The Ten Best Science Books of 2025

by Smithsonian Magazine
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10 books
From “experimental archaeology” to the mysterious appeal of exploration, the wide-ranging subjects detailed in these titles captivated Smithsonian magazine’s science contributors this year
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See the source list and commentary at www.smithsonianmag.com

Is a River Alive?

Robert Macfarlane, 2025

Replaceable You

Adventures in Human Anatomy
Mary Roach, 2025

Battle of the Big Bang

The New Tales of Our Cosmic Origins
Niayesh Afshordi, Phil Halper, 2025

The Explorer's Gene

Why We Seek Big Challenges, New Flavors, and the Blank Spots on the Map
Alex Hutchinson, 2025

Air-Borne

The Hidden History of the Life We Breathe
Carl Zimmer, 2025

Empire of AI

Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman's OpenAI
Karen Hao, 2025

Dinner with King Tut

How Rogue Archaeologists Are Re-creating the Sights, Sounds, Smells, and Tastes of Lost Civilizations
Sam Kean, 2025

Vanished

An Unnatural History of Extinction
Sadiah Qureshi, 2025

North to the Future

An Offline Adventure through the Changing Wilds of Alaska
Ben Weissenbach, 2025

Natural History

Poems
Brandon Kilbourne, 2025