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Nature and Science December 2025 |
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| Shade: The Promise of a Forgotten Natural Resource by Sam BlochIt’s a simple, ancient idea whose time may have come again: if you want to cool down on a hot day, find some shade. Environmental journalist Sam Bloch argues for numerous strategies to use shade to offset the environmental impact of air conditioning in urban heat islands but also discusses the associated cost and policy barriers in this thoughtful, urgent book. For more on this topic, try After Cooling: On Freon, Global Warming, and the Terrible Cost of Comfort by Eric Dean Wilson. |
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| The Story of CO₂ Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World by Peter BrannenScience journalist Peter Brannen elucidates the role of carbon dioxide on Earth, explaining the paradox that this substance is both an essential part of the carbon life cycle and the reason that our climate is in trouble. Brannen’s book is both alarming and fascinating and makes clear that it is only in the last couple of centuries that human activity has pushed the CO₂ equation out of balance. Read-alike: Elemental: How Five Elements Changed Earth’s Past and Will Shape Our Future by Stephen Porder. |
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Alchemy: An Illustrated History of Elixirs, Experiments, and the Birth of Modern Science
by Philip Ball
The craft of alchemy has intrigued and mystified people since antiquity. Many early cultures are known to have experimented with chemical transformations: from dyes, glazes, and cosmetics in Bronze Age Egypt to life-extending elixirs pursued by scholars in ancient China and India. Many have also attempted to transform lead, mercury, and other metals into gold--and some claim to have succeeded. In this visually stunning volume, Philip Ball sets alchemy within the context of the history of science and culture, showing that it was not simply an esoteric fantasy but an important phase in the development of experimental science and natural philosophy.
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The ABCs of California's Native Bees
by Krystle Hickman
National Geographic Explorer Krystle Hickman has spent a decade capturing exquisitely detailed photographs of native bees and making exciting discoveries about their behavior in the field. In her debut book of natural history, she offers an intimate look at the daily habits of rare and overlooked native bees in California: those cloaked in green or black or red, that live alone in the ground or sleep inside flowers, that invade nests and pillage resources like infinitesimal conquerors, or that, unlike more generalist honeybees, are devoted exclusively to the pollen of a single type of flower. A committed conservationist and community scientist who knows all too well how precarious the wellbeing of these insects is, Hickman shares her adventures in local native plant gardens and throughout the far reaches of California to bring the beauty of such diverse ecosystems into wondrous bee's-eye view. Meant for all curious readers, this collection of bee stories--one for each letter of the alphabet, matching the first letter of a bee's scientific name--will leave you both wowed and compelled to help save these fascinating beings and the lands they call home.
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The World's Worst Bet: How the Globalization Gamble Went Wrong (and What Would Make It Right)
by David J. Lynch
The triumphant globalization of the 1990s and early 2000s has given way to a world economy riven by conflict and populism, as the United States, China and other world powers embrace economic nationalism. In The World's Worst Bet, global economics specialist David J. Lynch offers a trenchant, fast-paced narrative of the rise and fall of the greatest engine of prosperity the world has ever known and sheds important new light on why the march toward greater global integration faltered. How have we fallen so far - from the global hopes of the 1990s to the fractured world and sour, angry politics of the current moment?
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| Horses: A 4,000-Year Genetic Journey Across the World by Ludovic OrlandoFor geneticist Ludovic Orlando, what began as an investigation into a famous racehorse that died a century ago turned into a global collaborative study on the 4,000-year history of humans and horses. Including the novel theory that human domestication of horses began independently in several places scattered across Europe and Asia, Orlando’s book is brimming with data but still “a captivating, smooth ride” (Kirkus Reviews). For readers who enjoyed Domesticated: Evolution in a Man-Made World by Richard C. Francis. |
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| The Big One: How We Must Prepare for Future Deadly Pandemics by Michael T. Osterholm, PhD, MPH and Mark OlshakerNot to sound alarmist or anything, but authors Michael T. Osterholm and Mark Olshaker concede that COVID-19 may have been merely a warm-up for the next pandemic. To that end, they construct some chilling real-world scenarios that they hope will urge government leaders to take communicable disease as seriously as any national security issue. For readers fascinated by World War C: Lessons from the COVID-19 Pandemic and How to Prepare for the Next One by Sanjay Gupta. |
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| The Arrogant Ape: The Myth of Human Exceptionalism and Why It Matters by Christine WebbPrimatologist Christine Webb’s debut calls out humanity for its ego trip regarding its place in the world. The fact that humans have climbed to the top of the world’s food chain is often taken by Western science as evidence that we are the smartest, most capable beings on earth. But as humans continue to make their own survival more tenuous through destruction of the environment, the anthropocentric viewpoint loses traction. A thought-provoking book that “makes a convincing case for humility” (Publishers Weekly). |
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| If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies: Why Superhuman AI Would Kill Us All by Eliezer Yudkowsky & Nate SoaresAI researchers Eliezer Yudkowsky and Nate Soares sound a strident alarm over the race to design the ultimate machine intelligence. While corporations and governments everywhere push relentlessly toward the development of “artificial superintelligence” (ASI), the authors warn that current industry safeguards are insufficient to contain a program that is “optimized for efficiency and unconstrained by human ethics” (Booklist). For further predictions of terrifying techno-disasters, check out X-Risk: How Humanity Discovered Its Own Extinction by Thomas Moynihan. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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