Brain mysteries and Bronze Age diplomacy: Books in brief

• BOOK REVIEW

• 27 February 2026

Brain mysteries and Bronze Age diplomacy: Books in brief

Andrew Robinson reviews five of the best science picks.

Andrew Robinson0

Andrew Robinson

Andrew Robinson is a writer based in London and author of Earthshock (1993), The Story of Measurement (2007) and Einstein in Oxford (2024).

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Decoding the Hand

Alison Bashford Univ. Chicago Press (2025)

In the mid-twentieth century, geneticist Lionel Penrose observed correlations between genetic abnormalities and the creases of the hand, publishing his final paper ‘Fingerprints and palmistry’ in The Lancet in 1973. The hand has long intrigued physicians, embryologists, endocrinologists, psychiatrists and physical anthropologists, notes historian Alison Bashford. This fascinating, well-illustrated history explores the “mysterious, curious, and often complex codes by which signs of the hand have been interpreted”.

The Long Heat

Wim Carton & Andreas Malm Verso (2025)

In 2023, the United States “pumped more oil and gas than any country had ever done in history”, note human geographer Wim Carton and human ecologist Andreas Malm. Their long, powerful and pessimistic book is a rallying cry to get global warming under control. Now that mitigation measures have fallen behind targets, Carton and Malm analyse three remaining options: adapting to rising temperatures; removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere; and geoengineering to block incoming sunlight.

Love, War, and Diplomacy

Eric H. Cline Princeton Univ. Press (2025)

In 1887, revealing documents were discovered in Amarna, in the ruins of ancient Egypt’s capital Akhetaten. The Amarna letters are clay tablets written in Mesopotamian cuneiform — not Egyptian hieroglyphs — recording royal correspondence from the fourteenth century bc between pharaohs such as Akhenaten (the probable father of pharaoh Tutankhamun) and the Hittites, Babylonians and Assyrians. Archaeologist Eric Cline discusses the tablets’ discovery and dispersal around the world, as well as their intriguing contents.

Go/No-Go

Marianne Apostolides Bookhug* (2025)

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-026-00621-w

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The author declares no competing interests.

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