The year in reviews: Books that stood out in 2016

As 2016 draws to a close (don’t forget about that extra leap second ), here is Physics Today‘s annual list of holiday book picks. Keep in mind that this is not a “best of” compilation. Our holiday list focuses on broadly accessible books that were reviewed in the magazine and are of interest to a wide cross section of Physics Today readers. A few of the recommendations might even make good stocking stuffers for that family member who doesn’t understand what physicists do—and doesn’t hesitate to tell you so every December.

When you’re done reading our suggestions, please share your own favorite recent science nonfiction in the comments.

How Do You Find an Exoplanet? by John Asher Johnson (Princeton University Press, 2015; $35; 200 pp. Buy at Amazon ). This year NASA’s New Horizons probe finished beaming back data from its successful 2015 flyby of Pluto, giving us an unprecedented look at the distant dwarf planet. A future mission may well take us beyond Pluto to an exoplanet—a planet that orbits a star other than the Sun. In this book, astronomer John Asher Johnson, discoverer of three exoplanets, gives an engaging introduction to the techniques used to find exoplanets. Samantha Thompson writes that Johnson makes his subject accessible to “anyone with an understanding of freshman physics,” and adds, “I could imagine myself in one of Johnson’s classes, listening as he explains in his conversational style the theory behind the exoplanet discovery techniques.” Johnson melds scientific details, personal anecdotes from his own education and career, and stories from the history of astronomy to give readers a fascinating introduction to the search for planets outside the solar system.

The Most Wanted Man in China: My Journey from Scientist to Enemy of the State by Fang Lizhi, translated by Perry Link (Henry Holt and Co, 2016; $32; 352 pp. Buy at Amazon ). Few scientific memoirs have a more dramatic origin story than The Most Wanted Man in China. In 1989, following the protests at Tiananmen Square, popular Peking University astrophysics professor Fang Lizhi sought refuge at the US embassy in Beijing, fearing that the government had targeted him in its crackdown on activists. Fang had good reason to worry: He had been expelled from the Chinese Communist Party and sent for “rehabilitation” during the Cultural Revolution. Ultimately he and his wife, physicist Li Shuxian, would stay in the US embassy for nearly a year before emigrating to Arizona. Fang used that long, uncertain year to write his autobiography, though it was not published until after his death in 2012. This engaging English translation gives us a look into the life and work of an accomplished scientist and a glimpse into some of the most tumultuous and painful periods in China’s history. Remo Ruffini praises the book’s “beautiful” prose and “lively anecdotes” and adds that it contains a “particularly compelling firsthand account of the dramatic events in Chinese universities during the Cultural Revolution of 1966–76.”

A Singularly Unfeminine Profession: One Woman’s Journey in Physics by Mary K. Gaillard (World Scientific, 2015; $24; 200 pp. Buy at Amazon ). Theoretical physicist Mary K. Gaillard has a CV that would inspire any young scientist. In the 1970s she was a researcher at CERN, where she and Benjamin Lee successfully predicted the mass of the charm quark. She went on to become a tenured professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and the head of the particle theory group at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Despite her talent and passion, however, Gaillard’s road to success was far from smooth, and in this thought-provoking memoir she details how she had to fight sexism both overt and subtle in order to pursue her love of research. As she said in a Q&A with Physics Today , “I wanted to convey the difficulties I experienced—and also to express the joy and excitement of doing physics—to young aspiring scientists as well as to any reader.” Belén Gavela praises Gaillard’s book as “a rich addition to the literature on the history of the standard model and a must-have testimony of a pioneering woman.” Gavela says the book “should be illuminating to anybody concerned about discrimination in science.”

A Survival Guide to the Misinformation Age: Scientific Habits of Mind by David J. Helfand (Columbia University Press, 2016; $29.95; 344 pp. Buy at Amazon ). This year we saw several outstanding physicist-authored books that synthesized personal perspectives, scientific questions, and hopes for the future of physics research, including Sean Carroll’s The Big Picture and N. David Mermin’s Why Quark Rhymes with Pork . David J. Helfand’s lively and charming Survival Guide distinguishes itself with deft prose, humor, and a remarkable level of accessibility. Helfand argues in the book that “scientific habits of mind,” such as the ability to do back-of-the-envelope calculations and understanding the difference between correlation and causation, are critical if we hope to tell the difference between good information and bad. That advice seems particularly salient in light of recent concerns about the spread of fake news on social media. Reviewer Kevin Marvel writes that Helfand’s book is a “paean to the expansion of experience that scientific thinking provides those willing to learn a few tools of the trade” and wishes that “everyone would read, appreciate, and follow its guidance.”

Why String Theory? by Joseph Conlon (CRC Press, 2015; $29.95 paper; 248 pp. Buy at Amazon ). An active string theory researcher, Joseph Conlon sets out to tackle a thorny question: Why do string theorists work in an area that seems to lack experimental confirmation? In a Q&A with Physics Today , Conlon explained that researchers are interested in string theory because it “has brought ideas and insights and results to so many different areas beyond its supposedly core area of quantum gravity.” His book provides an accessible and enjoyable account of just what string theory is, and why so many researchers are excited about it. Gary Shiu writes that “string theory has a tendency to inspire some strong emotion,” and he praises Conlon’s evenhanded treatment of frequent objections: “Instead of forcing his conclusions on the reader, he presents a set of compelling arguments for the value of string theory while acknowledging its weaknesses and open challenges.” Ultimately, says Shiu, “Conlon writes with flair and wit to give a lively account of the struggles and joys of theoretical physicists seeking to uncover the inner workings of a beautiful, wide-ranging theory.”