14 DISCOVERMAGAZINE.COM
BOOKSP
L
U
S GRAVITY’S CENTURY:
From Einstein’s Eclipse to Images of Black Holes
By Ron Cowen
In a conversational style, the veteran physics
writer chronicles the field’s greatest hits in the
century since a solar eclipse proved Einstein
was right.THE WAY WE EAT NOW:
How the Food Revolution Has Transformed
Our Lives, Our Bodies, and Our World
By Bee Wilson
Award-winning food historian Wilson’s latest
must-read is a riveting analysis of the emerging
standard global diet, its economics and the
disturbing consequences. — ALL REVIEWS BY GEMMA TARLACHTHE CRUX
The Smart
Neanderthal:
Bird Catching, Cave Art &
the Cognitive Revolution
By Clive Finlayson
What can birds tell us about
our extinct evolutionary
cousins? Quite a lot, explains
Finlayson, who has long
argued for modern humans to
give Neanderthals their due.
From Gibraltar’s swelter to
a frigid Norwegian fjord, the
evolutionary biologist takes
readers on an adventure in
unexpected revelations about
this lost lineage of humans.The Lives of Bees:
The Untold Story of
the Honey Bee in the Wild
By Thomas D. Seeley
Cornell University biologist
Seeley is one of the most
beloved authors in the
beekeeping community,
and with good reason: His
writing elucidates the lives of
honeybees with clear science
and a sense of joyous discovery.
Seeley employs that approach
here; even non-keepers will
appreciate his bee’s-eye view of
life outside managed apiaries.Conscience:
The Origins
of Moral Intuition
By Patricia Churchland
MacArthur fellow
Churchland melds
evolutionary biology,
neurology, philosophy
and genetics into an
accessible, provocative
look at how each of us
tells right from wrong —
including how different
brains can reach very
different conclusions.Cosmological
Koans:
A Journey to the Heart
of Physical Reality
By Anthony Aguirre
This is not your average
hard science book.
Physicist Aguirre
borrows from the Zen
Buddhist tradition of
koans, or contemplative
riddles, to present
some of his field’s most
esoteric concepts.Symphony in C:
Carbon and the Evolution
of (Almost) Everything
By Robert M. Hazen
It’s everywhere —
including inside us —
but carbon’s importance
is rarely appreciated.
Earth scientist Hazen
sets the record straight
in this thoughtful love
letter to the element.QUICK TAKES
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