The shortlist has been unveiled for the £25,000 (about $32,610) Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize, which celebrates "outstanding popular science books from around the world and is open to authors of science books written for a non-specialist audience." The winner will be announced September 19. The Royal Society also marked the prize's 30th anniversary with a public poll to reveal "the most inspiring work of science writing of all time," and The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins was the most popular choice. This year's shortlisted titles are:
Beyond Infinity: An Expedition to the Outer Limits of the Mathematical Universe by Eugenia Cheng
Testosterone Rex: Unmaking the Myths of Our Gendered Minds by Cordelia Fine
Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life by Peter Godfrey-Smith
In Pursuit of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimer's by Joseph Jebelli
To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death by Mark O'Connell
I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life by Ed Yong