There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness

January 1, 2022

Leading paleontologist Brusatte follows up the New York Times best-selling The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs with The Rise and Fall of the Mammals, summing up a next act that includes humans, whose world dominance has caused an extinction event costing an estimated 80 percent of wild mammals in the last century alone (75,000-copy first printing). In A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman, Elkins-Tanton--principal investigator of NASA's $800 million Psyche mission--tells her story and that of the nearly all-metal protoplanet 16 Psyche, located in an asteroid belt 589 million kilometers from Earth and optimum not just for mining but more crucially for imparting the story of how planets like ours were formed (50,000-copy first printing). In What Your Food Ate, MacArthur-honored geologist Montgomery joins with biologist Bikl� to argue that good health starts with good soil and good farming practices. A National Book Award finalist for The Soul of an Octopus and New York Times best-selling author of The Good Good Pig, Montgomery returns with The Hawk's Way to describe her work with Jazz, a bright-eyed female Harris's hawk with a four-foot-plus wingspan and decidedly a predator rather than a pet (60,000-copy printing). Award-winning theoretical physicist and cosmologist Padilla explains Fantastic Numbers and Where To Find Them, plumbing nine numbers explaining how the universe works, from the impossibly large Graham's number to 10^{-120}, which measures the unlikely balance of energy needed to allow the universe to exist for more than a blink of the eye (100,000-copy first printing). By detailing the discovery of Tyrannosaurus Rex in the Montana wilderness, the New York Times best-selling Randall explains the triumphant emergence of New York's American Museum of Natural History while also showing how The Monster's Bones inspired an ongoing fascination with dinosaurs and their role in shaping Earth. Multi-award-winning sf author Robinson recounts everything he's learned in the more than 100 trips he has taken to The High Sierra since his first, life-changing sojourn in 1973 (50,000-copy first printing). From a theoretical physicist whose international best sellers have gracefully explained to lay readers how the universe works, Rovelli's There Are Places in the World Where Rules Are Less Important Than Kindness offers essays embracing not just science but literature, philosophy, and politics.

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February 7, 2022
Theoretical physicist Rovelli (The Order of Time) considers politics, art, philosophy, and science in this provocative collection of 46 previously published essays. In “Dante, Einstein and the Three-Sphere” he muses on how Dante anticipated Einstein’s theory on the shape of the universe, noting that “poetry and science are both manifestations of the spirit that creates new ways of thinking the world.” In “Which Science Is Closer to Faith” he encourages readers to set “aside the traditional conflict between science and religion and to focus on what they have in common, rather than on their differences,” while in the powerful “A Day in Africa” Rovelli reflects on a day spent exploring rural Senegal after having visited a mosque: “Perhaps I have actually learned something, one small additional thing, about the complexity of being human.” Some of the pieces haven’t aged well, as when he writes in an essay about Covid that “the reality is that this disaster has no culprits” and that “the number is far lower than the deaths each year from cancer.” Still, Rovelli’s fans will enjoy having this on their shelves.

February 15, 2022
A collection of short essays from one of the most prominent science writers of our time. Rovelli is well known for writing small books on big subjects. Seven Brief Lessons on Physics and The Order of Time earned a devoted audience through their accessible and elegant communication of the findings of modern physics. Though his latest book extends his brand, it differs crucially from its predecessors. While exhibiting his concise prose and easy erudition, this one lacks the sense of unity of previous works. Such is often the nature of collections of previously published pieces, yet even in that context, the text is scattershot. Intermixed with the author's trademark astute scientific and philosophical writing are reminiscences, travelogues, and opinion pieces, some of which are mere filler. Even some of the science writing doesn't hold up. But at his best--and there are plenty of sections that spotlight his best--Rovelli delights. His facility with science and philosophy is exemplary. In a defense of Aristotle's physics, he writes, "the bad reputation of Aristotle's physics is also due to the silly gulf that has opened up between scientific culture and humanist philosophical discourse. Those who study Aristotle generally know little about physics, and those who are engaged in physics have little interest in Aristotle." He offers not just a defense of Aristotle's physics, but a defense of his physics on the grounds of scientific provincialism. While many scientists write as if their specific expertise earns them general expertise, Rovelli knows enough to know what he doesn't know. How beautiful and inspiring is his humility when he assesses his own interpretation of black holes: "Is this really the case? I don't know for sure. I think it might well be. The alternatives seem less plausible to me. But I could be wrong. Trying to figure it out, still, is such a joy." A book so worthy in its heights that it compensates for its lows.

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