Top 10

Empire of AI: Inside the Race for Total Domination

Karen Hao. Penguin Press, July 15 ($32, ISBN 978-0-593-65750-8)

Reporter Hao details the boardroom drama at OpenAI while charting its transformation from a civic-minded nonprofit into a corporate behemoth in waiting.

Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and Our Future

Neil Shubin. Dutton, Feb. 4 ($32, ISBN 978-0-593-18652-7)

The University of Chicago biology professor recounts braving subzero temperatures to study dinosaurs, meteorites, subglacial lakes, and antifreeze-producing fish at the Earth’s poles.

The Lost Trees of Willow Avenue: A Story of Climate and Hope on One American Street

Mike Tidwell. St. Martin’s, Mar. 25 ($29, ISBN 978-1-250-36226-1)

Travel writer Tidwell chronicles climate change’s impact on his block bordering Washington,
D.C., over the course of 2023, describing how trees died from record heat, a church battled persistent flooding, and neighbors debated whether to have kids.

Memory Lane: The Perfectly Imperfect Ways We Remember

Ciara Greene and Gillian Murphy. Princeton Univ., Mar. 4 ($29.95, ISBN 978-0-691-25709-9)

Surveying the neuroscience behind memory, researchers Greene and Murphy suggest that forgetting and misremembering can be evolutionarily beneficial.

The Narrowing: A Journey Through Anxiety and the Body

Alexandra Shaker. Viking, Mar. 4 ($30, ISBN 978-0-593-49340-3)

Making peace with anxiety helps people become more resilient, according to psychologist Shaker’s examination of the emotion’s physiological underpinnings.

Ocean: A Biography of Our Most Vulnerable Natural Habitat

David Attenborough and Colin Butfield. Grand Central, May 6 ($28, ISBN 978-1-5387-7229-4)

The nature documentarian combines history and science to study the ocean’s influence over
life on land and countless creatures. 100,000-copy announced first printing.

Sea of Grass: The Conquest, Ruin, and Redemption of Nature on the American Prairie

Dave Hage and Josephine Marcotty. Random House, May 27 ($32, ISBN 978-0-593-44740-6)

This natural history of the American prairie touches on its underheralded biodiversity and
exhaustion by agricultural conglomerates.

Strata: Stories from Deep Time

Laura Poppick. Norton, July 15 ($29.99, ISBN 978-1-324-02160-5)

Reporter Poppick details how scientists have gleaned insights into the emergence of oxygen,
the rise of the dinosaurs, and other epochs in Earth’s history from studying layers of rock.

Valley of Forgetting: Alzheimer’s Families and the Search for a Cure

Jennie Erin Smith. Riverhead, Apr. 1 ($30, ISBN 978-0-525-53607-9)

Journalist Smith describes neurologist Francisco Lopera’s efforts to understand dementia by studying the residents of a remote Colombian region afflicted by a high prevalence of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. 60,000-copy announced first printing.

White Light: The Elemental Role of Phosphorus—in Our Cells, in Our Food, and in Our World

Jack Lohmann. Pantheon, Mar. 18 ($30, ISBN 978-0-593-31661-0)

This natural and social history traces how phosphorous’s potency as a fertilizer has driven people to, for instance, grind the bones of dead soldiers and accept excrement in lieu of rent.

longlist

Algonquin

On Muscle: The Stuff That Moves Us and Why It Matters by Bonnie Tsui (Apr. 22, $29, ISBN 978-1-64375-308-9) combines a scientific exploration of how muscles work with profiles of female weight lifters, a Double Dutch club, and the author’s karate-loving father.

Apollo

Forget the Camel: The Madcap World of Animal Festivals and What They Say About Being Human by Elizabeth Melampy (Apr. 8, $26.99, ISBN 978-1-954641-43-3) examines how people create meaning through traditions and rituals centered on animals, including Maine lobster cookouts, Nevada camel races, and Texas rattlesnake shootouts.

Basic

The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog: And Other Serious Discoveries of Silly Science by Carly Anne York (June 16, $30, ISBN 978-1-5416-0521-3) explores how the pursuit of such ostensibly pointless inquiries as how squishable cockroaches are and why worms wriggle themselves into knots have unexpectedly moved science forward.

