Paperbacks which both challenge and delight for pleasure and brain strain
include Ian Tattersall’s The Fossil Trail (Oxford University Press,£11.99,
ISBN 0 19 510981 3) and Wiebe Bijker’s Of Bicycles, Bakelites and Bulbs (MIT
Press, £13.50, ISBN 0 262 52227 6). Reviewed favourably in New Scientist
at the time of their hardback release, Tattersall examines the techniques which
tell us about our evolutionary past, while Bijker’s traces some unexpected
impacts of inventions on our way of life.
More from New Scientist
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Popular articles
Trending New Scientist articles
1
The world's fastest spider tops 3.5 metres per second
2
Where, when and how to watch the 2026 solar eclipse
3
Babies are born with the neural foundations for maths
4
We’ve uncovered a master gene that switches on human development
5
Humans sleep the least of all apes – is it the secret to our success?
6
Our verdict on The Selfish Gene: An unpopular piece of popular science
7
The race to understand how and when Thwaites glacier will collapse
8
US government wants to have a useful quantum computer by 2028
9
This physicist is hunting for the biggest black hole in the universe
10
The best sci-fi novel in 2026 so far – plus 6 other great reads
