Rise of the Zombie Bugs
Mindy Weisberger Johns Hopkins Univ. Press (2025)
In horror fiction — which fascinates science writer Mindy Weisberger — a zombie is a human ghost or spirit “somewhere between living and dead, puppeted by external forces”. Her intriguing book, by contrast, explores real zombies in the natural world: organisms that lose control to exploitative parasites. For example, a tropical wasp can stab a cockroach in its brain with chemicals, paralysing it. It is then pulled placidly to a place of burial, where it is eaten alive by the wasp’s young. Humans might also be susceptible to ‘zombie bugs’.
Target Earth
Govert Schilling MIT Press (2025)
If Earth had not been the “target of cosmic rubble”, life “would probably never have begun”, says this small, scintillating book on meteorites, asteroids and comets by amateur astronomer Govert Schilling — who has a meteorite named after him. The extinction of the dinosaurs and many other life forms 66 million years ago, he says, cleared the ground for primate evolution. Asteroids probably provided Earth with water and organic molecules, and a giant cosmic collision created the Moon, which stabilized Earth’s axis.
Maya Wisdom and the Survival of Our Planet
Lisa J. Lucero Oxford Univ. Press (2025)
The persistence of Maya culture in Central America, despite centuries of settler colonialism, fascinates archaeologists and anthropologists. “Maya knowledge passed down through the millennia has allowed them to survive, but not at the expense of the environment and its non-human inhabitants,” writes anthropologist Lisa Lucero in her thoughtful book on planetary survival. Maya foreman can locate ancient houses hidden by jungle growth from their vegetation. The Maya had no nature–culture divide.
The Measure of Progress
Diane Coyle Princeton Univ. Press (2025)
