June 5: Books Published Today

The Infinite Monkey Cage: How to Build a Universe by Prof. Brian Cox, Robin Ince, and Alexandra Feachem

Based on the hit British comedy-science radio show The Infinite Monkey Cage, this fully illustrated tome written by the show’s hosts and producer takes us deeper inside ideas the show has touched on over the years: the Big Bang, parallel universes, fierce creatures, extraterrestrial life, brain science, and AI. Personally, one of my favorite books of the year. Also available on audio.

Botanical Life: Under the Microscope (Science is Beautiful) by Colin Salter

Part of the Science is Beautiful series, Botanical Life: Under the Microscope is a collection of sensational photographs taken under an electron microscope. See a rose pistol, magnolia wood, and other flowers, trees, grasses, seeds, algae, leaves, and fruiting bodies like you’ve never seen them. The book includes scientific details in layman’s terms.

Genetics in the Madhouse: The Unknown History of Human Heredity by Theodore M. Porter

Drawing on untapped archival evidence from across Europe and North America, this book tells the untold history of how the attempt to identify and anticipate madness by sorting through heredity data in mental hospitals and prisons gave rise to a new science of human heredity. A bold rethinking of asylum work, Genetics in the Madhouse also deepens our appreciation of the moral issues at stake in data work conducted on the border of subjectivity and science.

New Scientist says, “Fascinating but scary.”