The shortlist for the 2012 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books is out. The winning book will be announced at a public event on 26 November 2012.
The judging panel comprises: Jocelyn Bell Burnell, Visiting Professor at the Department of Astrophysics, University of Oxford, Jasper Fforde, Author of Thursday Next novels and The Last Dragonslayer series, Tania Hershman, Author of short story collections, writer-in-residence at the University of Bristol and founder and editor of The Short Review, Kim Shillinglaw, BBC Commissioning Editor for Science and Natural History, Samuel Turvey, Royal Society University Research Fellow, Institute of Zoology.
My book? No, not this year, published after the qualifying deadline. Next year? Maybe…
Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer
Published by Allen Lane (Penguin Books)
An exploration of human memory
My Beautiful Genome by Lone Frank
Published by Oneworld
A personal perspective on human genetics
The Information by James Gleick
Published by Fourth Estate
The story of information and how it is used, transmitted and stored
The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene
Published by Allen Lane (Penguin Books)
An examination of parallel universes and the laws of the cosmos
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
Published by Allen Lane (Penguin Books)
An assessment of the decline of violence in history and its causes
The Viral Storm by Nathan Wolfe
Published by Allen Lane (Penguin Books)
An exploration of the world of the virus