Seven Deadly Sins by Guy Leschziner review – the biology of human frailty
A look at wrath, gluttony and the rest from a medical perspective offers valuable insights – but is disease a good guide to normal functioning?
2024 in Culture
The best books to give as gifts this Christmas
From a radical retelling of Huckleberry Finn to Al Pacino’s autobiography, novelists and nonfiction writers reveal the books they will be giving as gifts – and the volumes they would love to find in their own stocking
Best books of 2024
The best science and nature books of 2024
Life on Mars, the magic of trees, the genius of Marie Curie, and the moving story of a heart transplant are among the subjects to come under the microscope this year
November 2024
The big idea
The big idea: on Remembrance Day for Lost Species, here’s why it matters
Book of the day
The Serviceberry by Robin Wall Kimmerer review – the fruits of labour
The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad by Simon Parkin review – the lost heroes of Soviet horticulture
Other lives
Maurice King obituary
Book of the day
The Genetic Book of the Dead by Richard Dawkins review – the great biologist’s swansong
‘He has different personas’: inside Benjamin Franklin’s life as a scientist
In brief: Hum; The Life of Birds; In Writing – review
Book of the day
Raising Hare by Chloe Dalton review – woman meets leveret
October 2024
Book of the day
Breakthrough by William Pao review – the drugs do work
Book of the day
Letters by Oliver Sacks review – science, sex and motorcycles
Winner of Royal Society Trivedi science book prize assesses whether humans really could colonise Mars
How one engineer beat restrictions on home computers in socialist Yugoslavia
Book of the day
Psychedelic Outlaws by Joanna Kempner review – a compelling case for the use of magic mushrooms in pain relief
‘Appreciate winter for what it is, without wishing it were something different’: psychologist Kari Leibowitz on beating the seasonal blues
Anti-fossil fuel comic that went viral in France arrives in UK
Book of the day
World Without End review by Jean-Marc Jancovici and Christophe Blain – a graphic view of the climate crisis
The Elements of Marie Curie by Dava Sobel review – lessons in chemistry
