A Perfect Mess: The Unlikely Ascendancy of American Higher Education

  • David F. Labaree
University of Chicago Press (2017) 9780226250441 | ISBN: 978-0-2262-5044-1

How did a ragbag of colleges become a towering assemblage of world-class universities? In this deft history, David Labaree tracks the evolution of the US higher-education system, an unwieldy array that nevertheless produced 40% of Nobel laureates between 1901 and 2013. US economic ascendancy, the rise of English as a lingua franca and postwar research funding all played a part; but the fulcrum was the autonomy and strangely effective “anarchic complexity” of the system itself. As Labaree asks, “Why ruin a perfect mess?”

Monarchs and Milkweed

  • Anurag Agrawal
Princeton University Press (2017) 9780691166353 | ISBN: 978-0-6911-6635-3

From its tigerish beauty and epic 5,000-kilometre migration to its evolutionary arms race with the toxic milkweed plant, North America's monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) is a scientific superstar. Ecologist Anurag Agrawal's in-depth study draws on his own research and that of pioneers such as Lincoln Brower to elucidate plant, insect and their evolving defence and counter-defence. His analysis of the monarch's severe decline is nuanced, suggesting that dwindling nectar sources and deforestation in overwintering sites may be culprits, along with milkweed loss.

Flavour: The Science of Our Most Neglected Sense

  • Bob Holmes
W. W. Norton (2017) 9780393244427 | ISBN: 978-0-3932-4442-7

If you can't distinguish a Fuji apple from a Gala on taste alone, join the crowd. As Bob Holmes notes, most of us waft through life barely cognizant of the sensory riches concocted by nose, tongue and mouth. Mining the boom in the science of flavour, Holmes reveals how it takes a “committee” of lingual receptors to taste bitterness; is stumped by a smell halfway between Cheddar cheese and turpentine in an olfaction test; and ponders why chewing a Sichuan peppercorn seems to set off a 50-hertz vibration in his mouth. A prodigious and delectable feast of accessible science.

Immersion: The Science and Mystery of Freshwater Mussels

  • Abbie Gascho Landis
Island (2017) 9781610918077 | ISBN: 978-1-6109-1807-7

Heelsplitter, shineyrayed pocketbook, fatmucket: to inspire such monikers, the freshwater mussels of the US southeast must be charismatic indeed. And so it proves in veterinary surgeon and writer Abbie Gascho Landis's eloquent treatise. She snorkelled through creeks and packed in lab time to study the water-filtering bivalves and their intriguing behaviours — such as bundling their larvae into minnow-shaped lures to hitch rides on hungry fish. Yet with 70% of 300 species imperilled and US waterways under pressure, Landis's book is as much call to action as paean to mesmerizing molluscs.

On Eating Insects: Essays, Stories and Recipes

Josh Evans, Roberto Flore, Michael Bom Frøst and Nordic Food Lab. Phaidon (2017)

9780714873343

Sometimes, only spicy cricket and asparagus (with lacto-fermented pea water) will do — if, that is, you snack on the wild side. This big, beautifully illustrated compendium on entomophagy by food researchers Josh Evans, Roberto Flore and Michael Bom Frøst (with the experimental Nordic Food Lab) offers techniques and tasting notes gleaned from global fieldwork, and tongue-boggling recipes. A gem for the curious, or anyone craving an ant-larvae taco.