ARCADE
Poisons (May, $25) by Peter Macinnis assembles little-known facts and grisly stories about these formidable threats.
BASIC BOOKS
A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down (Mar., $26) by Robert Laughlin explains why the greatest mysteries of physics are as close as the nearest ice cube or grain of salt. 60,000 first printing. Advertising. Author tour.
Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman (Apr., $26.), edited by Michelle Feynman. Previously unpublished letters tell the life story of the Nobel Prize—winning physicist. 125,000 first printing. Advertising. Author tour.
BBC BOOKS (dist. by Trafalgar Square)
Time Machine (Mar., $35) by Bernard Walton. Time-lapse images and computer graphics show the forces that have shaped the earth over millions of years.
BLACK DOG & LEVENTHAL
The Right Stuff: Illustrated (May, $35) by Tom Wolfe. On the heels of Wolfe's latest bestseller, I Am Charlotte Simmons, comes this oversize, illustrated edition of his 1979 account of NASA's Mercury 7 program. 30,000 first printing.
BROADWAY
Dissecting Death: Secrets of a Medical Examiner (June, $24.95) by Frederick Zugibe, M.D., and David L. Carroll. The former chief medical examiner for Rockland County, N.Y., discusses the methods used to crack cases.
COLUMBIA UNIV. PRESS
The War of Soups and Sparks: The Discovery of Neurotransmitters and the Dispute over How Nerves Communicate (Aug., $29.50) by Elliot S. Valenstein spotlights the people who won the 1936 Nobel Prize and the politics behind the discovery of neurotransmitters.
DA CAPO Press
Stargazer: The Life and History of the Telescope (Aug., $24.95) by Fred Watson describes the creation of the optical telescope and its impact on science and society.
DOUBLEDAY
Radical Evolution: The Promise and Peril of Enhancing Our Minds, Our Bodies, and What It Means to Be Human (May, $26) by Joel Garreau argues that technology will determine the next stage of human evolution and questions the future of humanity.
ECCO
Warped Passages: Unraveling the Mysteries of the Universe's Hidden Dimensions (May, $26.95) by Lisa Randall posits that there are other dimensions—in fact, another universe—just inches from our own.
FSG/HILL & WANG
Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak (Mar., $24) by Kenneth S. Deffeyes examines energy alternatives, from coal to uranium.
HOUGHTON MIFFLIN
Empire of the Stars: Obsession, Friendship, and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes (Apr., $26) by Arthur I. Miller tells the story of the scientific rivalry that led to the discovery of black holes. Advertising.
HYPERION
Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity and the Exploration of the Red Planet (Aug., $25.95) by Steve Squyres. The scientist who conceived the Mars exploration program writes about the challenges of last year's landing on the red planet. 75,000 first printing.
MIT PRESS
Adapting Minds: Evolutionary Psychology and the Persistent Quest for Human Nature (Apr., $34.95) by David J. Buller is an appraisal of evolutionary psychology and its major claims. A Bradford Book.
NEW YORK REVIEW BOOKS
A Jab in the Dark (May, $22.95) by Richard Horton. The editor of the Lancet gives an insider's account of the MMR vaccine controversy.
Trust Is Not Enough: Bringing Human Rights to Medicine (Apr., $24.95) by David J. Rothman and Sheila M. Rothman addresses issues regarding international medicine and social responsibility.
W.W. NORTON
Endless Forms Most Beautiful: The New Science of Evo Devo and the Making of the Animal Kingdom (Apr., $25.95) by Sean B. Carroll. What Brian Greene did for string theory, biologist Carroll attempts to do for Evo Devo, evolutionary developmental biology. 8-city author tour. Author Web site.
NORTON/ATLAS
Lavoisier in the Year One: The Birth of a New Science in an Age of Revolution (June, $22.95) by Madison Smartt Bell. Novelist Bell studies the 18th-century's Age of Enlightenment and the scientific race to explain how chemical processes work. Author tour.
Miss Leavitt's Stars: The Untold Story of the Forgotten Woman Who Discovered How to Measure the Universe (June, $22.95) by George Johnson. The New York Times science writer gives credit to Henrietta Swann Leavitt, who posited a law that allowed astronomers to use variable stars as cosmic yardsticks. Author tour.
OXFORD UNIV. PRESS
Polio (May, $30) by David Oshinsky is both a scientific suspense story and a social and cultural history.
PANTHEON
Descent: The Heroic Discovery of the Abyss (Apr., $25) by Brad Matsen follows the first people to descend into the abyss when they were exploring the ocean during the 1930s. Advertising. Author tour.
The Infinite Book: A Short Guide to the Boundless, Timeless, Endless (Aug., $26) by John D. Barrow. The mathematician, cosmologist and author of The Constants of Nature tells the history and explains the meaning of infinity. Advertising.
PENGUIN/CHAMBERLAIN BROS.
Annus Mirabilis: 1905, Albert Einstein and the Theory of Relativity (Mar., $24.95) by John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin marks the 100th anniversary of Einstein's three papers that formed the basis for his Theory of Relativity.
PRINCETON UNIV. PRESS
Fossil Legends of the First Americans (May, $29.95) by Adrienne Mayor reviews the discoveries of enormous bones and the early uses of fossils for medicine, hunting and magic.
PROMETHEUS
Nanofuture: What's Next for Nanotechnology (May, $28) by J. Storrs Hall analyzes the benefits and the potential risks of upcoming innovations in energy, economics, medicine and transportation using nanotechnology.
RANDOM HOUSE
The Genius Factor: The Secret History of the Nobel Prize Sperm Bank (June, $25.95) by David Plotz recounts the 20-year history of a U.S. sperm bank that recruited donors from among Nobel Prize winners and other accomplished men—and the more than 200 children it produced. Radio satellite tour.
RIVERHEAD
Our Inner Ape: Power, Sex, Violence, Kindness, and the Evolution of Human Nature (June, $24.95) by Frans de Waal sheds light on what humankind's two closest relatives—the power-hungry chimpanzee and the cooperative bonobo—contributed to human nature. Advertising.
THAMES & HUDSON
The Complete World of Human Evolution (May, $34.95) by Chris Stringer and Peter Andres provides the latest on the human species with illustrations, photographs, diagrams and drawings. Discovery Channel and Scientific American Book Clubs.
THUNDER'S MOUTH
Math Instinct: When You're a Mathematical Genius (Along with Lobsters, Birds, Cats, and Dogs) (Apr., $25) by Keith Devlin celebrates the innate math sense of all kinds of animals—including humans.
UNIV. OF CHICAGO PRESS
Oceans: An Illustrated Reference (Apr., $55) by Dorrik Stow combines scientific information on ocean life with full-color photographs, diagrams, charts and maps.
UNIV. PRESS OF FLORIDA
Big Dish: Building America's Deep Space Connection to the Planets (Mar., $34.95) by Douglas J. Mudgway traces NASA's quest to communicate in deep space via a massive satellite communications grid.
VIKING
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology (Mar., $25.95) by Ray Kurzweil. The author of The Age of Spiritual Machines suggests a view of the future where our bodies merge with our machines to form a human-machine civilization.
