The Artful Species: Aesthetics, Art, and Evolution

  • Stephen Davies
Oxford Univ. Press 320 pp. £25 (2012)

This spare and elegant treatise by philosopher of aesthetics Stephen Davies posits that art is part of human nature, and is tied in a number of ways to human evolution. Moreover, he argues, the evidence could stretch back at least 400,000 years — to a blood-red quartzite hand axe dubbed Excalibur by the archaeologists who dug it up. Davies marshals findings in disciplines ranging from neuroscience, ethology and evolutionary biology to the arts, musicology and literature. Ultimately, he says, our artistic behaviour is both “puzzling and magnificent”, as we shoulder the heavy costs with perennial zeal.

Mastermind: How to Think Like Sherlock Holmes

  • Maria Konnikova
Viking 288 pp. $26.95 (2013)

Devotees of Arthur Conan Doyle's conundrum-cracker will be thrilled by this portmanteau of strategies for sharpening cognitive ability. Scientific American columnist Maria Konnikova mixes psychology and neuroscience with Holmesian technique and insights on everything from information storage (Holmes's 'brain attic') to observation, awareness and razor-sharp deduction. A few hours in Konnikova's company and, along with Holmes, you might intone, “give me the most abstruse cryptogram or the most intricate analysis, and I am in my own proper atmosphere” (The Sign of Four, 1890).

The Fragile Wisdom: An Evolutionary View on Women's Biology and Health

  • Grazyna Jasienska
Harvard Univ. Press 298 pp. £25.95 (2013)

Women may aim for perfect health through diet, exercise and close attention to medical advice, but still develop breast cancer or osteoporosis. Reproductive fitness often wars with general physical fitness over a woman's lifetime, argues public-health specialist Grazyna Jasienska. Drawing on a raft of research in evolutionary biology and beyond, she points to factors such as the disjunction between 'palaeo' and current lifestyles, hormonal disparities and longer lifespans as key to informing disease-prevention strategies.

Mankind Beyond Earth: The History, Science, and Future of Human Space Exploration

  • Claude A. Piantadosi
Columbia Univ. Press 336 pp. $35 (2013)

Despite difficulties such as cosmic radiation, huge distances, near-vacuum conditions and zero gravity, manned space flight still ignites the imaginations of millions. Medical doctor Claude Piantadosi fans the flames by boldly going into the past and possible future of US space exploration. This is a chronicle at warp speed, covering the science of space exploration; robots, spacecraft and the International Space Station; NASA's glory years; and the constraints on kick-starting 'cheap' space transportation.

The Science of Middle-earth

  • Henry Gee
Jill Grinberg Literary Management Available for Kindle only $4.99 (2012)

Repeat immersions in Middle-earth beckon again as Peter Jackson's first instalment of The Hobbit trilogy, An Unexpected Journey, opens in cinemas. Nature senior editor Henry Gee offers a revised and reissued guide to the science in J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional world. This is a completist's feast, from the glow of Bilbo's Elvish blade Sting (possibly the result of a chemical sensor “specifically tuned to Orkish exhalations”) to the aerodynamic unfeasibility of a Balrog's wings.