Chemistry World Book Club

Almost a decade after its extinction, the Pyrenean ibex became newly un-extinct thanks to cloning. But what are the limits of this technology? Could we one day visit a real-life Jurassic Park? Bring back the king by Helen Pilcher recounts the progress that has been made in the field of de-extinction and what benefits it may bring. Hear an interview with Pilcher, an extract from the book and the views of the Chemistry World team.

We would all love the gift of eternal youth. That remains a dream, but there are things we can actively do to resist the effects of ageing. One proven approach is to protect our telomeres, the short chains of DNA that cap our chromosones. The telomere effect by Elizabeth Blackburn and Elissa Epel tells the story of why telomeres matter and what activities cause their degredation. Hear a reading from the book, an interview with Elissa Epel and the views of Royal Society of Chemistry deputy editor, Aurora Walshe, Chemistry World’s  content editor, Jennifer Newton, and host Emma Stoye.

If there’s one thing we can learn from histroy it’s everything that there is to know. Or at least that’s the promise of machine learning. The master algorithm by Pedro Domingos tells us how machines that learn are starting to transform the world, bringing us driverless cars and perhaps even bloodless wars. Hear an interview with Domingos, a reading from the book, and the thoughts of Royal Society of Chemistry data scientist Colin Batchelor and Chemistry World’s digital content producer, Sam Tracey, who join host Emma Stoye.

Evolution has created ingenious solutions to life’s problems. Some animals use physics in a way that stumps even the physicists. Turtles, for instance, venture thousands of miles across the ocean, yet return with precision to the exact beach from where they hatched. How they do this is still unclear. This is just one of the links between physics and animals recounted in  Furry Logic by Martin Durrani and Liz Kalaugher. In this month’s podcast Jamie Durrani (no relation to the book’s author) and Kat Krämer join Emma Stoye to share their favourite bits of the book; we hear an extract from the book, and an interview with Liz Kalaugher, one of the authors. There will be cats!

Fat might not be fashionable, but it is essential. It is a living organ that communicates with the brain, controlling our behaviour and even influencing our reproductive cycles. These facts and more form the the subject of The secret life of fat: the science behind the body’s greatest puzzle by Sylvia Tara. Hear an extract from the book, and learn why we enjoyed it so much.

Yuval Noah Harari likes the big topics. His last book, Sapiens attempted to explain everything that has happened in the history of humanity. In his latest book he examines everything that will happen in humanity’s future. In part 1 of the podcast, hear the views of the Chemistry World team and those of our special guest, Stephen Cave, executive director of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence. In part 2, the Chemistry World team discuss their favourite books of the year and touch topics ranging from how to maximise your chance of finding your dream partner to the drug addiction of the Nazis.

Some cleaning agents claim to kill 99.9% of all bacteria, but if preventing disease is the main aim, then maybe total annihilation isn’t the best course to take. We discuss this and other lessons we have learnt by studying the microbiome: the microbes that live on and within our bodies. Hear about the man who had a literal window into his digestive system, and how releasing the right kind of mosquito can prevent the spread of dengue fever.

This month, we discuss the benefits of big data and whether these are offset by their threat to privacy

In this month’s book club we discuss the technologies that help modern cities function

This month we discuss Grunt: the curious science of humans at war by Mary Roach. The military is a huge investor in scientific and technological development. Mary Roach gained access to those who carry out research into those technologies of warfare that aren’t to do with weapons. Her book looks at how humans respond to extremes of noise, heat and exhaustion, as well as attempts to combat diarrhoea and the replacement of privates’ privates. Hear an extract from the book, an interview with Mary Roach, and the views of the Chemistry World team in this month’s podcast. Listen here or subscribe to the podcast using the links below. You can read our review of Grunt: the curious science of humans at war here, and find all our book reviews here. We want to include you, the Chemistry World  reader, in the conversation so join us next month when we’ll be discussing Science and the City by Laurie Winkless. Tweet your thoughts to @ChemistryWorld, or use the hashtag #BookClubCW and we’ll endeavour to include your opinio

