New Books in Science

Alison Bashford, a historian at the University of Sydney, unravels the intricate history of palm reading in her latest work. She explores why figures like Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin were fascinated by hands, linking them to identity and dominance. The podcast dives into chiromancy's medical roots and its surprising connections to modern genetics. Bashford highlights the enduring appeal of palmistry and how ancient practices intersect with contemporary science, tracing palm lines from fortune-telling to diagnostics.

Kenneth Aizawa, a philosophy professor at Rutgers University–Newark and author of 'Compositional Abduction and Scientific Interpretation', dives into the intriguing world of scientific reasoning. He explains how scientists infer unobservables, like the double-helix structure of DNA and the behavior of sodium ions in axons, through a method he calls singular compositional abduction. Aizawa critiques traditional views on abduction and emphasizes the importance of lower-level explanations, distinguishing them from broader hypotheses to shed light on the mechanistic foundations of scientific inquiry.

Heino Falcke, a renowned German professor and co-leader of the Event Horizon Telescope project, shares his remarkable journey to capture the first image of a black hole. He discusses the messy nature of scientific discovery, contemplating the intersections of science and faith. Falcke reflects on the 'Overview Effect' of viewing Earth from space, the universe's mysteries, and how stellar deaths forge the elements of life. He also ponders the implications of extraterrestrial life on religion and the awe inherent in scientific exploration.

Mark Berman, a cognitive neuroscientist and director of the Environmental Neuroscience Laboratory, shares his groundbreaking insights on how nature affects our minds and bodies. He reveals that a simple stroll in a green space can significantly boost attention and decrease symptoms of depression. Berman discusses the benefits of environmental design, from the impact of trees on health to the restorative power of soft natural stimuli over harsh urban settings. His nature prescriptions offer practical guidance for enhancing mental, physical, and social well-being.

In Still Life with Bones: Genocide, Forensics, and What Remains (Crown, 2023), anthropologist Alexa Hagerty learns to see the dead body with a forensic eye. She examines bones for marks of torture and fatal wounds—hands bound by rope, machete cuts—and also for signs of identity: how life shapes us down to the bone. A weaver is recognized from the tiny bones of the toes, molded by kneeling before a loom; a girl is identified alongside her pet dog. In the tenderness of understanding these bones, forensics not only offers proof of mass atrocity but also tells the story of each life lost.Working with forensic teams at mass grave sites and in labs, Hagerty discovers how bones bear witness to crimes against humanity and how exhumation can bring families meaning after unimaginable loss. She also comes to see how cutting-edge science can act as ritual—a way of caring for the dead with symbolic force that can repair societies torn apart by violence.Weaving together powerful stories about investigative breakthroughs, histories of violence and resistance, and her own forensic coming-of-age, Hagerty crafts a moving portrait of the living and the dead.Kelly McFall is Professor of History and Director of the Honors Program at Newman University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science

Scientists are learning more and more about how brain activity controls behavior and how neural circuits weigh alternatives and initiate actions. As we probe ever deeper into the mechanics of decision making, many conclude that agency--or free will--is an illusion. In Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will (Princeton UP, 2023), leading neuroscientist Kevin Mitchell presents a wealth of evidence to the contrary, arguing that we are not mere machines responding to physical forces but agents acting with purpose.Traversing billions of years of evolution, Mitchell tells the remarkable story of how living beings capable of choice arose from lifeless matter. He explains how the emergence of nervous systems provided a means to learn about the world, granting sentient animals the capacity to model, predict, and simulate. Mitchell reveals how these faculties reached their peak in humans with our abilities to imagine and to be introspective, to reason in the moment, and to shape our possible futures through the exercise of our individual agency. Mitchell's argument has important implications--for how we understand decision making, for how our individual agency can be enhanced or infringed, for how we think about collective agency in the face of global crises, and for how we consider the limitations and future of artificial intelligence.An astonishing journey of discovery, Free Agents offers a new framework for understanding how, across a billion years of Earth history, life evolved the power to choose, and why it matters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science

Past human space missions were protected by Earth’s magnetic field and a measure of luck, but future missions beyond the Earth–Moon system will face far greater and longer-lasting radiation risks that cannot be managed by route planning alone. The authors argue that safe deep-space exploration will require major advances in understanding radiation, developing effective shielding, and mitigating both acute and long-term health effects, rather than relying on chance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science

James Franklin, Emeritus professor and leading realist philosopher, explores fascinating connections between mathematics, ethics, and probability. He argues that absolute necessities in these fields are objective truths, accessible to all. Franklin critiques modern education for sidelining genuine proofs, emphasizing how mathematics trains precise thought. He discusses the inherent worth of individuals as a foundation for ethics, and raises intriguing questions about AI’s understanding of necessity, painting a picture of a reality rich with interlinked truths.

Yossi Yovel, a Professor of Zoology and neurobiologist, dives into the fascinating world of bats in his latest book. He explores the social structures of vampire bats and their surprising altruism, revealing how they share food and form bonds. Yovel also discusses bat communication, from echolocation to local dialects, and the role of machine learning in decoding their calls. Additionally, he highlights the evolutionary journey of bats, examining their unique adaptations and the challenges they face from human impact and environmental changes.

In this episode from the Institute’s vault, we revisit an October 2007 presentation by theoretical physicist and Institute Fellow Jeremy Bernstein on J. Robert Oppenheimer, the atomic bomb, and the nuclear arms race that followed. As a physicist, Bernstein made contributions to elementary particle physics and cosmology, working at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New York University, and Stevens Institute of Technology, where he became Professor Emeritus in 1967. He held visiting positions at CERN, Oxford, and the École Polytechnique, among others, and was the last surviving senior member of Project Orion, which studied the potential of nuclear pulse propulsion for space travel. Bernstein was a staff writer for The New Yorker for over three decades. He wrote regularly for The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic Monthly, and Scientific American, and authored over two dozen books, including Oppenheimer: Portrait of an Enigma (2004). He passed away on April 20th, 2025 at the age of 95. Here he is in 2007, discussing the topics on which he made a great contribution and helped illuminate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science