This has to be the strangest August ever, with climate-changed weather making itself felt all over the place. It is also strange because new books are in short supply. That said, the shelves are by no means bare. We have books to recommend to you on everything from octopus ethics and designing the universe to endometriosis and talking to computers. So, whatever you end up doing to refresh and recharge, we鈥檝e got the book for you.

by Daniel Lieberman聽

Meaty palaeo? Going veggie or vegan? Eating Mediterranean? Fasting, intermittently or otherwise? Low or high carbs? Enough 鈥� before we all lose the plot! Enter Daniel Lieberman, an evolutionary anthropologist at Harvard University who, says his publisher, 鈥渢ackles this confusion head on with his trademark blend of lively storytelling and myth-busting science鈥�.

As you would expect, Lieberman draws on evolutionary biology, anthropology and physiology to figure out how we are going so wrong. He travels all the way back, moving from what humans evolved to eat through to how fire, farming and industrialisation transformed our diets, and right up to today as we learn how to combine all that history with rigorous medical science. It will be fascinating to see what former New Scientist staffer Chris Simms makes of it in our review, to be published shortly.

by Jonathan Loh

To know where we are headed, it can help to have a reasonable grasp of where we have been. So, will some big-picture thinking from an independent scholar help? Jonathan Loh鈥檚 publishers call his book Life Story a 鈥減anoramic history of life, revealing the forces that have shaped our world 鈥� and could shape it again鈥�. We move through the rise of Homo sapiens, from foragers to farmers, from the Bronze Age to the industrial revolution, through 鈥渉idden patterns linking genetics and language, organisms and states, ecosystems and economies, mass extinctions and civilisational collapse鈥�.

Humans may dominate the planet, but, as machine intelligence gathers pace, is that supremacy only a phase? Loh is a biologist who has worked as a consultant to organisations such the United Nations Environment Programme and WWF on the conservation of biological and cultural diversity, so he should be well placed to build a deep chronicle of the past and lay out his big idea: culture as a form of life. What would that mean in terms of an AI future? We shall see鈥β犅�

by Xiaochang Li

The idea of talking to machines has been an enduring human fantasy. Divination Engines is a bit of a wild card: author Xiaochang Li, an assistant professor in the department of communication at Stanford University in California, shows her readers how that dream 鈥渂oth fueled the demand for data and set the stage for today鈥檚 generative AI鈥�. Sneak peaks reveal a book that is no easy read (brace for technical details), but one in which Li manages to explain the origins of what we call natural language processing, as well as the 20^th-century debates between computer scientists, linguists and communication engineers that shaped today鈥檚 technology.

She sets out to show how computer speech recognition advanced technology by de-emphasising linguistic meaning in favour of statistical prediction 鈥� that is, how researchers gradually abandoned systems that tried to聽understand聽human language in favour of workarounds that just predicted聽patterns in speech and text data. The rest is, as they say, history鈥� and that鈥檚 before we even mention search engines, spam filters, content managers and the like. All this comes at the cost of needing more and more new data 鈥� forever! This will be a tough read for many of us, but one that鈥檚 worth the effort. Oh, and Kate Crawford, author of Atlas of AI, calls the book 鈥渁 landmark in the critical history of artificial intelligence鈥�.

by Catherine Heymans

No small ambition in this next book, either. Astrophysicist Catherine Heymans鈥檚 latest is, according to its subtitle, no less than a look at the 鈥渟cience of real and virtual worlds鈥�. At its heart is that wonderful, death-defying question: could we be living in a computer simulation, and how would we even know? It all sounds fascinating, as Heymans, the astronomer royal for Scotland, takes us 鈥渙n a humorous and mind-bending journey through the science of reality itself鈥�.

From subatomic particles and the cosmic mysteries of dark matter to the secrets of the human senses, we are promised an exploration of 鈥渨hether humanity could ever create a virtual universe as rich and diverse as our own 鈥� and what that means for our sense of self, free will and consciousness鈥�. Not much going on here, then.

by Kulbhushansingh Suryawanshi

This is one for all of us who love silvery-grey snow leopards, those fabulous and elusive beasts, which live in the rugged mountains of central Asia, camouflaged against the rocks and cliffs. For the past 20 years, scientist, conservationist and mountaineer Kulbhushansingh (Kullu) Suryawanshi has studied them in the wild, exploring every aspect of their lives from habitat to prey to population 鈥� sometimes living for months in the world鈥檚 toughest, most remote environments. Suryawanshi, we are promised, has 鈥減ioneered new research that shines fresh light on these charismatic and vulnerable animals, showing how their fate is entangled with the local people and how their survival is central to preserving an austere, delicate ecosystem鈥�.

