Nature and Science
October 2025

Recent Releases
Cover of The Magic of Code by Samuel Arbesman
The Magic of Code: How Digital Language Created and Connects Our World...
by Samuel Arbesman

Scientist Samuel Arbesman waxes rhapsodic about the power and possibilities of code, the digital building block of intelligence, communication, and innovation. Arbesman looks back on what has been accomplished in the past several decades to inform his hopeful predictions for the future, concluding that code is a modern-day metaphor for magic and wizardry. Try this next: Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World by Clive Thompson.
Cover of Submersed by Matthew Gavin Frank
Submersed: Wonder, Obsession, and Murder in the World of Amateur Submarines
by Matthew Gavin Frank

Folded into author Matthew Gavin Frank’s thought-provoking survey of humankind’s urge to explore the ocean depths from deep-water submersibles lies a much darker obsession -- the “strong undercurrent of violence and misogyny” (Kirkus Reviews) running through the amateur sub community that arguably led to the 2017 murder of journalist Kim Wall. Readers who want more adventures beneath the waves can try The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey.
Cover of Intraterrestrials by Karen G. Lloyd
Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth
by Karen G. Lloyd

Microbial biogeochemist Karen G. Lloyd introduces us to a mind-bending branch of science in her debut. It turns out that most life on Earth is composed of microbes living beneath the Earth’s crust or the ocean floors, derives energy from chemicals rather than light, and might have the ability to survive for eons. Science readers will be enthralled by these ideas that “defy assumptions about the laws of nature” (Publishers Weekly).
Cover of How To Save the Amazon 
by Dom Phillips with contributors
How To Save the Amazon: A Journalist's Fatal Quest for Answers
by Dom Phillips with contributors

In 2022, before finishing this book, British journalist Dom Phillips was murdered in Brazil’s Javari Valley by people acting on behalf of the illegal fishing industry. His work movingly brings to light the difficulty of reconciling concerns of ecology, economics, social class, and environmental justice. More stories about the dangerous cost of environmental protection can be found in Masters of the Lost Land by Heriberto Araujo and Tree Thieves by Lyndsie Bourgon.
Cover of Strata by Laura Poppick
Strata: Stories from Deep Time
by Laura Poppick

Geologist Laura Poppick debuts with a detailed yet energetic trip down the geologic timeline, offering an intriguing window onto her work and showing readers just how much information about Earth’s natural history and ecosystems has been revealed through examining its sedimentary layers. For further sweeping geological insights, try: A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters by Andrew H. Knoll.
Cover of The Stronger Sex by Starre Vartan
The Stronger Sex: What Science Tells Us About the Power of the Female Body
by Starre Vartan

Science writer Starre Vartan, like many women, grew up believing what she had always been told: that women were weaker than men. Not so, according to her book and a decade’s worth of research, which shows that women tend to outperform men in several areas, including endurance, flexibility, and longevity. The Stronger Sex is a valuable, corrective study that asks “why testosterone is considered an unfair advantage” (Publishers Weekly). For fans of: The Better Half: On the Genetic Superiority of Women by Sharon Moalem.
Urban Ecology
Cover of A Natural History of Empty Lots by Christopher Brown
A Natural History of Empty Lots: Field Notes from Urban Edgelands, Back Alleys, and...
by Christopher Brown

Novelist Christopher Brown, after purchasing an urban land parcel in hopes of building a house, took notice of the abundance of foxes, snakes, owls, herons, and other forms of wildlife that were encroaching into his Austin, Texas neighborhood. His observations are a hopeful reminder of nature’s resilience in the face of human development in this “appealing mix of nature writing, memoir, and self-reflection” (Kirkus Reviews).
Cover of Close to Home by Thor Hanson
Close to Home: The Wonders of Nature Just Outside Your Door
by Thor Hanson

Conservation biologist Thor Hanson empowers readers to observe their environment with new eyes, showing us that poking around literally just outside one’s door (city or country, no matter) reveals a surprising diversity of wildlife waiting to be discovered. Hanson gives clues as to where to look while pushing the idea of “citizen science.” If you like this, try Never Home Alone by Rob Dunn.
Cover of The Urban Naturalist: How to Make the City Your Scientific Playground by Menno Schilthuizen
The Urban Naturalist: How to Make the City Your Scientific Playground
by Menno Schilthuizen

Imagine taking your smartphone-turned-microscope to an empty lot and discovering a rare mason bee that builds its nest in empty snail shells. Or a miniature spider that hunts ants and carries their corpses around. With a team of citizen scientists, that's exactly what Menno Schilthuizen did-one instance in the evolutionary biologist's campaign to take natural science to the urban landscape where most of us live today. In this delightful book, The Urban Naturalist, Schilthuizen invites us to join him, to embark on a new age of discovery, venturing out as intrepid explorers of our own urban habitat-and maybe in the process do the natural world some good.
Cover of Slow Down by Kōhei Saitō; translated by Brian Bergstrom
Slow Down: The Degrowth Manifesto
by Kōhei Saitō; translated by Brian Bergstrom

University of Tokyo philosopher Kōhei Saitō tackles climate change from both scientific and political angles. According to Saitō, any capitalistic model for combatting climate change is inherently flawed, and he calls instead for a halt to urban development, scaling back industrial manufacturing to focus on quality rather than quantity, and an emphasis on local economies to curb greenhouse emissions and allow nature to heal itself. It’s an unusual yet persuasive idea that Saitō supports with a “conversational, gentle, yet urgent tone” (Kirkus Reviews).
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