This month we discuss Herding Hemingway's Cats: understanding how our genes work  by Kat Arney. In Ernest Hemingway's house in Florida there is a family six-toed cats. Their appearance is caused by a mutation in the molecular switch that controls the Sonic hedgehog gene. These cats provided Kat Arney with the impetus to write a book that explaines how genes work and dispels some of the misconceptions created by the media's misrepresentation of the subject. Hear an extract from the book, an interview with Kat Arney, and the views of the Chemistry World team in this month's podcast. You can read our review of Herding Hemingway's cats here, and find all our book reviews here. We want to include you, the Chemistry World reader, in the conversation so join us next month when we’ll be discussing Grunt by Mary Roach. Tweet your thoughts to @ChemistryWorld, or use the hashtag #BookClubCW and we’ll endeavour to include your opinions (or questions) on the podcast.

This month we discuss Sorting the beef form the bull by Richard Evershed and Nicola Temple. The horsemeat scandal opened our eyes to the fact that the food we eat is not always what it claims to be. Just how widespread is the problem, how do we detect it and what changes need to be made to prevent it? You are what you eat, and what you eat might surprise you. Hear an extract from the book, an interview with Richard Evershed, and the views of the Chemistry World team in this month's podcast. You can read our review of Sorting the beef from the bull here, and find all our book reviews here. We want to include you, the Chemistry World reader, in the conversation so join us next month when we’ll be discussing Herding Hemingway's cats by Kat Arney. Tweet your thoughts to @ChemistryWorld, or use the hashtag #BookClubCW and we’ll endeavour to include your opinions (or questions) on the podcast.

This month we discuss Scientific Paper Writing - a Survival Guide by Bodil Holst. Every budding researcher must eventually write a scientific paper, and yet how to do this is not something that is usually taught. Some supervisors provide excellent guidance and others – let's be diplomatic – don't. So Bodil host has produced a book that teaches the basics: how to arrange your information to help you get started, the order in which to complete the different sections, but also how to write your title and abstract to get your article noticed, read and cited. Hear an extract from the book, an interview with Bodil Host, and the views of the Chemistry World team in this month's podcast.  You can read our review of Scientific Paper Writing  here, and find all our book reviews here. We want to include you, the Chemistry World reader, in the conversation so join us next month when we’ll be discussing Sorting the beef from the bull – the science of food fraud forensics by Richard Evershed and Nicola Temple. Tweet your

This month we discuss Why science is sexist by Nicola Gaston. That science is sexist isn't a question Nicola Gaston entertains – it is. Rather, she wants to know why a field that prides itself in being rational should behave so illogically.We discuss the research she presents on unconscious bias, in both men and women. And we talk about whose responsibility it is to address the problems of sexism, and what indeed they should do to address them. Hear an extract from the book, an interview with Nicola Gaston, and the views of the Chemistry World team in this month's podcast. You can read our review of Why science is sexist here, and find all our book reviews here. We want to include you, the Chemistry World reader, in the conversation so join us next month when we’ll be discussing Scientific Paper Writing - A Survival Guide by Bodil Host. Tweet your thoughts to @ChemistryWorld, or use the hashtag #BookClubCW and we’ll endeavour to include your opinions (or questions) on the podcast.

