by Karmela Padavic-Callaghan

I started my colleague Karmela Padavic-Callaghan鈥檚 first book, , with trepidation. How could they deliver on its subtitle, 鈥渁 life according to quantum physics鈥�? I finished it with both a better understanding of all things quantum and a deeper desire to understand myself after reading Karmela鈥檚 own thoughtful journey as a queer, millennial immigrant.

This is a unique blend of memoir and science writing, in which Karmela interweaves growing up in Croatia, moving to New York, doing a physics PhD, teaching in high school and working as a 快猫短视频 reporter with big physics concepts.

So, how do you make links between, say, indefinite causality and a life-threatening tooth infection, or wave-particle duality and the realisation that you are queer? Somehow, Karmela does, and it all works to create a book that is clear and friendly on a scientific level, and candid and insightful on a personal one.

鈥淵ou don鈥檛 acquire Homer; Homer acquires you.鈥� So writes Adam Nicolson in , his paean to that indispensable pair of ancient epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Christopher Nolan鈥檚 of the latter makes Nicolson鈥檚 book essential reading now for anyone interested in the story鈥檚 greater significance.

Nicolson鈥檚 work follows three trains of thought. In the first, he waxes philosophical about what Homer 鈥� always referred to in the singular, but acknowledged to have been multiple people, spanning generations 鈥� has to say about the meaning of life and the clash between civilisation and depravity. He delves into the fascination literary giants have had with Homer, including John Keats, whose poem Endymion gives the book its title, and Alexander Pope, whose translations leave much to be desired.

The other two strands are more rooted in the tangible world. Nicolson digs into the text of the Iliad and the Odyssey and parses out variations in the Greek, tracing the language鈥檚 structure back to the Linear B of the Mycenaean era and beyond, and uses this linguistic examination to attempt to pin down exactly when the poems were first composed 鈥� much earlier than we鈥檇 previously thought, he argues. The standardised, written Homer that we know came down from a much older oral tradition, says Nicolson, as far back as even 2000-1800 BC.

Finally, he finds traces of Homer鈥檚 writing in archaeological treasures from around the ancient Mediterranean, from a papyrus found at the Hawara site in Egypt to a pottery shard discovered in a tomb on the island of Ischia, one of the oldest surviving examples of written Greek. The papyrus dates to about AD 150; the pottery, to the 8th century BC. Much attention is also paid to the shaft graves of Mycenae, and what they can tell us about the world before the Bronze Age collapse.

Nicolson isn鈥檛 interested in the historicity of the poems themselves 鈥� they are myths, after all 鈥� as much as he is in the world that produced them. He draws a compelling portrait of a complex ancient realm, and of people for whom these stories provided a link to their nomadic, warrior-centred past.

Rereading The Mighty Dead, with its focus on relics and remnants, reminded me of my honeymoon to Crete. My husband and I visited the archaeological museum in Heraklion and saw a boar-tusk helmet on display; in book 10 of the Iliad, you will find Odysseus described wearing one, too. It is a reminder, as Nicolson鈥檚 book impressively contends, that the world of Homer is still very much all around us, if we know where to look.

Who were the enigmatic Sea Peoples blamed for the Bronze Age collapse?

Around 3000 years ago, several empires and kingdoms in the Mediterranean collapsed, with a group of sea-faring warriors implicated as the culprit. But new evidence shows that many of our ideas about this turbulent time need completely rethinking

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(UK: Channel 4; US: not available)

In 2015, an amateur trophy hunter from the US shot and killed the largest lion in Africa. The vitriol unleashed after Cecil鈥檚 death isn鈥檛 surprising (or entirely unwarranted), but what is remarkable is how this delicately-crafted film uses the case as a locus for all sorts of arguments about conservation. A symbol in life and in death, Cecil and other large, charismatic animals exist in a complex balance with humans who, one way or another, invariably stake a claim on them.

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(UK: BBC iPlayer; US: not currently available)

Almost everyone in the world now needs to have some knowledge of how AI technologies work, from all the chatbots they encounter to driverless cars and more. Mathematician Hannah Fry is an excellent person to impart such knowledge: across three episodes, she guides us through recent cases where AI has become entangled with very human problems. The series breaks down complicated topics through clear metaphors, and it benefits from Fry鈥檚 warmth, humour and complete lack of judgement towards those at the sharp end of this ultimate technological revolution.

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(UK: BBC iPlayer; US: Discovery+)

While we eagerly await Artemis III in 2027, why not revisit this year鈥檚 Artemis II mission, which returned humans on a flyby of the moon for the first time in more than 50 years? This all-too-brief film is the product of three and a half years of filming with the Artemis programme, and it鈥檚 the story of countless humans 鈥� all those behind-the-scenes engineers and designers who worked on the mission alongside the four astronauts who travelled further from Earth than anyone before them.

