7 December 2019 | New Scientist | 31EV
GENY
ATAMANE
NKO/I
ST
OCK/GET
TY
IMAGESDon’t miss
Read
Environmental Justice
in a Moment of Danger
by Julie Sze (University of
California Press) is an
essential primer revealing
the hope to be found in
the legal progress made
by environmental
campaigns.Visit
Kang Jungsuck is Artist
of the Year at the Korean
Cultural Centre UK in
London. His work, on
view from 10 December,
uses film, video-game
design, writing and
sculpture to explore tech,
gaming culture, K-pop,
and wider society.Watch
Aquarela crosses
oceans and continents to
explore the spirit, power
and beauty of the watery
element. Russian
film-maker Victor
Kossakovsky’s ravishing
documentary opens at
selected UK cinemas
from 13 December.
MI
DDLE
:^ ©
THE^ ART
IST,^ PHOTO:^ COLINDAVISON©^
2019BALTIC;^ BOTTO
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SONY
PICTURE
Spharaoh was buried with to help
him in the afterlife.
RICHARD WEBB, executive editor
I would give New Scientist’s Why
Do Boys Have Nipples? And 73 other
weird questions that only science
can answer. It is the first kids’
version of our Last Word books,
and pure fun, from why roller
coasters make us dizzy to whether
wearing glasses makes us smarter.
I would like Paul Steinhardt’s
The Second Kind of Impossible:
The extraordinary quest for a new
form of matter (Simon & Schuster).
It is about his quest to find the
source of the “quasicrystal” (a
type of matter deemed impossible
in nature) that turned up in an
Italian museum collection. I first
heard about it almost a decade ago
at a talk Steinhardt gave, and was
captivated by the impossibility of
the tale’s twists and derring-do.
LIZ ELSE, associate editor, Culture
I enjoy nature writing, so would
give two books with wildly
contrasting approaches. Turning
the Boat for Home: A life writing
about nature (Chatto & Windus)
by Richard Mabey is a vintage
collection that shows the
evolution of his thinking, perfect
for chilling out. And a real chiller,
Ness by Robert Macfarlane and
Stanley Donwood (Hamish
Hamilton), inspired by a bleakshingle spit off the Suffolk coast. It
is a modern myth, peering through
the folkloric hagstone at our
troubled present and the old time.
I would love a copy of Shoshana
Zuboff ’s The Age of Surveillance
Capitalism: The fight for a human
future at the new frontier of power
(Profile). Paperback please,
because I would like to carry this
hefty book with me to reread itand persuade others to dig into its
forensic analysis of capitalism’s
latest turn – putting us all under
surveillance to exploit the
marketplace of human behaviour.ALISON GEORGE, features editor
Anyone over 7 would love Make
Your Own Optical Illusions: 50
hands-on models and experiments
to make and do by Clive Gifford
and Rob Ives (Frances Lincoln).
To remind me of what I am
missing, I would like Chasing the
Sun: The new science of sunlight
and how it shapes our bodies and
minds by Linda Geddes (Wellcome).SIMON INGS, Culture editor
Figuring, a collection of essays by
Maria Popova (Canongate), makes
for a powerful gift. Women
dominate this history of efforts to
better the world, from astronomer
Maria Mitchell, who paved a way
for women in science, to Rachel
Carson, whose Silent Spring
launched the environmental
movement.
A Place That Exists Only In
Moonlight (Kerber Verlag), a book
of provocations by cosmologically
minded British artist Katie
Paterson would delight me. Its
hundred-odd descriptions of
imaginary artworks (some doable,
others wildly poetic) are printed
with ink containing ground-up
asteroids.JULIA BROWN, Back Pages editor
Abigail Beall’s The Art of Urban
Astronomy: A guide to stargazing
wherever you are (Trapeze) would
be an enchanting gift. New
Scientist’s Stargazing at home
series is based on the book, which
is packed with interesting info
about everything you can see in
the night sky. There is help with
spotting things, crucially without
special kit.
I would like a copy of Angela
Saini’s book Superior: The return of
race science. I saw her speak about
race at New Scientist Live and she
was inspiring. This book is a must-
read for all who challenge the rise
of racism and need the facts. ❚“ Angela Saini’s book is
a must-read for all who
challenge the rise of
racism today and want
the facts”