Best Popular Science Books on Lesser-Known Topics

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5 books

These exceptional books cover some lesser-known topics in popular science. However, I believe they are all the more important for that reason—they reveal the mysteries and histories of topics that we need to know more about. Beyond the amazing science they reveal, what I love about these books is how well they were written, the stories they tell, and the excitement and wonder in the natural world and with our brains that they inspire. Most importantly, each of these books, in their own way, connects the fascinating world of their topic with how its understanding is essential to understanding humanity, the world we have created, and how we can cultivate a more engaged existence.

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The Botany of Desire

A Plant's-Eye View of the World

Michael Pollan, 2002

Written before Michael Pollan was a superstar, this beautiful book tells the story of four fascinating plants: apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes. Melding science, history, and the inter-relationships between human ambition and nature’s goals, Pollan elegantly and poetically describes how these plants evolved to play the roles in our lives that they have today.

Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation

The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex

Olivia Judson, 2002

Olivia Johnson brilliantly and hilariously adopts the advice column format to explain how animals from crickets to crocodiles to chimps negotiate the survival of their species, i.e., having sex, with direct insights so we lowly humans can navigate love, lust, and the battle of the sexes. In addition to delightfully told science, Johnson expertly weaves in and teaches her readers essential concepts in evolutionary theory and biology and leaves us much more informed, inspired, and amused, as well as with a humbler sense of our importance in the world’s ecosystems.

Napoleon's Buttons

Penny Le Couteur, Jay Burreson, 2004

This is a book about chemistry, and more specifically, about 17 molecules that changed the course of human history. From nylon to nicotine, the fascinating story of how these chemicals were designed or discovered and how human lives have been altered accordingly is brilliantly exposed. What I also love about this book is how it demystifies the enigmatic and often frightening language of chemistry and shows how chemistry is, in fact, a constant, familiar, and essential aspect of our daily lives.

Smellosophy

What the Nose Tells the Mind

A. S. Barwich, 2020

Barwich is a philosopher, a neuroscientist and an expert on the sense of smell. In this book, which mirrors my own passions, she not only gives voice and magic to our most undervalued sense, she brings forth new philosophical viewpoints and challenges popular and received wisdom. This book shines new light on why the sense of smell is so important—not merely as a sensory system but for how a new model of how the human brain fundamentally works can be gleaned from it. What also sets Smellosophy apart from other books on smell is how Barwich goes beyond the science and brings us to meet the scientists who reveal their scent discoveries to us.

Your Brain on Art

How the Arts Transform Us

Susan Magsamen, Ivy Ross, 2023

This book introduces readers to the fascinating field of “neuroaesthetics”. Magsamen and Ross explain art in all of its manifestations, reveal how both first-person art making and second-person art engaging is part of our daily lives, how art enhances mind, body and society, and how we can easily and deliberately harness and participate with art to improve our wellbeing and the social fabric of the world around us. What I especially loved about this book was the energy, enthusiasm, optimism and vision for the future it inspired, and which is so sorely needed in the world today.