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(UK: BBC iPlayer; US: PBS)

The best of the many, many documentaries released to celebrate David Attenborough鈥檚 centenary was this behind-the-scenes look at the most iconic natural history series ever made. Released in 1979, the structure and tone of Life on Earth became the blueprint for almost every nature documentary that has been made ever since, and consequently has helped to define how we view the world around us. Making Life on Earth is crammed full of fascinating details from the production process, from a terrifying near-miss with armed guards in Rwanda, to Attenborough discovering that he has an allergy to donkey fur while riding the animals to the bottom of the Grand Canyon 鈥� and how it ended up ruining a close-up.

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(UK: for rent; US: HBO Max)

Fifteen years ago, a devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami killed 20,000 people across northern Japan and caused vital cooling systems at the Fukushima nuclear power plant to fail. Told through the most stomach-churning footage and eye-witness accounts, this film sets out exactly what went wrong and charts how a natural disaster turned into a nuclear emergency. Amid the grim details, one bright spot is the bravery of the so-called Fukushima 50, who remained onsite and risked their lives to prevent a full-scale meltdown that would have rendered vast swathes of Japan uninhabitable. Because of their actions, only one person has so far died as a result of the accident.

It鈥檚 a hot month in London 鈥� in oh so many ways. Life, being alive and death are big themes in the new popular science books out in July, not to mention that small thing of being a human and all the messy feelings and sensory stuff that goes with it. Then there鈥檚 also AI filling the future 听鈥� in ways that worry one of the world鈥檚 leading forensic scientists, as well as ethicists who are paid to think about this sort of thing. I鈥檓 looking forward to delving into the worlds of volcanoes and pharmacology, which look positively safe and stable in comparison鈥�

by Valerie Tiberius

Can friendship with a chatbot ever be as good as friendship with a gang of flesh-and-blood besties? Is there still and will there 鈥� can there听 鈥� always be something about human friendships that will elude the smartest of simulations? Ethicist and University of Minnesota professor of philosophy Valerie Tiberius sets out to argue the human case. She defines the ideal friendship as an enjoyable, close relationship built on shared activities between people who care about each other for their own sake. It will be interesting to see where her book goes with this 鈥� especially since Shannon Vallor, author of听The AI Mirror: How to reclaim our humanity in an age of machine thinking, thinks it 鈥減rovides a nuanced philosophical survey of the possibilities for human-AI relationships by highlighting their considerable risks and benefits鈥�.

The 17 best popular science books of 2026 so far

The first six months of the year have brought us popular science reads on everything from consciousness to cosmology. Liz Else rounds up her favourites

by Richard Coker

It may sound a bit gloomy, but Timor Mortis (literally 鈥渇ear of death鈥�) could hardly be more timely as we increasingly worry about the quality of end-of-life care for everyone we care about (including ourselves). Then there鈥檚 what we mean by 鈥渁 good death鈥� 鈥� and perhaps the biggest question of all, how do we live in the hyperteched 21st century in the visceral shadow of our own death? Public health doctor Richard Coker probes death鈥檚 complexities from different perspectives: biological, psychological, moral and historical. Coker has certainly done the rounds, latterly as a professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, and earlier as a doctor working with people who had TB or HIV/AIDS.

by Tamie Jovanelly

This is one of the latest in the redoubtable What Everyone Needs to Know series from Oxford University Press, covering everything from gender to robots. And how could you go wrong with the subject of volcanoes? Geology professor Tamie Jovanelly has over 20 years of global research experience in volcanism, climate change, water systems and natural hazards to guide her as she answers those simple questions we might be too embarrassed to ask anyone else. Where do we find volcanoes? Can we predict when and where they will erupt? Can we harness their energy? 听With 1350 active volcanoes on Earth, between 50 and 70 erupting annually, not to mention climate change in the mix, explaining what makes one of nature鈥檚 most powerful forces work isn鈥檛 a simple task. Jovanelly also gives us GPS coordinates for locating volcanoes, high-definition photographs for identifying volcanic minerals and rocks 鈥� and there鈥檚 an appendix featuring 100 of the world鈥檚 most active volcanoes.

by Rod Flower

This book sounds like it might be a great companion to a title we featured in May: Nick Barber鈥檚 How to Take Drugs: A new approach to medication for better results and fewer side effects. And given the staggering 1 billion-plus prescriptions written in the UK every year 鈥� and, even more staggeringly, over five billion in the US 鈥� members of the prescribed-to public can stand all the help they can get to understand why they take the drugs they do, and what those drugs do. This is more of a history and context-builder, as Rod Flower, emeritus professor of biochemical pharmacology at Queen Mary University of London (with a big interest in inflammation and anti-inflammatories) takes us through the astonishingly fast evolution of our drug use, from healing plants and herbs to a global market just under $2 trillion 鈥� and the rise of pharmacology as a discipline. Flower also shows us how drugs really work in detail, the process of medicine development and what makes scientists think that their therapies will work as, er, advertised.

