A Book of Noises
Caspar Henderson Univ. Chicago Press (2023)
I know I’m reading a great book when the sounds around me recede into the background. Yet, A Book of Noises by journalist Caspar Henderson reminded me that a great book can also do the opposite. This lyrical exploration of the science of sounds rendered every noise more vivid and worthy of attention.
Henderson traverses vast scales of time and space, demonstrating how all of history is infused with noise — from the ‘groaning’ of some moons as meteors crash into them to the throbbing of veins and cracking of icebergs. The northern lights, we learn, are both visual spectacles and auditory wonders, emitting crackling and sizzling sounds. Even plants can respond to the sound vibrations that nearby animals produce. The buzz of a bee’s wings, for example, can induce nearby suncup flowers to make nectar that has a higher concentration of sugar, to attract pollinators.
In its scope and passion, this book appeals to readers’ most romantic instincts — reminding us of our entanglement with the cosmos and the organisms that live in it. It is the perfect summer read. Absorb it in one curious inhalation or in a series of meditative moments by a sunny window; amid the noise, it will feel like a quiet revelation. — Leor Zmigrod
The AI Con
Alex Hanna & Emily Bender Harper Collins (2025)
“Do you believe in hope after hype?” ask linguist Emily Bender and sociologist Alex Hanna in their sharp, witty book, The AI Con, after taking us through the hellscape that is artificial intelligence (AI) hype. With a humorous but critical eye, they run through some of the largest AI claims made in the past few years — and how some collapsed on closer inspection. AI models to predict sepsis, for example, have shown low performance and high false-positive rates.
Imparting too much trust in machine-learning models has harmed the health, education and law sectors. Bender and Hanna offer tools to assess hype. Simple questions can reveal flaws in the tools’ promises: who benefits from AI adoption? Who is harmed? What nuance is lost when perusing AI-compiled summaries instead of whole texts?
Bender and Hanna warn against anthropomorphizing AI, and show how many seemingly magical AI behaviours, such as creating art, come from copying humans, which has led to lawsuits from artists and film makers. Yet, AI technologies can be powerful for their intended purposes. With careful measurement, evaluation and a focus on capabilities over profit, they can automate mundane, repetitive tasks. Do I believe in hope after hype? A resounding yes. — Nyalleng Moorosi
Sultana’s Dream
Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain The Indian Ladies’ Magazine (1905)
Long before today’s global discussions on climate change or gender equity, educator and political activist Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain envisioned a future in which science served justice and sustainability. In Sultana’s Dream (1905), writing from the colonial Bengal Presidency, she evokes ‘Ladyland’ — a feminist utopia in which men take on domestic work while women run society, centring innovation around care, community and ecological balance.
Her provocative vision is remarkable considering the structural exclusions she faced. That a Muslim woman in a colonized country conceived of green innovation, universal education and social equity as forms of justice more than a century ago is deeply inspiring. The solar kitchens, electric transport, geoengineering balloons (to harvest water, as a resource and to control rain) and zero-emission agriculture she describes seem fantastical — but they are part of a long-overlooked lineage of feminist techno-visions.
As a Bangladeshi scholar and feminist scientist, I find this manifesto against the extractivist science and capitalist consumption that are ruining the planet discerning. Sultana’s Dream deserves renewed attention as a creative, radically prescient blueprint from the margins. It shows the futures we might build, if only we choose them. — Farhana Sultana
Unreliable
Csaba Szabo Columbia Univ. Press (2025)
Pharmacologist Csaba Szabo is alarmed by the reproducibility crisis in biomedical science. According to reports, attempts to replicate biomedical work succeed in only 10–40% of cases — a dismal statistic. In Unreliable, Szabo guides readers through the issues that have led to this, including methodological flaws, structural problems in science and the hyper-competitive environment for grants. His engaging book is stuffed with facts and evidence.
The author pays special attention to scientific fraud, both by individuals and in the form of mass-produced fraudulent research churned out by paper mills. Dodgy papers are too often included in systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which could lead to people receiving ineffective treatments. Pharmaceutical companies, publishers and universities are failing to effectively promote and enforce integrity in science.
