The Perfectionists: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World by Simon Winchester
A narrative history of precision from the Industrial Age to the Digital Age, this book traces precision tools and methods from guns and glass to mirrors, lenses, cameras, and eventually gene splicing, microchips, and the Large Hadron Collider. The book also addresses larger issues that act as a warning and ask questions about what is missing and whether the precise and the natural can co-exist.
Publishers Weekly says, “Winchester’s latest is a rollicking work of pop science that entertains and informs.”
Catch Simon Winchester on tour!
The Order of Time by Carlo Rovelli
Theoretical physicist and author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Carlo Rovelli brings us an exploration of time that considers questions related to the nature, direction, and existence of time. He writes both about the physical universe and about human perception of the flow of time. Also available on audio.
Gravitational Waves: How Einstein’s Spacetime Ripples Reveal the Secrets of the Universe by Brian Clegg
Brian Clegg, prolific author and blogger behind the very excellent U.K. book blog Popular Science, has a new addition to the Hot Science book series, this one the compelling story of the LIGO observatories and the first ever detection of black holes, 100 years after Einstein’s theory about gravitational waves.
New Scientist says this book “transforms a frustrating, century-long tale of disappointment into a gripping human drama.”
Universe in Creation: A New Understanding of the Big Bang and the Emergence of Life by Roy R. Gould
Roy R. Gould offers a compelling and surprising narrative of how the universe evolved into billions of galaxies and gave rise to life. Using current science understandings, he explains how the cosmos is expanding inwards, no outward; how gravity can drive things apart, not merely together; and how the universe defies entropy as it becomes more ordered. This book also explores whether the emergence of life was not merely a cosmic afterthought but written into the most basic laws of nature.
The Curious Life of Krill: A Conservation Story from the Bottom of the World by Stephen Nicol
Krill scientist Stephen Nicol takes us to the Southern Ocean to learn firsthand difficulties and rewards of studying krill, a species midway up the food chain whose habitats are changing with the melting ice caps at the top and bottom of the world. Nicol uses humor and personal stories to bring the biology of krill to life.
Publishers Weekly says that “those seeking a very accessible entry point to marine biology and conservation will find it here.”
A Naturalist at Large: The Best Essays of Bernd Heinrich by Bernd Heinrich
Bernd Heinrich, one of the world’s greatest living naturalists, brings us a new collection of observations on ravens, insects, trees, elephants, and more. Also available on audio.
The Washington Post says that Bernd Heinrich “richly deserves the comparison to Thoreau.”
Fahrenheit 
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