PlainPicture/Michiru Nakayama
There will be a ton of science books published over the next year—tons of them. After spending the last month sifting through the books and publisher catalogs coming into our offices, I've settled on the non-fiction books that excite me most, grouped into categories to make it easy to find what you love all year long. Of course, if you're somewhat of an omnivore like me, you might end the year as an expert at everything from identifying psychopaths to really, really huge numbers.
Space
Let's start with something bigger: environmental historian Dagomar Degroot. Ripples on the cosmic ocean. He reflects on how the solar system has shaped humanity, whether it was Martian dust storms that spawned stories of aliens or comet impacts with Jupiter that inspired the first planetary defense strategy. DeGroot also looks at the human impact on space, calling for “interplanetary environmentalism” (a great phrase).
We're going from great to greater, as astrophysicist Emma Chapman says. Radio Universe shows how we use radio waves to explore the distant Universe. Chapman follows one of them on a journey from Earth into the wider Milky Way, passing black holes and pulsars.
New scientist Columnist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein also takes us on a journey through The edge of spacetimedrawing on poetry and culture to explain theoretical physics and the quantum nature of space-time.
Health
There are two aspects that excite me most about the health games of 2026. The first is to use science to make yourself healthier. IN Age codeHealth journalist David Cox explores the science of nutrition and how it can be used to slow biological aging. Surgeon, clinical research director and admitted recovering alcoholic Charles Knowles talks Why do we drink too muchand writer Bill Gifford tells us how we can use heat to improve our health. Hot plugging. We evolved, Gifford argues, to thrive in scorching conditions, and extreme temperatures can push our physical and mental limits.
In addition to self-improvement, we have a group of investigative writers exploring what's really going on in the healthcare industry. Celebrity doctor Xand van Tulleken promises to reveal “the world of wellness to find a healthy lifestyle” Make me healthy.
Science journalist Deborah Cohen Bad influence looks at the world of internet medicine, from Ozempic influencers to AI-powered diagnoses, and Reuters columnist Aimee Donnellan shares her experience writing about business (including big pharma) on the GLP-1 drug Ozempic in Off the scale. There is also journalist Alev Scott. Cash cowwhich is breaking into the fertility industry and how the “mother body” has become a commodity.
Mathematics
In the world of maths, we're thinking big this year as two top mathematicians are stuck. Huge numbers is a look at how counting has increasingly shaped human thinking, and Ian Stewart's book Achieving extreme goes to the edge of mathematics to examine the biggest, smallest, and most complex of our mathematical mysteries.
Technology and artificial intelligence
Emerging Mind Computational neuroscientist and experimental psychologist Gaurav Suri and psychology professor Jay McClelland are trying to explain emergence, where complex systems arise from the interaction of simpler systems.
The pair apply this to the human brain – and artificial intelligence – in a book that will be nicely complemented by Tom Griffiths' book. Laws of thinking. Here, the director of Princeton University's Artificial Intelligence Lab shows how we use mathematics to describe thinking, looking at the ideas behind modern artificial intelligence and how they differ from ideas about the human mind.
Sticking with Artificial Intelligence, Sociologist James Muldoon Love machines explores how our relationships are changed by our interactions with technology, from chatbots to attempts to “resurrect” deceased loved ones.
I also won't miss Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor. Fascism of the end of times and the struggle for the living world in which the journalist and activist collaborate to tell the story of the rise of the far right and what they call “a new apocalyptic alliance of religious fundamentalists, Silicon Valley billionaire tech kings, and ethnonationalists.” Luckily, the duo not only investigates the situation but also tells us how we can counter it.
Two more books on technology caught my attention: the first Little blue dot Investigative reporter Katherine Dunn, history of the Global Positioning System. GPS was originally intended to be a military system, but everyday life now depends on the blinking blue dot on our screens. And on another scale, YouTuber and leading construction influencer (yes, really) Fred Mills picks 10 megaprojects and looks at how they will change the world in the future. Mega builds.
