BOOK REVIEWS

Ecology in Action

Fred D Singer
Cambridge University Press,
£44.99

It's All In Your Head (Winner, General Book Prize)

Suzanne O'Sullivan

Chatto & Windus, £16.99

Written by a consultant neurologist, this book explores the phenomenon of psychosomatic illness. Dr O'Sullivan describes a series of real but anonymised patients who present with genuine clinical features – convulsions, paralysis, pain, loss of vision – for which no physical causes can be

Agroecology: The Ecology of Sustainable Food Systems, third editio

Stephen R Gliessman
CRC Press,
£52.99 (e-book £34.99)

Haematology, second edition (Winner, Undergraduate Textbook Prize)

Gary Moore, Gavin Knight and Andrew Blann
Oxford University Press, £39.99

The second edition of Haematology is an excellent example of a modern textbook for undergraduates. The clear writing and excellent illustrations make it easy to read and understand. Although it is a standalone text, it is supported by a comprehensive online resource centre that features a lot of

Chemical Control

Michael Crowley
Palgrave Macmillan,
£48.00

Life’s Greatest Secret: The race to crack the genetic code

Matthew Cobb
Profile Books, £25.00

This book is a thrilling read. After the elucidation of the structure of DNA, the unravelling of the genetic code – which allows DNA to direct protein synthesis – was one of the great achievements of 20th century biological science.

Cobb sets the topic in context by discussing the history of genetics and

Planet of the Bugs: Evolution and the Rise of Insects

Scott Richard Shaw
The University of Chicago Press,
£12.00

The Cell: A Visual Tour of the Building Block of Life

Jack Challoner and Dr Phil Dash (ed)

Ivy Press, £19.99