Review: This month's new science books

A Maggie McDonald: Small Wonder by Barbara Kingsolver

White letters chalked on a blackboard in Sri Lanka are the first things I remember reading. The pleasure of deciphering that first word (C-A-T, of course) remains with me to this day. By age 11, I read a book a day, and at 14 I was being tested by an irritated teacher and school librarian who demanded proof that I was actually reading my library books.
But there are only so many authors even the most avid of readers can digest, and some evaded me. Barbara Kingsolver was one. I had her filed in a 'sentimental nature-lover: must avoid' category. Friends kept recommending her and a few years ago, I read my first Kingsolver and ditched my ill- founded prejudice. She's a biologist by training and a wonderful writer. Possessed of an analytical mind, she's capable of putting it all down with real passion: a rare find. If you haven't tried her yet, do! Small Wonder is Kingsolver the essayist, elegant and insightful, and a great place to set out from before you tackle her backlist. Here you'll find the San Pedro river on the edge of survival, the energy bill behind the production of a five-calorie strawberry, and Darwin in all his complexity summed up in a mere four clear paragraphs.

B Sue Bowler: Earthshaking Science by Susan Elizabeth Hough

Anyone who has ever driven an elderly, ailing car knows the feeling: it's going to break down, but who knows when, where and what part of the system will fail? Predicting earthquakes is much the same. Tidy forecasts of what, when, where and how much it will cost are as rare for quakes as for car repairs, and about as reliable. Have earthquake seismologists failed, then? Susan Elizabeth Hough says not, and Earthshaking Science sets out her case. This book gives us an excellent outline of how, why and where earthquakes happen together with a clear-eyed look at the subject's inherent uncertainties. This is not a book that proposes simplistic answers. It presents a real picture of a lively research field in all its gritty glory, written with a sharp eye for the absurdities of scientific life.
The focus on uncertainty paradoxically has the effect of highlighting the areas in which seismologists are confident, which makes it easier to deal with the ambiguities. Hough includes a careful and informative discussion of the earthquake risk across the US. Although her findings do not make easy reading, given the vagaries of intraplate quakes, it is an excellent analysis of what to worry about and where. Overall, this is an intelligent look at a broad field of science that affects many lives. Anyone heading for an earthquake area should buy a copy.

C Adrian Barnett: Zoo by Eric Baratay

What's the attraction of gazing at captive animals? It's a good question and others have often sketched out an answer. But in Zoo, Eric Baratay gives us an unprecedented, in-depth answer. He explains why zoos lodge in the human psyche, their place in society, and how they developed over time. Placing them in their social and cultural context, Zoo traces the development of animal collections from medieval bear fights through the menagerie of the French king Louis XIVth to modern captive breeding centres. Combining architectural analysis and political history, the author shows that the desire to display our domination over nature has long been a hidden feature of zoos.
The text has been translated from the French and in places retains a certain unnatural clunkiness. A trained biologist on the translation team might have weeded out appalling zoological errors such as describing the gannet as 'rare and much sought after.' But these are forgivable oversights in a wonderful book that is acute at tracing themes of modern animal husbandry. While the book neither apologises for nor criticises the modern zoo, the extensive appendices tell a grim story. They contain a wealth of statistics on the death rate in collections, and the success rate of captive breeding. An absolute must for those interested in zoo history -or anyone fascinated by homo sapiens's changing relationship with our fellow creatures.

D Ben Longstaff: Journey from the Center of the Sun by Jack B. Zirker

Up, down, in or out. If that's about as much attention as you pay the Sun, you're ignoring something mind-boggling. Did you know that it loses a million tonnes every second in the form of light alone? That's just for starters. In Journey from the Center of the Sun, Jack Zirker goes on a breakneck trip from its hellish core out into the realm of the planets, explaining as much as possible about our star on the way. His story-meets-textbook approach mainly avoids confusing scientific equations, but enables him to delve into lots of physics from massive sound waves to exploding pieces of Sun the size of Asia.
Zirker's explanations are clear and sharp, although don't expect him to lead you by the hand. You do need to find the stomach for a few serious doses of physics and daunting diagrams, but that's just great news if you want plenty of juicy details as well as the grand view. His informal style keeps things moving along swiftly, while balancing the latest findings with background on the pioneers of the field. He shows how solar research has progressed from inspired speculation into a flourishing science.