Wednesday
Writer and activist Rebecca Solnit gives us hope in her new book The beginning comes after the end. She talks about the revolution in human thinking over the last 50 years and the changes we are seeing in issues of race, gender, sexuality, science and the environment. The old world still resists, but Solnit reminds us that the power to change is within our reach. So does environmental journalist Fred Pierce. Despite all this – former New scientist collaborator, he wrote a “playbook for climate hopefuls” in which he tells us that it is not too late, that things can change for the better. His reasons for (cautious) hope include nature's ability to thrive in unexpected places and the ability of humans to reach “peak levels.”
Another dose of hope in a burning world comes from biology professor Dave Goulson. Eat the planet rightabout our toxic food system and how to solve it. And in splashJournalist Jeevan Vasagar says the historical rise in flood waters is timely, given that by 2050, 150 million people will live below the high tide line. The hope here lies in the innovative engineering solutions he shares.
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Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor are teaming up to tell the story of the rise of the far right in their new book.
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Nature
Climate change is happening everywhere, including in Where Earth Meets Skythe story of environmental biologist Louise K. Blythe, who studied penguins in Antarctica. In her intriguing study of working in the Antarctic wilderness, she shows how global warming is changing this remote corner.
The world that marine biologist Ruth Searle explores Intertidal zone a little warmer, but no less exciting – an extremely dynamic and fragile ecosystem where land meets sea, constantly being changed by people.
Zoologist Joe Wimpenny wants to have some fun. Beauty of animalsprotecting “nature’s least favorite animals” (snakes, wasps, crocodiles, etc.) and why we should protect them in the face of catastrophic biodiversity loss.
And who could resist biologist Lixing Sun's dive into the “weird and wonderful” science of reproduction in About the origin of sex?
Meanwhile, just how deeply animals have shaped the human brain over thousands of years is shown in Revive Michael Bond, another former employee New scientist.
Psychology
This year, studying our brain will bring long-awaited surprises. I love Art-Curein which psychobiologist Daisy Fancourt draws on neuroscience, psychology, immunology, physiology, behavioral science and epidemiology to show how the arts can improve our health and well-being. (I completely agree!)
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Celebrity doctor Xand van Tulleken promises to open up the “world of health” in Make me healthy
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Elsewhere, two books by neuroscientists address the technosocial changes we face more directly: Hannah Critchlow discovers how to become more resilient in Brain of the 21st century and Paul Goldsmith explaining in Developing brain how our “ancient” minds evolved for a world very different from the one we live in, and what we need to thrive now.
Lynn ten Brinke strives to improve our lives, in particular in Poisonous peoplebecause the psychopathy expert wants to help us identify the psychopaths, narcissists, manipulators, and sadists in our lives and learn to evade them.
There are also many opportunities to study how our brains create complex people and societies. IN The emergence of the worldWriter, academic, and activist Michael Pollan explores the mystery of why we are conscious from scientific, philosophical, spiritual, historical, and psychedelic perspectives.
Elsewhere, other psychologists are hard at work: Paul Eastwick looks at the science of attraction, sex and relationships in Linked by evolutionand Melissa Maffeo Science of the Supernatural uses neuroscience and psychology to explain alien abductions and psychic readings.
Clearly, it's time to clear out our bookshelves to make room for this year's rich new treasures!
BEST OF THE BEST: TOP FOUR 2026
A Brief History of the Universe (and Our Place in It)
Sarah Alam Malik
Particle physicist Sarah Alam Malik explores the discoveries that changed our perception of the cosmos, from the Babylonians tracing the sky on clay tablets to the Copernican revolution.
Wild landscape
by calibration year
Islands of abandonment by Cal Flynn was the highlight of 2021 for me. In her new book, she travels deep into isolated wilderness areas, exploring the nature of wilderness and how to protect wildlife.
I'm not a robot
Joanna Stern
Wall Street Journal Technology reporter Joanna Stern (pictured) spent a year using AI to do almost everything and replace almost everyone, just to see what would happen. A brilliant and scary idea.
History of birds
Steve Brusatte
Paleontologist Steve Brusatte looks at the evolutionary history of birds, the “dinosaurs among us.” Are penguins the size of gorilla? Do ducks weigh more than cows? I'm inside.
