Science

*As heard on BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour**A Blackwell's and Waterstones Best Popular Science Book of 2022*'Excellent ... one of those rare pop-science books that make you look at the whole world differently' The Daily Telegraph ***** 'Riveting' Mail on Sunday *****'Captivating' Guardian, Book of the Day'Compelling' ObserverSarah Chaney takes us on an eye-opening and surprising journey into the history of science, revisiting the studies, landmark experiments and tests that proliferated from the early 19th century to find answers to the question: what's normal? These include a census of hallucinations - and even a UK beauty map (which claimed the women in Aberdeen were "the most repellent"). On the way she exposes many of the hangovers that are still with us from these dubious endeavours, from IQ tests to the BMI.

Interrogating how the notion and science of standardisation has shaped us all, as individuals and as a society, this book challenges why we ever thought that normal might be a desirable thing to be.

Now widely available in English for the first time, this is Carlo Rovelli's first book: the thrilling story of a little-known man who created one of the greatest intellectual revolutions

Over two thousand years ago, one man changed the way we see the world.

Since the dawn of civilization, humans had believed in the heavens above and the Earth below. Then, on the Ionian coast, a Greek philosopher named Anaximander set in motion a revolution. He not only conceived that the Earth floats in space, but also that animals evolve, that storms and earthquakes are natural, not supernatural, that the world can be mapped and, above all, that progress is made by the endless search for knowledge.

Carlo Rovelli's first book, now widely available in English, tells the origin story of scientific thinking: our rebellious ability to reimagine the world, again and again.

Classic of science (and mathematical) fiction — charmingly illustrated by author — describes the journeys of A. Square and his adventures in Spaceland (three dimensions), Lineland (one dimension) and Pointland (no dimensions). A. Square also entertains thoughts of visiting a land of four dimensions — a revolutionary idea for which he is banished from Spaceland.

For financial journalist Yannis Papadogiannis, the problem with the economic science that failed to predict the financial crisis that began unfolding in 2007 is clear. While modern economic theory relies on rational humans, The Rise and Fall of Homo Economicus busts the myth of the rational human wide open, demonstrating how, in the real world, Homo sapiens are far from fully rational creatures. Papadogiannis walks readers through the history of modern economics and reveals a consistent pattern of certainty and the illusion of control among economists leading into every crisis since the seventeenth century. He presents findings from disciplines such as neuroscience, psychology, and sociology that overturn the economist’s idealized view of human nature, revealing that rationality is but one quality ruling behavior. In terms that anyone can understand, and drawing from a vast bibliography of well-known references, the book contrasts the imaginary universe of modern economics with the complex, dynamic, chaotic reality that more accurately describes our existence. A stinging indictment of economic science for its role in creating the crisis of 2007, The Rise and Fall of Homo Economicus is a must-read for anyone interested in understanding how our society functions or exploring ways to make economic science better serve us.

Richard Dawkins' brand of evolutionary theory dominates our understanding of Darwinism. His rhetoric has sidelined serious scientists who just happen to disagree with him. A staunch pro-scientist and scholar of Darwinian evolution, Fern Elsdon-Baker explores the historical, philosophical, and scientific arguments that are revealing the cracks in Dawkins' thinking.

With an Introduction by David Amigoni. Charles Darwin's travels around the world as an independent naturalist on HMS Beagle between 1831 and 1836 impressed upon him a sense of the natural world's beauty and sublimity which language could barely capture. Words, he said, were inadequate to convey to those who have not visited the inter-tropical regions, the sensation of delight which the mind experiences'. Yet in a travel journal which takes the reader from the coasts and interiors of South America to South Sea Islands, Darwin's descriptive powers are constantly challenged, but never once overcome. In addition, The Voyage of the Beagle displays Darwin's powerful, speculative mind at work, posing searching questions about the complex relation between the Earth's structure, animal forms, anthropology and the origins of life itself.

Conventional wisdom says that all we need to do to stay fit and trim is to exercise regularly and eat a low-fat, whole-food diet. Yet more and more people want to fast, forgoing food altogether. But should we fast? And does fasting speak to something deep and immutable within us? Why are we so well adapted to undertake it? And is there a way we can balance the demands of our busy lives with an ancient ritual that requires taking time to rest and rejuvenate?
This book tackles all these questions and more. It shows that the story of fasting has roots in the most fundamental aspects of the human condition, and is in fact a quest for mastery – over our bodies, our minds, our health, our circumstances and our fate. And the book tells of the hopes, anxieties and convictions that set us upon that journey.