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by Lani Watson

There is something wonderful about books with a single letter as their main title. Q (and here鈥檚 the subtitle so we know what we鈥檙e talking about: The hidden power of questions in a world that wants answers) is all about the art and science of asking questions, as the only creature on Earth that does so in any formal sense. But we鈥檙e trained to look for answers, not how to ask questions 鈥� so much so, says author Lani Watson, that we live in an answer-rich, question-poor world.

Yet, as the publishers remind us,鈥� from doctors鈥� surgeries to courtrooms to dating, the ability to ask questions determines our experiences. In a world obsessed by answers, asking better questions is powerful.鈥�

That sounds very wise, and we should be in good hands: Watson is a philosopher and honorary fellow at the University of Edinburgh, UK, as well as a former research fellow at the University of Oxford. Plug into what her publishers call a 鈥渃aptivating narrative from the death of Socrates to the age of AI鈥�, and you will soon learn how to think about the questions you ask and the ones you don鈥檛.

by Richard Schweid

With octopus blooms suddenly appearing in many places, journalist Richard Schweid and publisher University of North Carolina Press could hardly have hit on a more provocative subject. Billed as a 鈥済ripping, on-the-ground investigation into the global race to farm octopus and the ethical firestorm it has ignited鈥�, there is clearly a lot to chew on as we explore the 鈥渆thics and future of growing the world鈥檚 most intelligent invertebrate鈥�.

Among the issues is the fact that, in 2021, the London School of Economics recognised invertebrates such as cephalopods (octopus, cuttlefish, squid) and decapods (crayfish, crabs, lobsters) as capable of experiencing pain, distress and happiness, finding that high-welfare farming of them would therefore be impossible. But the enormous international demand for octopus meat continues to grow, even as wild octopus populations decline. Fishers in the UK鈥檚 south-west are already experiencing problems as the vast number of octopuses eat their typical high-value catch: adult lobsters, brown edible crabs, scallops and the like. What to do instead? Eat the octopuses? Apparently, recipes are proliferating鈥� a dilemma indeed.

by Evelyn Scott

This is no less than an expos茅 of medical misogyny, says the publisher of what looks like a forthright book about endometriosis, A Bloody Scandal: How medicine fails women in pain. There should be a huge market for it, given the sheer number who experience it (it is often said that 1 in 10 women do, but the real figure is probably higher), often in silence and for decades.

Author Evelyn Scott weaves in her own experience of the condition: she was just a teenager when she first had the symptoms of endometriosis. She shares 15 years during which she endured constant, agonising pain 鈥� and hopeless ineptitude when seeking support, ranging from dismissals on the grounds of hysteria to misdiagnoses. She felt completely isolated, until she discovered all the other women experiencing the same condition. Powerful stuff and, many will argue, long overdue.

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If you are a new mother and unable to breastfeed, few places are better than Brazil when it comes to getting assistance. Milk banks, which collect donated breast milk and distribute it to mothers and babies in need, have existed since the early 20th century, but they were frequently expensive and not widely accessible. But in the 1980s, Jo茫o Apr铆gio Guerra de Almeida, a young chemist, worked with Brazilian public health officials to redesign the country鈥檚 milk banks from the ground up, using cheap, creative solutions like repurposing hot water baths from the food industry that were 10 times cheaper than standard pasteurisation machines, or sterilising coffee and mayonnaise jars so they could be reused as milk bottles.

The Brazilian word for this imaginative problem-solving is jeitinho, says photographer , who, with the journalist Niklas Franzen, visited and reported on several of Brazil鈥檚 milk banks, like the Fernandes Figueira Institute in Rio de Janeiro.

Today, Brazil鈥檚 milk-bank system is frequently cited as one of the world鈥檚 best, providing some of the world鈥檚 cheapest and safest breast milk. It operates at a vast scale, with more than 200 milk banks 鈥� the most in the world 鈥� serving hundreds of thousands of babies. Brazil saw a more than 70 per cent drop in mortality of children under 5 from 1990 to 2015, which credited at least in part to its milk bank system.

