The Myth of Martyrdom: What Really Drives Suicide Bombers, Rampage Shooters, and Other Self-Destructive Killers

  • Adam Lankford
Palgrave Macmillan 272 pp. £16.99 (2013)

Are suicide bombers psychologically normal? Many psychologists, including experts 'diagnosing' the hijackers responsible for the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, view them as just that, albeit exercised by a powerful sense of justice. Adam Lankford begs to differ. Self-destructive killers, he says, are already primed for suicide — so depressed, addicted or brutalized that it is relatively easy to tip them over the edge. A criminal-justice specialist, Lankford presents compelling, well-synthesized evidence for his case.

The White Planet: The Evolution and Future of Our Frozen World

Jean Jouzel, Claude Lorius and Dominique Raynaud. Translated by Teresa Lavender Fagan. Princeton Univ. Press 316 pp. $29.95 (2013)

Ice in all its chill Earthly manifestations has drawn thousands of research scientists into the white deserts of the world. Now, three pioneers of ice-core science — Jean Jouzel, Claude Lorius and Dominique Raynaud — reveal key facets of the cryosphere in a new translation of their sweeping overview. Moving from exploration and early science, they delve into the ice 'archives' and findings on climate ancient and current, the rise of pollution and more. A nuanced and thorough look at climate change and its implications.

The Enlightenment Vision: Science, Reason, and the Promise of a Better Future

  • Stuart Jordan
Prometheus 295 pp. $26 (2013)

Physicist Stuart Jordan scrutinizes the afterglow of that scientific big bang, the Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Aspects of today's culture — medicine, scientific outlook, democracy and technological advances — carry traces of the original vision. But Jordan shows too how mixed a legacy we face, from ignorance about science, a bulging population and “juggernaut technology” to degraded ecosystems. Particularly by upholding ethics, he argues, we can collectively turn the tide.

Underwater Eden: Saving the Last Coral Wilderness on Earth

Gregory S. Stone and David Obura. Univ. Chicago Press 184 pp. $40 (2012)

Ocean warming and acidification are bad news for corals, and more than one-quarter of fish species. So when Gregory Stone dived around the remote Pacific Phoenix Islands in 2002, he was stunned to see a 'lost world' of untouched coral beds. Here Stone, chief ocean scientist of Conservation International, coral researcher David Obura and contributors lay out what happened next: the hard-won creation of the largest World Heritage Site ever sanctioned by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

This Explains Everything: Deep, Beautiful, and Elegant Theories of How the World Works

  • John Brockman
Harper Perennial 432 pp. $15.99 (2013)

Agent to the stars of science, John Brockman presents mind-bites from his stable of research heavyweights asked to name their “favourite deep, elegant, or beautiful explanation”. Try theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson speculating on the putative coexistence of quantum and classical world views, or mathematician Samuel Arbesman admiring the reaction–diffusion model that dictates a leopard's spots.