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It\u2019s been an uneasy year for science. While there were significant milestones, like breakthroughs in gene editing for rare diseases<\/a> and novel insights into early human evolution<\/a> (including fire-making<\/a>), the U.S. science community at large was rocked by institutional challenges. Drastic federal cuts<\/a> froze thousands of research grants, and the Trump administration began actively working to dismantle<\/a> the National Center for Atmospheric Research<\/a>. Meanwhile, fraudulent scientific research papers<\/a> are on the rise \u2014 casting a shadow over academic integrity.<\/p>\n Our picks for this year\u2019s best in arts and entertainment.<\/p>\n Thankfully, we can still turn to our bookshelves \u2014 and podcasts \u2014 to ground us. We tapped science doyenne Alie Ward, the host of the funny cult favorite \u201cOlogies\u201d podcast,<\/a> to share her picks for the best science books of 2025.<\/p>\n Spanning fascinating subjects from bees to human anatomy, Ward\u2019s insightful list reminds us that books remain a timeless vessel for truth and knowledge.<\/p>\n \u201cFerns: Lessons in Survival From Earth\u2019s Most Adaptable Plants\u201d <\/a> \u201cDr. Li is the botanist of our dreams<\/a>… the way he talks about ferns and why he loves them, and about growing up in Taiwan (in essentially a fern forest), and how the sexual reproduction of ferns has been a great way to draw attention to the LGBTQ and nonbinary community is so charming and funny. They even named a whole genus after Lady Gaga<\/a> because they were listening to \u2018Born This Way\u2019 a lot in the lab and also because there are sequences in their DNA that are \u2018GAGA.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cLaura Silburn\u2019s illustrations are gorgeous \u2014 they really put a lot of texture into some of these plants that are really tiny. Every page is like looking at a botany poster. As we\u2019ve seen so much science research being underfunded, especially in the last year, there\u2019s this big question by the culture at large of why does it matter? Why does studying the fern genome matter? It has real-world impacts \u2014 that\u2019s fewer pesticides on your crops because we figured out something from a foreign genome. I always love when something is overlooked or taken for granted and because of someone\u2019s passion and their dedication to studying it, we learn that it can change our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe ABCs of California\u2019s Native Bees\u201d<\/a> \u201cKrystle is an astounding photographer<\/a> and an incredible visual artist. Her passion for native bees is infectious. A lot of people, when they think of bees, they think of honeybees. And honeybees are not even native to North America. They\u2019re not native to L.A. They\u2019re not native to this country. They\u2019re feral livestock. What I love about her book is it opens your eyes to all of these species that are literally right under our noses that we wouldn\u2019t even consider \u2014 and that a lot of people wouldn\u2019t even identify as bees.<\/p>\n \u201cThe other reason why I love this book is that she puts these essays into it that are about her experiences going to find the bees. So you\u2019re getting to see these gorgeous landscape pictures. You\u2019re getting to see what it took to find the bee, how to look for it, and more about this particular species. It\u2019s organized in these ABCs that you can pick up at any chapter and check out a bee you\u2019ve never heard of before.\u201d<\/p>\n (Little, Brown and Company)<\/p>\n \u201cHumanish: What Talking to Your Cat or Naming Your Car Reveals About the Uniquely Human Need to Humanize\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n By Justin Gregg<\/p>\n Little, Brown: 304 pages, $30<\/p>\n \u201cJustin is hilarious<\/a>. He is such a good writer, and his voice is really, really approachable. The way that he writes about science is through such a wonderful pop culture and pop science lens. You feel like you\u2019re reading a friend\u2019s email who just has something really interesting to tell you.<\/p>\n \u201cThis book is all about anthropomorphizing everything from our toasters to why we like some spiders but hate other spiders. This is a discussion that is so important in this time when we literally have bots on our phones that are like, \u2018I\u2019ll be your best friend.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cJustin speaks to human psychology and our need to want to be friends or villainize objects \u2014or technology or animals \u2014 and project our own humanity onto them in ways that are sometimes helpful and sometimes dangerous. <\/p>\n \u201cAs a science communicator, you can tell people the most fascinating facts and can give them the best stories. But unless you can give people a takeaway, then a lot of times it doesn\u2019t stick or the interest isn\u2019t there. He really addresses the question of \u2018Well, what does this mean for my life?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cReplaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy\u201d<\/a> \u201cI\u2019m a long term simp for Mary Roach.<\/a> <\/p>\n \u201cThe humanity that she brings is such a wonderful base for how our bodies fail us sometimes and what we are trying to do to bring them back. From her being present during orthopedic surgeries and the way that she describes the sound of hammer on bone (and just the kind of jovial atmosphere in an operating room that, as a patient, you would never be clued in about because you are passed out half dead on a slab). She really soaks up a vibe that you would never have access to. She goes to Mongolia to learn about eye surgery there in yurts. She takes you to places you would never be able to go. She\u2019s rooting around in archives and old papers \u2014 she just makes anything interesting.<\/p>\n \u201cMary really is both an ally and an outsider, and I think that that\u2019s a really beautiful thing in her book.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaid\u201d<\/a> \u201cAnna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman<\/a> is an absolute force. I\u2019ve followed her work in economics and in equity for years, and I was really excited for this book to come out. We did an episode on kalology<\/a>, which is the study of beauty standards, years ago and I have always loved the conversation of how different members of society have a certain tax on them \u2014 these extra resources that they are expected to provide.<\/p>\n \u201cI was really excited to read about specifically women of color, because that is something that I don\u2019t feel is discussed at large. Anna combines the sociology of it with the reality of her experience and other women of color. Because she is so deft when it comes to policy and economics, she also considers, \u2018What can we do about this?\u2019 It\u2019s not just enough to discuss this, but what can be done?<\/p>\n \u201cShe has totals of what the gender gap is and what the double tax is, and it\u2019s written up like a receipt. This book really addresses the double tax in a way that, even if you have no insight or it\u2019s something that you haven\u2019t thought about \u2014 or you are someone who hasn\u2019t experienced this \u2014 it\u2019s laying it out economically in a way that is really accessible and has a lot of impact.\u201d<\/p>\n Recinos is an arts and culture journalist and creative nonfiction writer based in Los Angeles. Her first essay collection, \u201cUnderneath the Palm Trees,\u201d is forthcoming in early 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been an uneasy year for science. While there were significant milestones, like breakthroughs in gene editing for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":105824,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[27637,24264,9952,57180,57178,1576,57179,48,52,51,11401,7036,47,50,49,1741,19349,592,645,8843,1557],"class_list":["post-105823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bee","tag-book","tag-color","tag-double-tax","tag-fern","tag-friend","tag-human-anatomy","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lady-gaga","tag-last-year","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-lot","tag-page","tag-people","tag-science","tag-way","tag-woman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=105823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105823\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/105824"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=105823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=105823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=105823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} <\/a> <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By Fay-Wei Li and Jacob S. Suissa
Hardie Grant Books: 192 pages, $45 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
By Krystle Hickman
Heyday: 240 pages, $38<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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By Mary Roach
W.W. Norton & Co: 288 pages, $28.99 <\/p>\n <\/p>\n
By Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman
Portfolio: 256 pages, $29 <\/p>\n