Goliath’s curse

A new book traces the rise and fall of both ancient to modern civilisations with worrying implications for a world increasingly dominated by aggressive authoritarian states such as Russia, China and – lamentably – the USA.

The race to know all life

Jason Roberts’ “Every Living Thing – The Great and Deadly Race to Know all Life” is an engrossing, precisely researched book on the lives of Carl Linnaeus (1707-1778) and the Compte de Buffon (1707-1788) and their contributions to what became evolutionary science.

End of the species

Could humanity be extinct within 10,000 years? A new book – The Decline and Fall of the Human Empire: Why Our Species Is on the Edge of Extinction by Henry Gee may be the wake up call our species needs.

The secret history of sharks

The megalodon was one of the most fearsome predators which ever existed, so what made them die out 3.5 million years ago?