This has been a difficult year for science. Although there were important milestones, such as breakthroughs in gene editing for rare diseases and new views on early human evolution (including starting a fire), the US scientific community as a whole was shaken by institutional problems. Cutting federal cuts frozen thousands of research grants, and the Trump administration began to actively working on dismantling That National Center for Atmospheric Research. Meanwhile, falsified scientific research are on the rise, tarnishing academic integrity.
Our selection of the best art and entertainment this year.
Luckily, we can still turn to our bookshelves and podcasts to ground ourselves. We turned to science doyen Ali Ward, host of the hilarious cult favorite. “Ology podcast, to share your picks for the best science books of 2025.
Covering fascinating topics from bees to human anatomy, Ward's insightful list reminds us that books remain timeless vessels for truth and knowledge.
“Ferns: Survival Lessons from Earth's Most Adaptable Plants”
They were Fei-Wei Li and Jacob S. Suissa.
Hardy Grant Books: 192 pages, $45.
“Dr. Lee the botanist of our dreams…the way he talks about ferns and why he loves them, how he grew up in Taiwan (essentially a fern forest), and how the sexual reproduction of ferns has become a great way to bring awareness to the LGBTQ and non-binary community is so charming and funny. They even named a whole genus after Lady Gaga because they listened to “Born This Way” a lot in the lab, and also because they have “GAGA” sequences in their DNA.
“Laura Silburn's illustrations are great – they really add a lot of texture to some of these plants that are really tiny. Every page is like a botany poster. As we see so much scientific research being underfunded, especially in the last year, there is a big question in the culture at large: why is this important? Why does studying the genome of a fern matter? It has real consequences – less pesticides end up in your crops because we figured out something from a foreign genome. I always like it when something is overlooked or taken for granted, and through someone’s passion and dedication to studying it, we learn that it can change our lives.”
“The ABCs of California's Native Bees”
Krystle Hickman
Bloom: 240 pages, $38.
“Krystle is an amazing photographer and an incredible visual artist. Her passion for native bees is infectious. Many people, when they think of bees, think of honey bees. And honey bees aren't even native to North America. They are not Los Angeles natives. They are not the original inhabitants of this country. These are wild livestock. What I love about her book is that it opens our eyes to all these species that are literally right under our noses that we don't even think about – and that many people don't even identify as bees.
“Another reason I love this book is that she puts essays in it about their experiences finding bees. So you'll see these great landscape photographs. You'll see what it took to find a bee, how to look for one, and much more about that particular species. It's all organized into ABCs that you can pick up in any chapter and look at a bee you've never heard of before.”
(Little, Brown and Company)
“Humanity: What talking to a cat or naming a car says about the unique human need for humanization”
Justin Gregg
Little, Brown: 304 pages, $30.
“Justin is funny. He is such a good writer and his voice is truly very accessible. The way he writes about science is through such a wonderful lens of pop culture and pop science. You feel like you're reading an email from a friend who has something really interesting to tell you.
“This book is about anthropomorphizing everything from our toasters to why we love some spiders but hate others. It's a discussion that's so important in an age where we literally have bots on our phones that say, 'I'll be your best friend.'
“Justin talks about human psychology and our need to want to befriend or villainize objects—or technology, or animals—and project our own humanity onto them in ways that are sometimes helpful and sometimes dangerous.
“As a science communicator, you can tell people the most exciting facts and tell them the best stories. But if you can't give people a conclusion, then a lot of times it doesn't stick or spark interest. It really asks the question, 'Well, what does this mean for my life?'
“Removable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy.
Mary Roach
W. W. Norton & Co: 288 pages, $28.99.
“I'm a long term simpleton for Mary Roach.
“The humanity she brings is a great foundation for how our bodies sometimes fail us and what we try to do to get them back. From her presence during orthopedic surgeries and the way she describes the sound of a hammer on a bone (and just that fun atmosphere in the operating room that you, as a patient, would never know because you're passed out, half-dead, on the slab). She really soaks up the atmosphere that you'll never have access to. She rides into Mongolia to learn about the eyes. The operation is there, in the yurts. She takes you to places where you can never go. She digs through archives and old papers – she just does it. anything interesting.
“Mary really is both an ally and an outsider, and I think that’s a really beautiful thing about her book.”
“Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overpaid and Underpaid”
A gift from Antiai-oketager.
Portfolio: 256 pages, $29.00.
“Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman this is absolute power. I have followed her work on economics and capital for many years and was very excited about the publication of this book. We did episode about calologywho studies beauty standards, many years ago, and I always liked the conversation about how different members of society are subject to a certain tax – these additional resources that they have to provide.
“I was really interested in reading specifically about women of color because it's something that I don't think is widely discussed. Anna combines the sociology of it with the reality of her experience and the experiences of other women of color. Because she's so nimble when it comes to politics and economics, she's also thinking, 'What can we do about this?' made?
“It has general information about what the gender gap is and what double tax is, and it's written like a receipt. This book really addresses double taxation in a way that, even if you don't have any idea about it or something you haven't thought about – or you're someone who hasn't experienced it – it lays it out economically in a way that's really accessible and has a lot of impact.”
Recinos is an arts and culture journalist and creative nonfiction writer based in Los Angeles. Her first collection of essays, Under the Palm Trees, will be published in early 2027.
