The best new popular science books of 2026, including new books by Naomi Klein, Rebecca Solnit and Xand Van Tulleken

Many science books will be published in the coming year – tons in fact. After spending the last month going through the books and publisher catalogs that have arrived in our offices, I have chosen the scientific books that excite me the most, organized by categories so that it is easy to find what you like throughout the year. Of course, if you’re a bit of an omnivore like me, you might end the year as an expert in everything from detecting psychopaths to very, very huge numbers.

Space

Let’s start on a large scale, with environmental historian Dagomar Degroot Ripples on the cosmic ocean. He reflects on how the solar system has shaped humanity, whether it’s Martian dust storms that spark stories about aliens or comet impacts on Jupiter that inspired the first planetary defense strategy. Degroot is also interested in the human impact on the cosmos, calling for “interplanetary environmentalism” (nice expression).

We’re going from grand to grander, as astrophysicist Emma Chapman says Radio Universe reveals how we use radio waves to explore the distant universe. Chapman follows one on a journey from Earth to the Milky Way, passing black holes and pulsars.

New scientist columnist Chanda Prescod-Weinstein also takes us on a journey into At the edge of space-timedrawing on poetry and culture to explain theoretical physics and the quantum nature of space-time.

Health

There are two parts to the 2026 health headlines that excite me the most. The first is to use science to improve your health. In The age codeHealth journalist David Cox explores the science of nutrition and how to use it to slow biological aging. Surgeon, director of clinical research and self-confessed recovering alcoholic Charles Knowles reveals Why we drink too muchand writer Bill Gifford explains how we can use heat to improve our health in Wired. According to Gifford, we evolved to exist in stifling conditions, and extreme temperatures can push our physical and mental limits.

Aside from self-improvement, we have a phalanx of investigative writers investigating what’s really going on in the healthcare industry. Famous doctor Xand van Tulleken promises to expose “the world of wellness to find a healthy lifestyle” in Do me good.

Science journalist Deborah Cohen Bad influence looks at the world of internet medicine, from Ozempic influencers to AI-based diagnostics, while Reuters columnist Aimee Donnellan brings her experience writing about business (including big pharma) to the GLP-1 drug Ozempic in Out of the scale. Then there’s journalist Alev Scott Cash cowthat is tearing apart the fertility industry and how the “maternal body” has been commodified.

Mathematics

In the world of mathematics, we’re thinking big this year, as two renowned mathematicians are taking on the challenge. Huge numbers is a look at how counting higher and higher has shaped human thinking, while Ian Stewart’s Reach the extreme goes to the edges of mathematics to examine the biggest, smallest and thorniest of our mathematical puzzles.

Technology and AI

The emerging mind by computational neuroscientist and experimental psychologist Gaurav Suri and psychology professor Jay McClelland seek to explain emergence, where complex systems arise as a result of the interactions of simpler systems.

The two men apply this to the human brain – and AI – in a book that would be nicely complemented by Tom Griffiths’s. The laws of thought. Here, the director of Princeton University’s AI Lab shows how we use mathematics to describe thinking, examining the ideas behind modern AI, and how these differ from those about the human mind.

Stick to AI, says sociologist James Muldoon love machines explores how our relationships are changed by our interactions with technology, from chatbots to attempts to “resurrect” deceased loved ones.

I won’t miss the one from Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor either End-time fascism and the struggle for the living world in which the journalist and activist collaborate to tell the story of the rise of the far right and what they call an “apocalyptic new alliance of religious fundamentalists, billionaire Silicon Valley tech kings, and ethno-nationalists.” Fortunately, the duo not only investigates the situation, they also tell us how to resist it.

Two other technical books also caught my attention: the first is Little blue dot by investigative journalist Katherine Dunn, the history of the global positioning system. GPS was designed as a military system, but daily life now depends on that blinking blue dot on our screens. And on a different scale, leading construction YouTuber and influencer (yes, really) Fred Mills picks 10 megaprojects and examines how they will transform the world Mega constructions.

