[book_info title=鈥漊pheaval: How nations cope with crisis and change鈥� author=鈥滼ared Diamond 鈥� publisher=鈥滱llen Lane鈥� title_link=鈥� https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/253/253251/upheaval/9780241003398.html鈥漖
A NEW book by Jared Diamond should be something of an occasion, and Upheaval is unlikely to disappoint, especially in our turbulent times. Diamond won a huge global following with Guns, Germs and Steel (1997) and Collapse (2005), when he drew on ecology, evolutionary biology, anthropology and geography to help us rethink the way we understand civilisations. Now his latest, Upheaval, is being touted as the final book in this trilogy.
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This time, his mission is to reveal how nations can successfully recover from crisis by taking a close look at how seven countries survived major upheavals in their recent past. His case studies range from the Soviet invasion of Finland in 1939 to Augusto Pinochet鈥檚 dictatorship in Chile from the 1970s to 1990.
But the big lessons for now come when he asks if we are squandering our resources and advantages to the point of inevitable catastrophe. Can we, will we, learn from the past? Should nations and individuals withstand disaster by becoming more resilient? Brace yourselves.
A nice counterpoint to the monumental Diamond is by Mike Berners-Lee (Cambridge University Press). This is a wonderfully comprehensive round-up of everything you need to know to (possibly) survive, from climate change to veganism to flying in a low-carbon world to the end of antibiotics 鈥� and which of our myriad problems is most pressing. Liz Else
[book_info title=鈥滲ecoming Human: A theory of ontogeny鈥� author=鈥滿ichael Tomasello 鈥� publisher=鈥滲elknap Press鈥� title_link=鈥漢ttp://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674980853鈥砞
WHAT makes us human and when does that happen? Evolutionary anthropologist Michael Tomasello has produced a book that anyone really interested in one of the big questions will take on many a holiday (it is a demanding read).
Tomasello identifies eight developmental pathways that differentiate us from our closest relatives: social cognition, communication, cultural learning, cooperative thinking, collaboration, prosociality, social norms and moral identity. These exist in great apes at rudimentary levels, but our capacity to develop shared intentionality over the first few years of life transforms these abilities into uniquely human cognition and sociality.
And in (Profile Books), Richard Wrangham, a biological anthropologist, picks up on one behaviour that may be near-exclusive to humans: despite being less violent than most undomesticated animals, we may be the only ones that go to war. LE
[book_info title=鈥滶instein鈥檚 Unfinished Revolution: The search for what lies beyond the quantum鈥� author=鈥滾ee Smolin鈥� publisher=鈥滱llen Lane鈥� title_link=鈥� https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/269/269402/einstein_s-unfinished-revolution/9780241004487.html鈥漖
IN AN obvious if rather lovely irony, quantum physics has always led a double life. It fundamentally shifted our world view by building a new picture of life at the subatomic level, explaining everything from elementary particles to the behaviour of materials. But it also created bitter divisions over which interpretation best describes our world.
For a few years now, theoretical physicist Lee Smolin, a pioneer of the theory of loop quantum gravity (one of the big hopes for developing a quantum theory of gravity), has thought he has an answer. The reason quantum physics is still so contentious is that the theory is incomplete, that quantum mechanics doesn鈥檛 provide an explanation for what happens at a larger scale because it leaves out aspects of nature needed for a true description. In Einstein鈥檚 Unfinished Revolution, Smolin works through alternative interpretations, from pilot wave theory to the many worlds interpretation 鈥� only occasionally, becoming textbooky. He ends up with his own theory 鈥� and that, as your parents might have said, you will have to discover for yourselves. LE
[book_info title=鈥漈he Gendered Brain: The new neuroscience that shatters the myth of the female brain鈥� author=鈥滸ina Rippon 鈥� publisher=鈥滲odley Head鈥� title_link=鈥� https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1114075/the-gendered-brain/9781847924759.html鈥漖
WILL 2019 see an end to the 鈥渘eurotrash鈥� we talk about women鈥檚 and men鈥檚 brains? In The Gendered Brain, Gina Rippon clearly hopes so as she sets out to tear down the idea of describing a brain as 鈥渕ale鈥� or 鈥渇emale鈥�, and mapping onto those descriptions everything from behavioural differences to life choices.
