Royal Society 2018 Science Book Prize shortlist announced

In the UK, the Royal Society has announced the shortlist for the 2018 Science Book Prize for ‘outstanding popular science books’ written for a non-specialist audience.

The shortlisted books are:

• Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain (Sarah-Jayne Blakemore, Doubleday)
• The Unexpected Truth About Animals (Lucy Cooke, Black Swan)
• The Beautiful Cure: Harnessing Your Body’s Natural Defences (Daniel M Davis, Bodley Head)
• Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine (Hannah Fry, Doubleday)
• Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World (Simon Winchester, HarperCollins)
• Liquid: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives (Mark Miodownik, Viking).

The list includes one former winner (Miodownik, in 2014) and one former longlistee (Davis, also in 2014).

Chair of judges Frances Ashcroft said that all the books on the list told ‘fascinating stories about scientists, science and how science is done, and all address the big questions of our time’.

The winner will be announced on 1 October, and will receive £25,000 (A$44,200). The five shortlisted authors will each receive £2500 (A$4420).

As previously reported by Books+Publishing, Melbourne-based author Cordelia Fine won the 2017 prize for her book Testosterone Rex: Unmaking the Myths of our Gendered Minds (Icon Books).

To learn more about the prize, see the website.

Category: International news