by Roopika Risam

鈥淕roundbreaking and provocative鈥� is how its publishers describe Data Empire. This exploration of data as power tracks back millennia to the first clay tablets of Mesopotamia, through knotted strings keeping account to the algorithmic modern state. Their purpose sounds oddly familiar: helping states govern people/empires, and helping institutions to decide who appears on the official record and who doesn鈥檛. As we stare, often helplessly, at the plethora of hyperconnected, pervasive, personally extractive tech heading at us, shaping the future needs the insights of people like Risam, working from her multiple perspectives, including a digital humanities and social engagement professorship at Dartmouth College, New Hampshire. Any writer would be thrilled to have the kind of applause she has attracted, with Lewis Dartnell (author of The Knowledge: How to rebuild our world from scratch) calling the book 鈥淏reathtaking in its scope鈥� and one of the founders of VR, Jaron Lanier, describing it as the 鈥渘ew history of mankind demanded by our times鈥� This book asks what we will do about data now that we have no choice but to do something.鈥�

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by Ian Bogost

In a time of excess consumption, enforced efficiency and fear of missing out, it sounds distinctly quixotic to be pursuing a more gratifying life. But Atlantic columnist and computer academic/designer Ian Bogost鈥檚 The Small Stuff is pitched as just that. From digital tickets to automated taps, say its publishers, life鈥檚 simple pleasures have been stripped away, replaced by sleek, soulless design. Bogost 鈥渦ncovers how modern conveniences not only fail to deliver on their promises but also rob us of small, satisfying tasks and moments that keep us grounded and human鈥�. So it isn鈥檛 just a matter of smelling the roses, and sitting under more trees, but reinvesting in your interactions with the material world and more labour-creating devices. Small pleasures instead of flat giant screens鈥� can鈥檛 wait!

by Dan Werb

Brown rats, raccoons, and urban foxes; house flies and cockroaches; even dandelions and kudzu vines; they are wild creatures living alongside humans, hence the lovely Greek noun that describes them: synanthrope (syn meaning 鈥渨ith鈥�; anthropos 鈥渕an鈥�). These and more exotic creatures, such as the tiger quoll or the collared delma, are at the heart of what looks like a really fascinating book. Writer and epidemiologist Dan Werb goes beyond examining the everyday roles these wild animals play in our lives: from annoyance at the activities of houseflies and urban foxes, to replacing lids in raccoon country or watching out for disease vectors from brown rats and others. He鈥檚 also interested in how we are reaching a key moment as these creatures are 鈥渁rbiters of our planet鈥檚 future鈥�, and 鈥渁 key influence on the continuing evolution of our species鈥�. Environmental destruction means that their urban habitats will increase and their numbers soar. We are going to have to stop resisting them and learn how to live in harmony. By the way, the collared delma is a tiny legless lizard, but the tiger quoll is a metre-long carnivore 鈥� a cross between a cat and a rat. Interesting futures ahead then.

听by Sue Black

This is the third book in a trilogy by Sue Black, one of the UK鈥檚 most eminent forensic scientists with 40 years of experience working on the evidence used in criminal cases. This time she鈥檚 putting science in the dock as she uses landmark cases to unpick what went wrong, where justice was served, what we should fight to preserve 鈥� and asks how AI and other forms of automation will work in court. And while there have been huge leaps forward 鈥� the discovery of DNA fingerprinting, and Black鈥檚 own vein-pattern identification work 鈥� cases like that of Andrew Malkinson, wrongly convicted and jailed for 17 years, show what happens when things go wrong. She asks if we鈥檒l be able to cope with the future coming at us fast. 鈥淎re we prepared for AI to redact police files before they are sent to the CPS? Are we ready to accept instant interview translations? If they are incorrect, who will correct them? Who will notice? We will certainly all care,鈥� she writes. We will indeed.

快猫短视频 recommends an unsettling deep dive into forensic science

Esteemed forensic anthropologist Sue Black gives a candid insight into the UK criminal justice system and how it really works in her book An Expert Witness, finds Linda Geddes

by Eleanor Drage

Confusion and fear around the fast encroachment of AI and where it may lead is completely understandable. But ethicist Eleanor Drage is exploring, as her book鈥檚 subtitle puts it, 鈥淗ow to stop catastrophising and build an ethical future鈥�. She reckons we need a whole new language and some fresh ideas to determine what AI is and how we should use it. That translates into adding feminism, reparative justice and climate politics into the debate. Early endorsements include broadcaster Sandi Toksvig (鈥淎 wise and purpose-driven book to steer us out of AI doom鈥�) and N. Katherine Hayles, author of From Bacteria to AI (鈥淓leanor Drage dismantles prophecies of both apocalypse and transcendence to show how we can achieve liveable futures with AI鈥�).

The best new popular science books of June 2026

The most exciting popular science reads this month explore everything from symbiosis to hormones, while Alice Roberts takes on an editor-in-chief role in her latest book

by Melanie Challenger

This is one of our biggest conceptual problems: what does it mean to be alive? Researcher and natural philosopher Melanie Challengerprobes the latest discoveries in biology and physics 鈥渢o reveal a radical truth: to be alive is first and foremost a way of being a body鈥�, say the book鈥檚 publicists. This sounds great and it will be interesting to see how the argument plays out 鈥� how far Alive lives up the claims and restores 鈥渁gency, purpose and meaning to organisms in an age of artificial intelligence and biodiversity loss鈥�.

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