Not content with this wonderful chemical world, meddling with our brain chemistry, often by ingesting plants, is a favourite pastime of humans and other animals.
“Our ancestors may have wiped out all manner of psychoactive treats as they killed off species” But where there is clarity to be had, Smith brings it with aplomb, revealing the chemistry behind how we sleep, what we fear, who we love and even what we remember. As Smith explains, we often don’t know how these substances work. Meanwhile, in Ginny Smith’s Overloaded (Bloomsbury Sigma), we learn how the way we feel and even our sense of reality depend partly on how certain chemicals behave in our brains. In Move! (Profile), Caroline Williams, another New Scientist regular, explores how moving our bodies can act as “a hotline to the brain”, affecting the way we think and feel for the better. It’s a romp through the science behind common ailments that ponders whether our day-to-day gripes are the best indicators of future health.įrom healthy bodies to healthy minds. He ratcheted up more than 100, which he explores in detail in Mustn’t Grumble (Headline). New Scientist writer Graham Lawton spent a year keeping a diary of his “minor health woes”. The Book of Hope is both a memoir of a well-lived life and a compendium of stories of “people who succeed because they won’t give up”. “It’s mostly because people are so overwhelmed by the magnitude of our folly that they feel helpless,” says Goodall. In The Book of Hope (Viking), Abrams interviews Goodall, whose positive philosophy has been honed over a lifetime of commitment to the natural world. They go on to explain how we came by such a varied appetite and how our dinners robbed the world of so many large animals.įor inspiration on how modern humans can avoid doing the same, Jane Goodall’s collaboration with publisher Douglas Abrams is a good place to start. The diet of the Clovis peoples of North America is a menu that husband-and-wife team Rob Dunn and Monica Sanchez describe as “a tally of a lost world”. Delicious (Princeton University Press) raises the idea that our ancestors wiped out all manner of psychoactive treats as they worked their way through mammoths, mastodons, bison, Jefferson’s ground sloths, giant camels and many more now-extinct species. Science writers found many more unexpected wonders to share with us this year. Here is a thought suitable for the season: did you know that mammals have a special touch receptor dedicated to cuddling? Bodies and brains It reveals how the 86 billion nerve cells in the human nervous system afford us not just five, but more than 30 distinct senses, all served by dedicated receptors. For that reason, Sentient (Picador), written by photographer and wildlife film-maker Jackie Higgins, is my personal pick of the year. The first rule of popular science is to reveal the wonder and mystery of the world.