlap relates an exhaustive history of this peculiar body part that first appeared some 375 million years ago. Filled with amusing cultural references and covering human and animal necks in their wide variety of shapes and functions, Dunlap’s well-researched book illustrates how having a neck presents both evolutionary advantages and vulnerabilities. For similar anatomical musings, take a look at Bite: An Incisive History of Teeth, from Hagfish to Humans by Bill Schutt.
Slither: How Nature's Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World
by Stephen S. Hall

Science 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!).
Nine Minds: Inner Lives on the Spectrum
by Daniel Tammet

Essayist and memoirist Daniel Tammet, a writer who is himself on the autism spectrum, focuses on the lives of nine autistic individuals, highlighting the diversity of their various talents. It’s a sweeping and inspiring own voices journey that “captures the unique modes of autistic thought with sensitivity and lyrical flair” (Publishers Weekly). For fans of: We’re Not Broken: Changing the Autism Conversation by Eric Garcia.
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