It is, she writes, a notion that has driven brain science into a bad place, and hemmed us in with 鈥渄amaging stereotypes鈥�. The neurotrash must go, she says, along with binary views about ourselves. Embrace instead the most up-to-date science showing that brains are highly individual, adaptable, complex organs with amazing potential. #LetsHope. LE
[book_info title=鈥漊nderland鈥� author=鈥漅obert Macfarlane 鈥� publisher=鈥滺amish Hamilton鈥� title_link=鈥� https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/560/56082/underland/9780241143803.html鈥漖
THIS summer, Robert Macfarlane takes his unique and influential brand of culturally aware nature writing to subterranean territory. Covering graves, mines, caches and temples, he brings to light a history of eerie, sometimes epic human journeys into the earth beneath our feet.
We have always, he says, plumbed Earth鈥檚 depths with the same three ideas in mind: 鈥渢o shelter what is precious, to yield what is valuable, and to dispose of what is harmful鈥�. It is a timely project as the melting of Arctic ice is causing ancient methane deposits to leak into our carbon-burdened atmosphere, along with anthrax spores from freshly defrosted reindeer corpses.
But Macfarlane isn鈥檛 warning of some future apocalypse so much as writing about the world we are living in now: a reality we are just too confused, distracted or afraid to face; a world in which all the 鈥渢hings that should have stayed buried are rising up unbidden鈥�. Underland is a profoundly beautiful, and profoundly disturbing, book. Simon Ings
[book_info title=鈥滵o Statins Work? The battle for perfect evidence-based medicine鈥� author=鈥滲en Goldacre 鈥� publisher=鈥滷ourth Estate鈥� title_link=鈥� http://www.4thestate.co.uk/book/do-statins-work/鈥漖
IN 2014, rationalist campaigner and Bad Science blogger Ben Goldacre wrote that he was thinking of 鈥渞attling out a very quick 90-page book on statins鈥�. Some five years later, his Do Statins Work? is more than 300 pages long, and no wonder. These cholesterol-reducing medications are the single most prescribed drug in the developed world, but big pharma鈥檚 inability to measure and discuss side effects properly means the rest of us can鈥檛 make informed decisions about their use.
This can be fixed, argues Goldacre, by wedding big data to the art of medicine. Has he hit on a solution, or is he courting even bigger controversy? SI
[book_info title=鈥滾una Moon Rising鈥� author=鈥滻an McDonald聽鈥� publisher=鈥漈or Books鈥� title_link=鈥� 鈥淽
[book_info title=鈥漐ero Bomb鈥� author=鈥滿.T.Hill 鈥� publisher=鈥漈itan Books鈥� title_link=鈥� https://titanbooks.com/9725-zero-bomb/鈥�>Zero Bomb鈥漖
THE Luna trilogy by Ian McDonald has been optioned for TV by CBS. But there is no need for any of us to wait for the televised version: Luna, the final volume, is published this spring, and promises an even bigger than usual helping of dynastic infighting, espionage and murder. Of the five clans who control its biggest industries, who will, at last, rule the moon?
Meanwhile, back on Earth, a grief-stricken, middle-aged bicycle courier finds himself without insurance, terrorised by a fox, and caught between worlds in M.T.Hill鈥檚 Zero Bomb. This is arguably the finest post-singularity escapade since Matthew de Abaitua鈥檚 sci-fi novel, If Then. And if you haven鈥檛 read that, then look forward to a delightful time catching up. SI
[book_info title=鈥漈he Demon in the Machine: How hidden webs of information are solving the mystery of life鈥� author=鈥漃aul Davies 鈥� publisher=鈥滱llen Lane鈥� title_link=鈥� https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/305/305448/the-demon-in-the-machine/9780241309599.html鈥漖
EXPLAINING one of the oldest questions 鈥� what is life? 鈥� is physicist Paul Davies鈥檚 quest in his latest book, The Demon in the Machine. He searches for answers beyond the known, venturing into a place with no name where computing, chemistry, quantum physics and nanotechnology intersect, thanks to the idea underlying them all 鈥� the concept of information. LE
[book_info title=鈥滱pollo 11: The inside story鈥� author=鈥滵avid Whitehouse 鈥� publisher=鈥滻con Books鈥� title_link=鈥� https://iconbooks.com/ib-title/apollo-11/鈥漖
WE MAY not make it to the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, killed off instead by a meteor shower of celebratory books.
On the bright side, one of the best so far is Apollo 11, by former BBC science correspondent David Whitehouse, who happens to have an asteroid named after him (asteroid 4036 Whitehouse). This is a terrific and enthralling tale of Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins (as pilot of the command module, he was clearly the drummer in the band) and glory on the moon. LE
This article appeared in print under the headline 鈥淏ooks of 2019: Get even smarter this year鈥�
