The Genius of Timber, by Harriet Rix (Crown). The central argument of this wide-ranging treatise is that timber are ecosystem engineers par excellence, able to influencing “water, air, earth, and fireplace” in addition to the habits of different organisms of their effort to create the situations crucial for the timber’ survival. Utilizing current science, stories from area analysis, detours by way of evolutionary historical past, and generally stunning literary references, Rix reveals the myriad methods wherein timber bend the pure world to their very own ends, from seeding clouds with risky natural compounds and mining minerals with their roots to wielding forest fires towards their opponents and tempting animals (together with dinosaurs, dodos, and people) into spreading their seeds. In her telling, timber emerge as beings with “profound company,” worthy of our continued consideration, care, and respect.
Flashes of Brilliance, by Anika Burgess (Norton). On this vigorous historical past, Burgess, a photograph editor and author, traces the daybreak of early images, a interval of stressed ingenuity when, she writes, “improvements have been generally misguided, often obsessive, periodically harmful, and perpetually fascinating.” She recounts feats each scientific and inventive, together with Nadar’s pictures taken from an enormous hot-air balloon, and underwater photos captured in cumbersome diving gear. Most hanging are among the hazards that early photographers encountered—within the nineteenth century, their work required dealing with cyanide fixatives and flash powder that was explosive sufficient to shatter home windows and blow up homes.
