The best new popular science books of January 2026 include titles by Claudia Hammond and Deborah Cohen

Here in the northern hemisphere, January always seems to be the longest and dullest month of the year, so we're lucky to have plenty of new science books to brighten up our days. This month we can explore everything from what art brings to our lives to the unsung hero of friction. What about the origin of ideas? Or what do we lose when we light up the sky? Maybe January isn't long enough…

Art-Cure by Daisy Fancourt

What if playing the piano, dancing, visiting art galleries or even lying in the dirt listening to Wolf Alice at Glastonbury were good for your body, mind and longevity? Or what if it helps us develop brain resistance to dementia? This is just part of Daisy Fancourt's enticing and ambitious message in her new book. In theory, she is well placed to prove her case as professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London and director of the WHO arts and health initiative. British TV doctor Xand van Tulleken calls it an “amazing antidote” to the “torrent of nonsense” we are given every day about how to live better. License to Entertain – What’s not to love?

That's the question we all asked ourselves – and, thinking, we immediately poured another glass. The story of why we use alcohol for everything from celebration to stress relief to adaptation (biology, not moral failure) is in the hands of surgeon and clinical researcher Charles Knowles. Since he is simply a recovering alcoholic, this should be the definitive inside look at what's going on in our brains, why and how alcohol hijacks our survival instincts, suppresses our ability to choose, and most importantly, how drinking can spiral out of control. More importantly, he has a scientific “plan” on how to break out of this vicious cycle. Less moralizing and more science is a good choice.

We all do it—run to the Internet for help when we're sick. Or if we want to become the best version of ourselves – with amazingly low blood pressure, ideal blood sugar levels, not an ounce of excess fat, and completely focused on being happy and successful citizens. But who are these experts who live online and don’t know our personal medical history? Science writer Deborah Cohen asks why we trust them with our lives without any evidence of their qualifications or impartiality. Good question. Hope she has some good answers.

Polar War Kenneth R. Rosen

What will happen when the Arctic melts is something we will all have to come to grips with—and quickly—as pipelines are sabotaged, global lines of communication are disrupted, and untapped natural resources are put at risk in a new race for position and power? It's no surprise that geopolitical writer and one-time war correspondent Kenneth Rosen is caught up in a world that justifies the book's subtitle: “Submarines, Spies, and the Struggle for Power in a Melting Arctic.” Terrible, in a good way.

Does everything start from the center – from big cities, established ideas, conventions in all their forms? No, says Charles Foster, offering a seemingly thought-provoking counter-theory: the best ideas come from the margins. In what is described as a “fascinating and philosophical travelogue,” Foster travels “to the far reaches of the planet… and human culture and consciousness, to the edges of continents, evolution, artistic and political movements, and life itself.” Stirring if it does even half that.

Forget the festive period, everyday life seems to speed up with too much to do and less time to do it. This phenomenon even received a name due to the effect it produces – suppression. How do we stop this? BBC journalist Claudia Hammond takes on this challenge, dividing her book into chapters covering everything from procrastination to fear of regret, perfectionism and endless to-do lists. She offers a set of psychological tools and a wealth of scientific evidence to keep us from getting burned out among her “stress relief techniques,” as evidenced by the book's subtitle. In a timely manner, of course.

Whether you're struggling with weight loss or worried about the consequences of getting what you think you want, GLP-1 Ozempic and other weight loss drugs are sure to make headlines this year. Reuters columnist Aimee Donnellan sets out to weave together the inside story of Novo Nordisk's race to develop a “cure” for obesity with Ozempic, a diabetes drug that targets the hormone GLP-1 and makes people feel fuller longer, with economic, political, social implications – and the underlying scientific question: Are these drugs too good to be true?

Every year, our night skies become at least 120 percent brighter—and this has big implications not only for astronomers, but also for our wildlife (not to mention our sleep cycles). IN Night travelTravel writer and dark skies advocate Megan Eves-Egenes travels the world to understand our connection to the night sky. Billed as a way to “find solace in the stars during times of difficulty in her own life,” she embarks on a journey that will take her from New Zealand to Uzbekistan, Italy to Japan, Germany to the Himalayas, exploring what darkness means globally and over time—and, most of all, it seems, what we are at risk of losing.

Friction Jennifer Weil

The story of the invisible force makes for a great read, and the “biography” of friction, as author Jennifer Weil calls it, seems promisingly left-leaning. We're talking here about the force that resists motion that we encounter in everyday life (think squeaky door hinges or car tires worn out on the freeway), and its power from the first spark of fire to the Industrial Revolution to its unexpected role in the race to understand viruses and much more. For most (though certainly not for Newton, da Vinci and the like) he is an unsung hero – although hopefully not for long.

From Ada Lovelace's groundbreaking algorithms and Alan Turing's famous machine intelligence test to Deep Blue's chess victory, ChatGPT, it's presented as a tour through the monuments and failures of the great and unfolding history of artificial intelligence. Looks fun, says an AI professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia. The big question, of course, is: can this huge story really fit into a short book? Well, Carlo Rovelli nailed the physics, so fingers crossed.

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