But there are ways to overcome the crisis. Szabo advocates fresh approaches to scientific training that centre collaborative work and emphasize robust and freely available data. He argues for replacing the for-profit publishing industry with data repositories and online information-storage systems, and for transforming systematic reviews, which need post-publication review to ensure lasting quality. His call to arms could not come soon enough. — Anna Abalkina
10 to 25
David Yeager Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster (2024)
Renowned psychologist and former teacher David Yeager has spent more than a decade identifying adults who excel at helping young people to exceed expectations. These mentors share a common approach, he observes in 10 to 25. Whether they are training surgeons, perfecting elite athletes’ basketball shots or teaching calculus to secondary-school students, they do not just tell young people what to do. Instead, they ensure that young people have the emotional and logistical scaffolding that they need to meet high standards.
Yeager points out that these exceptional adults stand apart from many of us, who, despite our best intentions, get it wrong. There is often a mismatch between adolescents’ need, partly neurobiological, for status and respect and the way in which adults view and treat them. ‘Just say no’ campaigns are a classic example, often backfiring because of failed assumptions about youth and an over-reliance on authority.
Through a skilful synthesis of the science, Yeager frames adolescence not as a problem to be solved, but as something to invest in. This book offers a refreshing take on a transformative stage of life and is a must-read for parents, teachers and anyone who wants to better understand and support young people. — Candice L. Odgers
Fire Weather
John Vaillant Hachette (2023)
With a frightening account of a devastating wildfire that ravaged Fort McMurray, an oil town in Canada, in 2016, writer John Vaillant gives us a glimpse of what fire events will be like in our warming planet.
This gripping tale is reminiscent of a disaster movie in which scientists’ warnings are ignored until it’s too late. Fiction has become reality. The irony at the heart of the Fort McMurray blaze makes the story a powerful one: the same industry that contributed to global warming was brought to a halt by its consequences.
Vaillant’s depiction of the fire, which forced more than 90,000 people to evacuate and destroyed thousands of homes, seems apocalyptic — but every detail is true. In the years since, other wildfires just as devastating have unfolded around the world.
Vaillant guides readers through fire and climate science. His focus on geology, meteorology and ecology highlights a warning: fire, once a natural part of the Earth system, has become something new. We have reshaped it. Fire Weather isn’t just about one fire. It’s about what the future could look like if we fail to act. Vaillant urges us to ask how this has happened but also what we’re willing to change to prevent it from happening again. — Renata Libonati
All Things are Full of Gods
David Bentley Hart Yale Univ. Press (2024)
Four Greek deities meet in a blooming garden to debate the nature of reality. Hephaistos, the god of artisans, argues that everything that exists is material, and so consciousness is an anomaly that the brain must miraculously produce. Psyche, Eros and Hermes — respectively personifying the principles of life, love and language — counter Hephaistos’ world-view by positing that life, language and the mind cannot be reduced to mechanical material causes.
This is the premise of All Things are Full of Gods, by philosopher and theologian David Bentley Hart, whose own views align with those of Psyche, Eros and Hermes. By presenting these ideas in the form of a 500-page Platonic dialogue, Hart can examine objections to his thesis through the voice of Hephaistos.
Hart even succeeds at enhancing science with theology. An alliance between materialists and atheists has long held sway in science — but the author refutes such doctrines and advocates for a concept of a god as the absolute and transcendent source of human and physical nature.
All Things are Full of Gods is an intellectual blessing in an age in which it can feel like algorithms threaten our souls. It’s hard going, but worth the effort. The foundations of existence and the mystery of consciousness are at stake. — Àlex Gómez-Marín
The Pregnancy Police
Grace E. Howard Univ. California Press (2024)
For far too long, conversations about reproductive health, rights and justice have been reduced to sound bites and clichés. But decision-making in this field is much more complex. Political scientist Grace Howard’s gripping book, The Pregnancy Police, is a must-read for anyone attempting to make sense of our current environment — one in which Adriana Smith, a Black mother who was legally dead, was kept alive for four months to gestate a nine-week-old fetus to comply with Georgia’s anti-abortion law, without her family being consulted.