Environment

Writer and activist Rebecca Solnit offers us hope with her new book The beginning comes after the end. She talks about the revolution in human thought over the past 50 years and the changes we have seen in race, gender, sexuality, science and the environment. The old world continues to fight back, but Solnit reminds us that the power to change things is within our reach. Just like environmental journalist Fred Pearce in Despite everything – an elder New scientist staffer, he wrote a “handbook for climate hopefuls,” telling us it’s not too late and things can change for the better. His reasons for (cautiously) hope include nature’s ability to thrive in unexpected places and man reaching his “peak”.

Another dose of hope in a world on fire comes from biology professor Dave Goulson. Eat the planet wellabout our toxic food system and how to fix it. And in The rise to powerjournalist Jeevan Vasagar sees rising floodwaters throughout history as timely, given that 150 million people will live below the high tide line by 2050. Here, hope lies in the revolutionary technical solutions he shares.

Nature

Climate change is everywhere, including Where Earth Meets Skythe story of conservation biologist Louise K. Blight who studied penguins in Antarctica. She shows how global warming is changing this remote corner in her fascinating insight into working in the Antarctic wilderness.

The world that marine biologist Ruth Searle explores The intertidal zone is a little warmer, but just as fascinating – an extremely dynamic and fragile ecosystem where land meets sea, constantly reshaped by man.

Zoologist Jo Wimpenny wants to have fun The beauty of beastsa defense of “nature’s least loved animals” (snakes, wasps, crocodiles, etc.) and why we should defend them in a context of catastrophic loss of biodiversity.

And who could resist biologist Lixing Sun’s dive into the “strange and wonderful” science of reproduction in On the origin of sex?

Meanwhile, the depth to which animals have shaped the human brain over millennia is revealed in Animate by Michael Bond, another former staff member of New scientist.

Psychology

This year, the exploration of our brain has some welcome surprises in store. I like Artistic healingin which psychobiologist Daisy Fancourt draws on neuroscience, psychology, immunology, physiology, behavioral sciences and epidemiology to show how the arts can improve our health and well-being. (I completely agree!)

Elsewhere, two books by neuroscientists address more directly the techno-social change we face, with Hannah Critchlow discovering how to become more resilient in The 21st century brain and Paul Goldsmith explaining in The evolving brain how our “ancient” minds evolved for a world very different from the one we live in, and what we need to thrive now.

Leanne ten Brinke wants to improve our lives, particularly in Poisonous peoplebecause the psychopathy expert wants to help us identify psychopaths, narcissists, manipulators and sadists in our lives and learn how to take evasive action.

There are also many opportunities to examine how our brains work to build complex people and societies. In A world appearswriter, academic and activist Michael Pollan explores the mystery of why we are conscious from a scientific, philosophical, spiritual, historical and psychedelic perspective.

Elsewhere, other psychologists are hard at work: Paul Eastwick is interested in the science of attraction, sex and relationships in Bound by evolutionwhile that of Melissa Maffeo Science of the supernatural uses neuroscience and psychology to explain alien abductions and psychic readings.

Clearly, it’s time to empty our shelves to make room for this year’s rich new treasures!

THE BEST OF THE BEST: FOUR PICKS FOR 2026

A Brief History of the Universe (and Our Place in It)
by Sarah Alam Malik
Particle physicist Sarah Alam Malik explores the discoveries that have changed our perception of the cosmos, from the Babylonians tracking the skies on clay tablets to the Copernican Revolution.

The wild landscape
by Cal Flyn
Islands of Abandonment by Cal Flyn was a highlight of 2021 for me. In her new book, she travels deep into remote wilderness areas, exploring wilderness and how to protect wild places.

I am not a robot
by Joanna Stern
Wall Street Journal Technology journalist Joanna Stern (pictured) spent a year using AI to do almost everything and replace almost everyone, just to see what happened. A brilliant and terrifying idea.

The story of birds
by Steve Brusatte
Paleontologist Steve Brusatte looks at the evolutionary history of birds, the “dinosaurs among us.” Gorilla-sized penguins? Ducks that weigh more than cows? I’m there.