Bellevue Literary

Potomac Fever: Reflections on the Nation’s River by Charlotte Taylor Fryar (Mar. 11, $17.99 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-954276-34-5) chronicles the history of racial inequality in Washington, D.C., through close study of the Potomac River’s ecology.

Bison

Starlings: The Curious Odyssey of a Most Hated Bird by Mike Stark (Mar. 1, $24.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-4962-4202-0). Journalist Stark studies how the European starling took over North America, sparking efforts to curtail their numbers with large-scale hunts even as their complex flight patterns inspired artists and scientists.

Bloomsbury SIGMA

Six Minutes to Winter: Nuclear War and How to Avoid It by Mark Lynas (May 6, $28, ISBN 978-1-3994-1051-9). Nuclear weapons must be eradicated, according to science writer Lynas, who warns that a nuclear exchange would likely cause dangerous drops in global temperature, widespread crop failure, and mass starvation.

Cambridge Univ.

Good Vibrations: Unlocking the Healing Power of Music by Stefan Koelsch (Apr. 30, $39.99, ISBN 978-1-009-36677-9) surveys scientific studies showing that music can combat depression, hasten stroke recovery, and reduce anxiety and pain, among other benefits.

Columbia Univ.

Unreliable: Bias, Fraud, and the Reproducibility Crisis in Biomedical Research by Csaba Szabo (Mar. 4, $30 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-231-21624-1). Flaws in medical institutions’ culture and incentive structures have created a raft of faulty research whose findings cannot be independently replicated, according to pharmacologist Szabo.

Crown

Turning to Birds: A Memoir in Essays by Lili Taylor (May 6, $30, ISBN 978-0-593-72857-4). I Shot Andy Warhol actor Taylor reflects on how taking up birding between acting gigs deepened her connection with the natural world while illuminating the connections among all living creatures.

Dutton

Air-Borne: The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe by Carl Zimmer (Feb. 25, $32, ISBN 978-0-593-47359-7) charts how scientists have thought about bacteria, viruses, and other airborne lifeforms throughout history, covering French chemist Louis Pasteur’s experiments, the Cold War–era development of airborne biological weapons, and disputes over how Covid-19 is transmitted.

Hope Dies Last: Visionary People Across the World, Fighting to Find Us a Future by Alan Weisman (Apr. 22, $31, ISBN 978-1-5247-4669-8) profiles engineers, scientists, and other individuals across the world who are developing strategies to combat climate change.

Ecco

Human Nature: Nine Ways to Feel About Our Changing Planet by Kate Marvel (June 3, $30, ISBN 978-0-06-324153-4) explains the
science behind the climate crisis by focusing on nine emotions that it inspires, including anger toward those most responsible for the damage and wonder at science’s ability to predict outcomes. 125,000-copy announced first printing.

The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World by Peter Brannen (July 1, $32, ISBN 978-0-06-303698-7). Carbon dioxide’s movements through ecosystems have enabled the flourishing of life for millions of years even as the substance now threatens to overheat the planet, according to this natural history. 75,000-copy announced first printing.

The Experiment

Dimming the Sun: The Urgent Case for Geoengineering by Thomas Ramge (Mar. 4, $24.95, ISBN 979-8-89303-054-9) argues that creating clouds, deploying solar shields in space, and injecting sulfur aerosol into Earth’s atmosphere, among other strategies, might constitute humanity’s best bet for coping with the climate crisis.

Grand Central

Slither: How Nature’s Most Maligned Creatures Illuminate Our World by Stephen S. Hall (Apr. 22, $30, ISBN 978-1-5387-4133-7) pairs scientific insights about the venom and cold-bloodedness of snakes with analysis of how art, culture, and myths have. portrayed the reptiles.

Harper

Birds, Sex, and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwin’s Strangest Idea by Matt Ridley (Apr. 1, $30, ISBN 978-0-06-334298-9) emphasizes the importance of mate choice in Darwin’s evolutionary theory by exploring the black grouse’s elaborate, and sometimes deadly, mating ritual.

