The Royal Society, the British scientific academy, has unveiled the shortlist for its annual Trivedi Science Book Prize, which celebrates “outstanding popular science writing and authors.”
Neuroscientist and musician Daniel J. Levitin was named a finalist for I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine, which explores the healing powers of music. In a starred review, a critic for Kirkus praised the book as “a fascinating piece of work, written with authority, empathy, and occasional humor.”
Paleontologist Neil Shubin made the shortlist for Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and our Future, an account of the Arctic and Antarctic regions in the era of climate change.
Masud Husain was shortlisted for Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist’s Patients Taught Him About the Brain, which tells the story of seven people whose behavior changed after developing brain disorders.
Simon Parkin was named a finalist for The Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice, an account of scientists who preserved a seed bank during World War II, while Sadiah Qureshi made the shortlist for Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction. Tim Minshall was shortlisted for How Things Are Made: A Journey Through the Hidden World of Manufacturing.
The Trivedi Science Book Prize was established in 1988. Previous winners include Stephen Hawking for The Universe in a Nutshell, Bill Bryson for A Short History of Nearly Everything, and Caroline Criado Perez for Invisible Women.
The winner of this year’s award will be announced on October 1.
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
