Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

  • Yuval Noah Harari
Harvill Secker (2014) 9781846558238 | ISBN: 978-1-8465-5823-8

This newly translated Israeli best-seller by historian Yuval Noah Harari delivers a boldly synthesized account of Homo sapiens' rise through the hominin ranks, by way of the cognitive, agricultural and scientific revolutions. Harari offers some original reframing of phenomena such as symbolic thinking. A leitmotif of cruelty in domains from war to livestock rearing also emerges — perhaps unsurprisingly in a species that, Harari argues, reached the top of the food chain by acting like the dictator of a banana republic. A view of our ascent as nasty, brutish, long — and endlessly fascinating.

A Prescription for Psychiatry: Why We Need a Whole New Approach to Mental Health and Wellbeing

  • Peter Kinderman
Palgrave Macmillan (2014) 9781137408693 | ISBN: 978-1-1374-0869-3

The furore over the 2013 edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders showed anew the rifts in psychiatry over diagnostic hair-splitting and medical interventions. Here, psychologist Peter Kinderman enters the fray. Arguing against biomedical reductionism, he offers a social and psychological model of mental illness, and calls for reforms such as multidisciplinary care, reduced use of pharmaceuticals, and big societal changes to promote mental well-being.

The New Moon: Water, Exploration, and Future Habitation

  • Arlin Crotts
Cambridge University Press (2014) 9780521762243 | ISBN: 978-0-5217-6224-3

Is lunar exploration an old story? Pushing aside the political hurdles that impede a US return to the Moon, astrophysicist Arlin Crotts mines lunar research and its implications for human colonization in staggering, often deeply engaging, detail. Beginning with a scientific portrait of Earth's satellite, he probes missions from the cold war and international space activity since then; delves into findings on lunar chemistry, the Moon's far side and aspects such as outgassing and moonquakes; and explores in technical but accessible detail what we can glean from all this regarding a human presence on the Moon.

The Bee: A Natural History

  • Noah Wilson-Rich
Ivy (2014) 0691161356 9781782401070 | ISBN: 0-691-16135-6

Well over 100 million years ago, flowering plants debuted on Earth — and early wasps began to co-evolve with them into the bee. As key pollinators and providers of honey and wax, bees have buzzed their way into human history. But the natural history of solitary, bumble, honey and stingless bees is as gripping as our lengthy alliance, as urban beekeeper Noah Wilson-Rich and contributors show in this charming compilation. They cover evolution, biology (including a unique proboscis made of two organs), behaviours (such as honey bee “quacking”), the causes of catastrophic die-offs, and more.

Curious: The Desire to Know and Why Your Future Depends On It

  • Ian Leslie
Basic Books (2014) 9780465079964 | ISBN: 978-0-4650-7996-4

Deep questing is essential to keeping your cognitive edge and social intelligence razor-sharp throughout life, posits Ian Leslie. He weaves ample science into his exploration; the brain's caudate nucleus, for example, is associated with romantic love as well as the urge to learn, putting the latter “onto the same pathway as our most primal pleasures”. Staying curious into old age, he argues, demands that we imitate Benjamin Franklin: “sweat the small stuff while thinking big”, and never stop experimenting.