The Social Paradox: Autonomy, Connection, and Why We Need Both to Find Happiness by William von Hippel (Feb. 18, $30, ISBN 978-0-06-331925-7). Contemporary society privileges autonomy over social connection to the detriment of all, according to psychologist von Hippel’s exploration of these competing imperatives and how they have influenced human behavior throughout history.

Johns Hopkins Univ.

Rise of the Zombie Bugs: The Surprising Science of Parasitic Mind-Control by Mindy Weisberger (Apr. 15, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-4214-5135-0) explores the way certain fungi, parasites, and viruses alter the brain chemistry of their insect hosts and command them to behave in ways beneficial to the invading organism.

Little, Brown

Dinner with King Tut: How Rogue Archaeologists Are Recreating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations by Sam Kean (July 8, $30, ISBN 978-0-316-49655-1) spotlights archeologists who are baking bread with ancient yeast strains, building Roman-style roads, and hunting with DIY spears to gain insight into the lived experiences of historical peoples.

Mariner

Earthly Materials: Journeys Through Our Bodies’ Emissions, Excretions, and Disintegrations by Cutter Wood (Apr. 29, $28.99, ISBN 978-0-06-304860-7) examines the science behind why humans emit mucus, tears, urine, and other effluence, and reflects on how such biological processes have shaped society.

The Sexual Evolution: How 500 Million Years of Sex, Gender, and Mating Shape Modern Relationships by Nathan H. Lents (Feb. 4, $32, ISBN 978-0-06-337544-4) contends that the broad range of gender and sexual identities found in the natural world is the logical product of evolutionary pressures favoring diversity.

MIT

Feminism in the Wild: How Human Biases Shape Our Understanding of Animal Behavior by Ambika Kamath and Melina Packer (Mar. 11, $24.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-0-262-04963-4) suggests that the ways in which scientists understand such concepts as adaptation, biological determinism, and sex categories have been deeply influenced by racism, sexism, and other prejudices.

Norton

The Art of Uncertainty: How to Navigate Chance, Ignorance, Risk, and Luck by David Spiegelhalter (Mar. 4, $32.99, ISBN 978-1-324-10611-1) expounds on how the field of probability science can help readers make decisions with greater confidence based in a more accurate understanding of likely outcomes.

Collisions: A Physicist’s Journey from Hiroshima to the Death of the Dinosaurs by Alec Nevala-Lee (June 10, $31.99, ISBN 978-1-324-07510-3). This biography of Luis W. Alvarez delves into the Nobel Prize–winning physicist’s eclectic research on asteroid collisions, atomic weapons, and JFK’s assassination.

Other Press

Phytopolis: The Living City by Stefano Mancuso, trans. by Gregory Conti (Apr. 22, $24.99, ISBN 978-1-63542-524-6). Suggesting that cities provide the ideal setting for human flourishing, botanist Mancuso explores how to shield them from the ravages of climate change.

Princeton Univ.

Intraterrestrials: Discovering the Strangest Life on Earth by Karen G. Lloyd (May 13, $27.95, ISBN 978-0-691-23611-7) describes how the properties of microbes found in Arctic permafrost, the ocean floor, and other ostensibly inhospitable environments are expanding scientists’ understanding of life, highlighting microorganisms that can survive in bleach and “breathe” rocks.

Sex Is a Spectrum: The Biological Limits of the Binary by Agustín Fuentes (May 6, $24.95, ISBN 978-0-691-24941-4). Chronicling the evolution of sexual difference, biological anthropologist Fuentes argues that gender and sex present in more diverse ways in the natural world than commonly acknowledged.

Prometheus

The Fearful Mind: A Psychological Portrait of Our Most Misunderstood Emotion by Alby Elias (July 15, $29.95, ISBN 978-1-63388-936-1) contends that fear and anxiety serve a variety of positive purposes, including enhancing conscientiousness and increasing the likelihood that people will take appropriate precautions.

Random House

The Dark Frontier by Jeff Marlow (June 3, $32, ISBN 978-0-593-23018-3) delves into the history of deep-sea exploration, the unique ecosystems that thrive on the ocean floor, and the destructive effects of deep-sea mining.