This month we discuss The Elements of Power by David Abraham. New technologies like smart phones and wind turbines are increasing the diversity of elements that humanitiy is ustilising. Amongst them are the rare metals, which may not acutually be rare, but they often occur in such small amounts that the mining of them is often unprofitable. Some of them occur in only a very small number of mines. All this results in the use of them posing novel economic and environmental problems. These problems are the subject of Abraham's book. Hear an extract from the book, an interview with David Abraham, and the views of the Chemistry World team in this month's podcast. Listen here or subscribe to the podcast using the links below. You can read our review of The Elements of Power here, and find all our book reviews here. We want to include you, the Chemistry World reader, in the conversation so join us next month when we’ll be discussing Why Science is Sexist by Nicola Gaston. Tweet your thoughts to @ChemistryWorld, or u

This month we discuss Adventures in the Anthropocene: a journey to the heart of the planet we made by Gaia Vince.  Geologists categorise time in ages, periods, eras and epochs. For the last 12 000 years, humans have been living in the the Holocene epoch, but now humanity is having such a significant impact on the planet that geologists are coming to a consensus that the Holocene has ended and we are entering a new epoch. This new epoch has been dubbed the Anthropocene, or the age of humans.  This change is being driven by our rapid altering of the oceans, the atmosphere, our rivers and indeed every habitat. Gaia Vince went on a journey around the world to see how people are being affected by these rapid changes, and how communities and nations are responding.  Hear an extract from the book, an interview with Gaia and the views of the Chemistry World team in this month's podcast.  You can read our review of Adventures in the Anthropocene here, and find all our book reviews here. We want to include you, the Ch

This month we discuss Thing explainer by Randall Munroe. In this book the xkcd creator attempts to explain things as diverse as the International Space Station and the human body, using only the most common ten hundred words in the English language ('thousand' is not one of those words). See if you can guess the objects from the extracts we read out and hear about our experiences of imposing the rules on our own writing. Finally, take up our challenge and have a go yourself using thexkcd simple writer.  You can read our review of Thing explainer here, and find all our book reviews here. We want to include you, the Chemistry World reader, in the conversation so join us next month when we’ll be discussing Gaia Vince's Adventures in the Anthropocene. Tweet your thoughts to @ChemistryWorld, or use the hashtag #BookClubCW and we’ll endeavour to include your opinions (or questions) on the podcast.

This month we answer the profound qustion Why does asparagus make your wee smell? This is the title of Andy Brunning's new book, which addresses a smorgasbord of questions about food and drink in a scientific manner. You can read our review of Why does asparagus make your wee smell? here, and find all of our book reviews here. We want to include you, the Chemistry World reader, in the conversation so join us next month when we’ll be examining Randall Munroe's Thing explainer. Tweet your thoughts to @ChemistryWorld, or use the hashtag #BookClubCW and we’ll endeavour to include your opinions (or questions) on the podcast.

This month we examine the history of scientific language, with Michael Gordin's book Scientific Babel. We ask whether the mixture of science and language can be distilled, or if our reactions to words are too strongly bonded to their meaning. We'll discover how English came to be the language of science, and ask what the future holds.   You can read our review of Scientific Babel here, and find all of our book reviews here.   We want to include you, the Chemistry Worldreader, in the conversation and we’ll announce which book will feature in the next episode, so you can read the book with us. Join us next month when we’ll be asking some tricky questions with Andy Brunning's Why does asparagus make your wee smell?. Tweet your thoughts to @ChemistryWorld, or use the hashtag #BookClubCW and we’ll endeavour to include your opinions (or questions) on the podcast.

Welcome to our new monthly podcast, theChemistry World Book Club. Each month we’ll be sharing our thoughts on one of the latest popular science releases and interview the authors to find out what inspired them to write about science. Join us for a review of the book itself, as well as discussion of the themes and issues found in the book. For this introductory episode, we snap up our magnifying glasses to investigate Kathryn Harkup’s new book, A is for Arsenic: the poisons of Agatha Christie, which casts a keen eye over the science behind the poisons Christie used to dispatch her fictional victims. You can read our A is for Arsenic review, as well as all of our book reviews here. We want to include you, the Chemistry Worldreader, in the conversation and we’ll announce which book will feature in the next episode, so you can read the book with us. Join us next month when we’ll be chatting about the nature of scientific language in the bestseller Scientific Babel by Michael Gordin.  Tweet your thoughts to@Chem