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 Non-fiction Space RaceSeptember 2006
Amid the current spate of books concerning the 1960s comes this dramatic retelling of humanity's first steps on its journey into space.  The Unexpected Einstein: The Real Man Behind the IconSeptember 2006
In The Unexpected Einstein, Denis Brian examines and, where necessary, corrects many myths that have grown up around the real Albert Einstein.  Addicted to OilSeptember 2006
Ian Rutledge's book chronicles the rise of America's oil dependency, its political and geological explorations in the Middle East, and some of the science and history of oil itself.  Pi: A Biography of the World's Most Mysterious NumberAugust 2006
Good old pi. The ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. According to this book, pi's been known - in an approximate form - since about 2000bc. And, of course, because the thing is 'irrational' (a number which can't be expressed as a finite decimal number) we will never have anything but approximations.  Earth Time: Exploring the Deep Past from Victorian England to the Grand CanyonJune 2006
Less than two centuries ago devout Englishmen pronounced that the fossils of animals that lived tens of thousands (or even millions) of years ago, had once been creatures killed in the Biblical flood survived only by Noah and his 'passengers'. In the standard early Victorian view, the Earth was created in 4004bc, and the alluvial deposits around the mouth of the Thames sat on top of debris left by the flood.  Looking for Life, Searching the Solar SystemJune 2006
Imagine: in belated recognition of your abilities you've just received the call from NASA and are, as of today, in charge of the U.S. space program, with a budget of trillions and carte blanche to explore the universe as and how you will. OK, what next? Where do you start?  Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic EvolutionJune 2006
In Origins, the authors want to "uncover the story of how part of the Universe turned into ourselves". To do that, they need to explain the history of the Universe, and what it is made of: "fourteen billion years of cosmic evolution", as the subtitle says.  A Chaos of Delight: Science, Religion and Myth and the Shaping of Western ThoughtApril 2006
Geoffrey Dobson is Associate Professor of Physiology and Pharmacology at James Cook University, Townsville. In A Chaos of Delight, he has ventured far from his speciality into ancient history and mythology and the history of Western science. This book is clearly a labour of love.  Deep Sky ObjectsApril 2006
David Levy is probably most famous as the co-finder of the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9, which slammed into Jupiter in 1994. The discovery, with his friends Gene and Carolyn Shoemaker, was the culmination for Levy of decades of comet-hunting.  Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life of GarbageApril 2006
Homo sapiens' astonishing capacity to consume is probably matched only by its parallel capacity to discard. Every week, even our tiny household puts out a couple of cubic metres of rubbish; multiply that by several million households and you have a disposal problem on a grand scale.  The Singularity is Near: When Humans Transcend BiologyApril 2006
In the past decade, Ray Kurzweil has also emerged as an advocate of technologies that offer prospects for dramatic life extension and increases in human capacities. In The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999), he predicts the development of immensely powerful and fully conscious artificial intelligence. This, fortunately, will not compete with humans for mastery of the Earth.  The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger As Your Brain Grows OlderFebruary 2006
Elkhonon Goldberg is a clinical and academic neurologist based in New York. He wrote The Wisdom Paradox in his late 50s - old enough to have begun worrying about the effect of ageing on his brain. Of course, the usual bad news is that our cognitive powers decline with age. This story is a familiar one of slower thought, poorer sensory awareness, weakening concentration, faltering memory, and decreased learning ability.  Roving Mars: Spirit, Opportunity, and the Exploration of the Red PlanetFebruary 2006
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington is one of the great museums of the world. It is awe-inspiring to see artefacts from the 1903 Wright Flyer to the original Apollo 11 command module. They demonstrate a tradition of brilliant, painstaking design and engineering in the face of environments hostile to man and machine.  Teleportation: The Impossible LeapFebruary 2006
Darling has managed to put together a book that is at once cutting-edge and communicates a strong sense of history; it is both technical and comprehensible to non-specialists; it conveys a confident grasp of the underlying theoretical physics involved, as well as being full of childlike awe and fun.  The Violent UniverseFebruary 2006
In astronomy as in medical science, humanity is acutely and, in the second case at least, painfully, aware of its limitations: we can see the ravages of cancer, but are yet largely unable to conquer it; we can see our universe, waiting to be discovered, but as yet lack the means to do so. 
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