Reaktion

Lost Animals, Disappearing Worlds: Stories of Extinction by Barbara Allen (June 12, $30, ISBN 978-1-83639-045-9) profiles the great auk, passenger pigeon, and Saint Helena earwig, among other extinct creatures, exploring how their disappearances affected their ecosystems and provide insight into humanity’s relationship with nature.

Seal

The Stronger Sex: What Science Tells Us About the Power of the Female Body by Starre Vartan (July 15, $30, ISBN 978-1-5416-0442-1) weaves research showing that women’s bodies have stronger endurance, flexibility, and pain tolerance than men’s with insights drawn from female athletes, firefighters, and woodchoppers.

Simon Element

Me, but Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change by Olga Khazan (Mar. 11, $28.99, ISBN 978-1-6680-1254-3). The Atlantic writer details her successful year-long effort to alter her personality by acting more extroverted and open, during which time she tried out improv, meditation, and sailing, among other activities.

Sourcebooks

Cosmic Bullsh*t: A Guide to the Galaxy’s Worst Life Hacks by Chris Ferrie (Mar. 18, $17.99 trade paper,
ISBN 978-1-4642-2513-0) uses science to debunk alien encounters, astrology, creation myths, and other dubious beliefs.

Spiegel & Grau

Forest Euphoria: The Abounding Queerness of Nature by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian (May 27, $28, ISBN 978-1-954118-90-4) touches on genderless eels, intersex slugs, and fungi with 23,000 sexes while recounting how Kaishian saw her own queerness reflected in the biodiversity of swamps near her childhood home in New York’s Hudson Valley.

St. Martin’s

A Billion Butterflies: A Life in Climate and Chaos Theory by Jagadish Shukla (Apr. 22, $30, ISBN 978-1-250-28920-9). This memoir from Nobel Prize winner Shukla traces how the climate scientist went from attending elementary school in a cow shed to revolutionizing the prediction of weather at MIT and Princeton.

When the Earth Was Green: Plants, Animals, and Evolution’s Greatest Romance by Riley Black (Feb. 25, $29, ISBN 978-1-250-28899-8) studies the evolution of plants and their influence on the natural world, from pumping oxygen into the atmosphere to drawing animals onto land and shaping human anatomy.

Thesis

The Age of Diagnosis: How Our Obsession with Medical Labels Is Making Us Sicker by Suzanne O’Sullivan (Mar. 18, $32, ISBN 978-0-593-85291-0). Neurologist O’Sullivan interrogates the notion that medical diagnoses are always beneficial for patients by studying how they affect those with ADHD, autism, and long Covid, among other conditions.

Tin House

No Less Strange or Wonderful: Essays by A. Kendra Greene (Mar. 4, $28.95 trade paper, ISBN 978-1-963108-08-8). This illustrated volume celebrates the marvels of the natural world, serving up reflections on sharks, sloths, trees, woodpeckers, and wasps.

Univ. of Chicago

Battle of the Big Bang: The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins by Niayesh Afshordi and Phil Halper (May 29, $32.50, ISBN 978-0-226-83047-6) surveys theories of what caused the big bang, including black holes, “bouncing” universes, and time loops.

Viking

Carbon: The Book of Life by Paul Hawken (Mar. 18, $30, ISBN 978-0-525-42744-5) examines the role carbon has played in the formation of the planet and the evolution of plant and animal life. 50,000-copy announced first printing.

How to Feed the World: The History and Future of Food by Vaclav Smil (Mar. 4, $30, ISBN 978-0-593-83451-0) delves into how to build a sustainable agricultural system capable of providing a growing global population with adequate nutrition.

Workman

Pseudoscience: An Amusing History of Crackpot Ideas and Why We Love Them by Lydia Kang and Nate Pedersen (Feb. 18, $25, ISBN 978-1-5235-2425-9) offers scientific explanations for why people fall for myths about the Bermuda Triangle, ghosts, and spontaneous human combustion, among other phenomena.

Yale Univ.

The Narrative Brain: The Stories Our Neurons Tell by Fritz Alwin Breithaupt (Feb. 25, $35, ISBN 978-0-300-27380-9) draws on academic research, fiction, and gossip to explore why humans tell stories and how narratives work on a cognitive level.

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