New Books: Math & Natural Sciences

Our brains are the most complex machines known to humankind, but they have an Achilles heel: the very molecules that allow us to exist can also sabotage our minds. Here are gripping accounts of unruly molecules and the diseases that form in their wake. With an intoxicating blend of history and intrigue, Peskin invites readers to play medical detective, tracing each diagnosis from the patient to an ailing nervous system. Along the way, she entertains with tales of the sometimes outlandish, often criticized, and forever devoted scientists who discovered it all.

In the summer of 1938, botanists Elzada Clover and Lois Jotter set off to run the Colorado River, accompanied by an ambitious and entrepreneurial expedition leader, a zoologist, and two amateur boatmen. Journalists and veteran river runners boldly proclaimed that the motley crew would never make it out alive. But for Clover and Jotter, the expedition held a tantalizing appeal: no one had yet surveyed the plant life of the Grand Canyon, and they were determined to be the first. Through the letters and diaries of the two women, this book traces their daring 43-day journey down the river.

In 1999, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology admitted to discriminating against its most senior female scientists. It was a seismic cultural event -- one that forced institutions across the nation to reckon with the bias faced by girls and women in STEM. This is the story of the women on MIT's faculty who started it all, centered on the life and career of their unlikely leader: Nancy Hopkins, a noted molecular geneticist and cancer researcher and protégée of James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.

Wasteland takes us on a shocking journey inside the waste industry--the secretive multi-billion dollar world that underpins the modern economy, quietly profiting from what we leave behind. In India, he meets the waste-pickers on the front line of the plastic crisis. In Ghana, he follows the after-life of our technology and explores the global export network that results in goodwill donations clogging African landfills. From an incinerator to an Oklahoma ghost-town, Franklin-Wallis travels in search of the people and companies that really handle waste--and on the way, meets the innovators and campaigners pushing for a cleaner and less wasteful future.

Five stunningly large, unbroken forests remain on Earth: the Taiga, the North American boreal, the Amazon, the Congo, and the island forest of New Guinea. These megaforests are vital to preserving global biodiversity, thousands of cultures, and a stable climate. Megaforests serve an essential role in decarbonizing the atmosphere, and saving them constitutes the fastest, most affordable way to start addressing our planet's most formidable ongoing crisis. Clear, provocative, and persuasive, Ever Green offers practical solutions--from supporting Indigenous forest stewards to planning smarter roads--in a call to action for the planet.

Fungi are everywhere. Most are harmless; some are helpful. A few are killers. Collectively, infectious fungi are the most devastating agents of disease on earth, and a fungus that can persist in the environment without its host is here to stay. In Blight, Emily Monosson documents how trade, travel, and a changing climate are making us all more vulnerable to invasion. Tracing the history of fungal spread and the most recent discoveries in the field, Monosson meets scientists who are working tirelessly to protect species under threat, and whose innovative approaches to fungal invasion have the potential to save human lives.

Crossings delves into the new science of road ecology to explore how roads have transformed our world. Millions of animals are killed by cars each day in the U.S. alone, and roads fragment wildlife populations into inbred clusters, disrupt migration for creatures from antelope to salmon, allow invasive plants to spread and even bend the arc of evolution itself. But road ecologists are also seeking innovative solutions: Goldfarb meets with conservationists building bridges for mountain lions and tunnels for toads, engineers deconstructing logging roads, and citizens working to undo the havoc highways have wreaked upon cities.

Are we now entering a mass extinction event? What do mass extinction events look like and how does life on Earth recover from them? The fossil record reveals periods when biodiversity exploded, and short intervals when much of life was wiped out in mass extinction events. In comparison with these ancient events, today's biotic crisis hasn't (yet) reached the level of extinction to be called a mass extinction. But we are certainly in crisis, and current parallels with ancient mass extinction events are profound and deeply worrying. Analysis of the fossil record suggests that we still have some time to avert this disaster: but we must act now.

With an astounding 3.5 million species occupying virtually every habitat on Earth, insects are one of the most diverse groups of animals on the planet, from the humble bee to the agile praying mantis. The Complete Insect explores all aspects of the natural history of these remarkable creatures, providing a close-up look at their fascinating anatomy, physiology, evolution, ecology, behavior, and more. It features hundreds of stunning color photographs and illustrations and draws on a broad range of examples, from familiar ants to iridescent jewel beetles.

Africa is the richest continent, containing every habitat from desert to tropical forest and the widest range of plants and animals found anywhere. It has experienced extraordinary climate fluctuations, meteor bombardment, and cataclysmic volcanic eruptions. Yet life has not only survived but evolved almost countless species. One group of primates evolved out of this crucible and moved out of Africa to dominate every continent on Earth. A fascinating story told as never before, Origin Africa chronicles how the natural conditions of Africa enabled a spectacular evolution of plants and animals, including Homo sapiens.