Et cetera: non-fiction roundup – reviews
Dignity by Michael Rosen, The Shrink and the Sage by Julian Baggini and Antonia Macaro and iDisorder by Larry D Rosen, with Nancy A Cheever and L Mark Carrier
Geeks, rise!
Martin Robbins: Politics is rubbish. As Mark Henderson publishes his Geek Manifesto, it's time for geeks to stand up and make a difference
Rereading: A Land by Jacquetta Hawkes
Robert Macfarlane pays tribute to a flamboyant history of Planet England and a sensorily supercharged call to get back to the land
Et cetera: non-fiction roundup – reviews
The Great Accelerator by Paul Virilio, Sparrow by Kim Todd and The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg
Memoirs of an Addicted Brain by Marc Lewis – review
David Shariatmadari is both fascinated and irritated by an addict turned neuroscientist
Mark Henderson’s Geek Manifesto
Mark Henderson, former science editor at The Times, talks to Martin Robbins about his latest book - The Geek Manifesto – and evidence-based politics
Jonah Lehrer responds to Steven Poole’s review of Imagine
There's more to creativity than any brain scan can show, says Jonah Lehrer. And what's wrong with being interested in product design?
My Sister Rosalind Franklin by Jenifer Glynn – review
Why does the woman behind the discovery of DNA's structure still not get the recognition she deserves, asks Peter Forbes
Possible Worlds and Other Essays by JBS Haldane – review
Tim Radford: It is the fate of good scientists to be overtaken or overturned, but if they write like Haldane they are unlikely to be overlooked
The talking penguin’s guide to climate change
Darryl Cunningham is using the graphic novel format to address the most serious issues in science and to fight disinformation, writes Killian Fox
Are You Smart Enough to Work at Google? by William Poundstone – review
William Poundstone's guide to Google's selection processes works better as a book of challenging logic puzzles, writes Leo Benedictus
Bryson explains why he wrote A Short History of Nearly Everything – video
The author of Notes from a Small Island and The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid talks about writers' irrepressible urge to share 'amazing information'
Imagine: How Creativity Works by Jonah Lehrer – review
Steven Poole challenges a self-regarding how-to guide
How a book about fish nearly sank Isaac Newton’s Principia
Poor sales of lavishly illustrated book forced Royal Society to go back on promise to finance publication of Newton's Principia
Ted Hughes’s brother to publish memoir
Alison Flood: The poet's older brother Gerald is writing recollection of the boys' childhood in Yorkshire
Essential reading for science writers: The Big Short by Michael Lewis
Mark Henderson: When it comes to building a compelling narative about a complex subject, Michael Lewis is the best in the business
Favourite science writing: John Steinbeck’s Log from the Sea of Cortez
The best science writing offers a subjective angle that is just as useful as the things that can be weighed and counted, says James Kingsland
Bird Sense by Tim Birkhead; A Patch Made in Heaven by Dominic Couzens; Our Garden Birds by Matt Sewell – review
A superb study of birds lifts the lid on our feathered friends – and ourselves, writes Tim Dee
Turing’s Cathedral by George Dyson – review
This study of cold war academic John von Neumann and his early computer is engrossing and well researched, writes Evgeny Morozov
Et cetera: non-fiction roundup – reviews
Build Your Own Time Machine by Brian Clegg, The Happiness of Pursuit by Shimon Edelman and Make Love Like a Prairie Vole by Andrew G Marshall
Am I a man or a machine? Science writing at its best – and worst
An article about artificial intelligence provides an object lesson in how to introduce a complex, potentially baffling subject area
Bird Sense: What It’s Like to Be a Bird by Tim Birkhead – review
The mysteries of the avian world entrance David Wheatley
God and the New Physics by Paul Davies – book review
Tim Radford: The enduring appeal of this book is that is addresses the Big Question – not how, when or what, but why?
Antarctica: An Intimate Portrait of the World’s Most Mysterious Continent by Gabrielle Walker – review
Peter Forbes on a continent that is much more than ice and penguins
Science writing prize: Capture the drama, it’s rocket science!
The Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize 2012 launches today. We have asked 14 writers to reflect on their favourite science writing over the coming weeks. Tim Radford lights the fuse
Scientists use Thoreau’s journal notes to track climate change
Researchers use Walden author's tables of flowering dates in 1840s Massachusetts to show temperature has risen 2.4C
Wired for Culture by Mark Pagel; Beyond Human Nature by Jesse J Prinz; Together by Richard Sennett – review
Three studies investigate the origins and development of human culture and co-operation, writes Robin McKie
Turing’s Cathedral by George Dyson – review
It takes persistence, but this is a visionary account of the philosphy of computer programming. By Francis Spufford
Middle Age: A Natural History by David Bainbridge – review
Kathryn Hughes on why the years between 40 and 60 are the best, and evolutionary science agrees
Wired for Culture by Mark Pagel – review
Julian Baggini on an account of what separates men from the beasts ... and other men
Cormac McCarthy’s parallel career revealed – as a scientific copy editor!
Physics writer whose work McCarthy revised says the novelist has a particular loathing for semicolons and exclamation marks
Survival of the Beautiful by David Rothenberg – review
Peter Forbes on an exceptional study of patterns in nature
Rupert Sheldrake: the ‘heretic’ at odds with scientific dogma
Rupert Sheldrake has researched telepathy in dogs, crystals and Chinese medicine in his quest to explore phenomena that science finds hard to explain. He speaks to Tim Adams