A book at Christmastime
For those, young or old, who enjoy getting their teeth into life’s Big Questions, Youniverse: A Short Guide to Modern Science by Elsie Burch Donald (Duckworth, £9.99) is full of fascinating titbits of scientific knowledge, from atoms to genetics and biotech to recent discoveries in proto-humans.
A chapter called ‘Getting Real’ lays out the criteria that determine life: ‘The ability to grow, reproduce, respond to stimuli and changes in environment, keep a stable metabolism and be vulnerable to evolution.’ From then on, it’s a heady sweep through the mysteries of biological existence.
In ‘Fellow Travellers,’ Burch Donald looks at the topical topic of viruses: they are parasites but are they alive? ‘Possibly swept there by the wind, some 800 million viruses are said to descend daily on to every square metre of the earth.’ Or what about bacteria – ‘the enzymes of which wash your clothes, ferment your food and drink, treat sewage and help fertilise soil’. So diverting.
Ed Balls continues to make giant strides in his journey of reinvention. In (Gallery Books, £16.99), the former Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer writes about the food of his and ) that Balls’s career has taken in the last decade. Every recipe comes with its own Balls story. He reads it on Audible (£12.59 or free for subscribers).