On top of its efficiency, part of the reason for the system鈥檚 success is that it makes it easy for women to freely donate and receive milk, supported by a network of courier drivers who crisscross the country. One of these drivers can be seen delivering milk by bike in Flamengo, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro (above). 鈥淲e spoke to one donor, and she said, if it wasn鈥檛 for a courier to pick up her milk, she wouldn鈥檛 do it, it would just not be possible,鈥� says Bethge. 鈥淭his would be really nice for Europe and for other countries鈥�, to adopt, she adds.

The milk banks themselves are also multipurpose facilities, acting as holistic support centres for new mothers, collecting milk, sterilising and storing it, as well as supplying it directly to premature babies in need. All milk is first checked for large contaminating detritus, such as hair or dust, that would result in a sample being rejected (above). The milk is then warmed up and liquefied in a water bath (below), so that it can undergo more rigorous tests to ensure that it is free of biological contaminants (main image, top).

Women can also receive assistance from nurses to help express milk for their babies if they are in need, such as in wards for premature births (below).

鈥淵ou see the whole circle, from the woman who was delivering [the milk] to the baby who gets it,鈥� says Bethge.

With Europe in the grip of a mega heatwave and deaths already being reported, staying cool isn鈥檛 just about comfort 鈥� for many, it is a matter of life and death. Many people will be relying on fans rather than air conditioning, so it is important to be aware that, as it gets hotter, fans can flip from cooling you to warming you.

But how hot is too hot? The UK government warns , whereas the World 91色情片 Organization says . Some studies suggest even lower or . The reality is that there is no simple answer, as several factors are involved.

The key thing to know is that you become less good at sweating as you age, so fans will start to warm you at a lower temperature than is the case for younger people. However, you can compensate for this by spraying yourself with water or wetting your clothes.

The situation would be very simple if we didn鈥檛 sweat. Our skin temperature in the shade is typically between 35掳C and 37掳C (99掳F). If the air temperature is lower than our skin temperature, heat is transferred to the air, cooling us, but if it is higher, we gain heat from the air. Moving air over our skin with a fan speeds up this heat transfer, whichever way it is going.

Because of this, in the past, 35掳C was often said to be the point at which fans stop cooling us, says in the UK. But this number doesn鈥檛 take account of evaporative cooling.

The evaporation of water transfers lots of heat from our skin into the air, cooling us even when air temperatures exceed skin temperatures. But blowing air over our skin with a fan doesn鈥檛 necessarily cool us more if it鈥檚 too dry or too humid.

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When it is very dry, our sweat can evaporate as fast as we produce it. In this situation, turning on a fan won鈥檛 help, because evaporation cannot increase any further. Instead, the moving air will just transfer more heat to your skin. For instance, modelling and experiments show that at 15 per cent humidity and 45掳C, turning on a fan will almost certainly .

But as the humidity rises, evaporation slows because there鈥檚 already lots of moisture in the air. Basically, if you are dripping with sweat, you are producing sweat faster than it can evaporate. In these conditions, a fan does help.

For instance, a fan can still cool you at up to 60 per cent humidity and 38掳C. As the humidity gets even higher, however, evaporation will slow to a point when a fan stops helping.

鈥淪o it depends on the humidity in the air,鈥� says Havenith. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why people often look at what kind of climate you have in different countries.鈥�

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The other big factor is age. As we age, our body temperature and skin temperature can fall. It also takes longer for us to start to sweat, and we produce less sweat. This means the temperature at which a fan will start warming us at a given humidity declines as we age.

In this situation, wearing wet clothes or spraying ourselves with water can help. This can also reduce sweating and thus reduce the risk of dehydration.

Many other factors also play a part, such as clothing and whether your body is adapted to high temperatures. The bottom line, however, is that if you live in a building that gets really hot, temperatures during this heatwave could well exceed the level at which fans will help, even if you鈥檙e spraying yourself with water.

鈥淎t that stage, you probably would have to leave your house and find a cooler place,鈥� says Havenith. 鈥淏ecause it鈥檚 a really bad situation.鈥