Survival of the dishiest
The useless beauty of male birds is evidence of something evolutionists long struggled to accept: female agency.
ByScience books
Discover our best-rated science books with the New Statesman’s expert reviews. From scientific histories to in-depth examinations and essays.
Our overdiagnosis epidemic
How a marked rise in the treatment of certain conditions – physical and mental – is harming, not protecting, public…
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Richard Dawkins, the gene genie
The great scientist strays into speculation in The Genetic Book of the Dead, his latest defence of his “selfish gene”…
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Marie Curie’s modest revolution
A reluctant celebrity who coined the term “radioactivity”, she transformed the perception of women in science.
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The politics of the prehistoric past
Our understanding of the earliest humans is shaped by contemporary beliefs about race, violence and sex.
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The Ozempic effect
Magic Pill, Johann Hari’s study of the rise of diet drugs, sheds light on our deeply dysfunctional food culture.
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How hormones rule our lives
From sex to eating, birth to body temperature, our physical selves do what our chemical masters tell us.
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The rise of the worried well
Caroline Crampton’s history of hypochondria shows how the internet has exacerbated health anxiety.
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Delusions of immortality
In Why We Die, Venki Ramakrishnan demolishes the crackpots and billionaires behind the anti-ageing industry.
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The new age of magical thinking
The philosophy of magic inspired the founders of modern science. Now it feeds the delusions of Silicon Valley.
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Inside the erotic mind
Psychoanalyst Darian Leader’s study of the motivations behind sex and desire is irredeemably bonkers.
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How women were left out of the story of evolution
A radical new history argues that human society was shaped not by hunter-gatherer skills but the bodies of our female…
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The absurdity of Lessons in Chemistry
The overnight success of Bonnie Garmus’s debut novel is almost as improbable as its contrived plot.
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The Jewish vaccine pioneer forgotten by history
Simon Schama wants the post-pandemic world to learn from the case of Waldemar Haffkine: a tragic story of how prejudice…
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How germs shape history
Jonathan Kennedy’s Pathogenesis reveals how diseases have built and broken empires and economies.
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The science of fandom
What communities devoted to hero-worship tell us about the psychology of belonging.
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From Guy Gunaratne to the science of allergies: new books reviewed in short
Also featuring M John Harrison's Wish I Was Here and Jonathan Miles on the French Riviera.
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Secrets of the womb
Leah Hazard’s new book shows how this complex, life-giving muscle has been maligned and misunderstood.
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From Don Paterson to Brigitte Reimann: new titles reviewed in short
Also featuring Pegasus by Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud and Sensational by Ashley Ward.
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Nietzsche, narwhals and the burden of consciousness
Justin Gregg’s witty exploration of animal intelligence is a useful guide – but there is more to human life than…
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