Vaccine by Arthur Allen
(W. W. Norton, $27.95)

One quarter of U.S.parents are reluctant to get their children vaccinated, and thousandshave filed lawsuits alleging that vaccines caused autism in their kids.­Allen, a journalist with a decade-long interest in this topic, showsthat unlike other medical procedures, vaccination has inspiredorganized resistance movements throughout its history. In an admirablebalancing act, he takes a critical look both at the antivaccineactivists’ tendency to deal in half-truths and hysteria, and at abiomedical establishment that has repeatedly circled its wagons,denying or downplaying genuine dangers of vaccines. Richly detailed andmasterfully written, this is a must-read.  —Kyla Dunn

The Poincaré Conjecture by Donal O’Shea
(Walker & Company,$26.95)

After reclusive Russian mathematician Grigori Perelmanconquered the Poincaré Conjecture—a hitherto unproved mathematicalstatement that had attracted and stymied scholars for more than acentury—he made headlines last summer for refusing the Fields medal,math’s highest honor, as a reward. Experts lamented that the humandrama got more attention than the remarkable mathematics involved. NowO’Shea, a mathematician, recounts the rich history of the famousproblem and its solution, even managing to connect its abstractimplications to the real world. A layman’s guide to this mathematicalodyssey is long overdue, and this one will appeal to math whizzes andinterested novices alike.  —Stephen Ornes

Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart
(­Algonquin Books, $23.95)

Bred for ease of harvesting andsuitability as airfreight, grown on conveyor belts, and tricked intoblooming out of season, today’s cut flowers are a true industrialproduct. Growers even have plans to bag and vacuum-seal their tulipsfor hanging on grocery store racks like potato chips. In FlowerConfidential garden writer Amy Stewart explores the oddities of this$40-billion global industry. We learn of scientists’ efforts toengineer the first blue rose, and why breeding for longer vase life hascaused most modern cut flowers to lose their scent entirely. Stewartalso lays out the difficult quest for a socially responsible flower,one that takes less of a toll on workers and the environment.  —Kyla Dunn

Uncertainty; by David Lindley ­
(Doubleday, $26)

“Anyone who is not shocked byquantum theory has not understood it,” physicist Niels Bohr once said.This is particularly true of Werner Heisenberg’s famous UncertaintyPrinciple, which holds that an experimenter cannot simultaneouslymeasure the velocity and position of a moving particle. YoungHeisenberg and his mentor, Bohr, embraced it; Albert Einstein declaredit nonsense. God, Einstein asserted, does not play dice. Science writerand former astrophysicist David Lindley recounts the birth of theprinciple amid a maelstrom of doubt, insecurity, and skepticism,layering keen human drama on top of mind-bending scientificadvancement.  —Stephen Ornes

Undermining Science by Seth Shulman
(University of California Press, $24.95)

In 2003 the White Houseinstructed the Environmental Protection Agency to delete from itsannual Report on the Environment any reference to a study showing thathuman activity contributes significantly to climate change, and also todelete temperature data showing a worsening warming trend. In the end,the EPA dropped the entire climate change section rather than publishsomething that so inaccurately reflected the science. Journalist SethShulman recounts this episode and dozens of other case studies toillustrate how often objective data have been sacrificed to ideologyunder the current Bush administration. Exhaustively sourced andresearched, Shulman’s book leaves no doubt that the integrity ofgovernment research is under attack. It stands alongside Chris Mooney’sThe Republican War on Science as a work of timely muckraking.  —Stephen Ornes

The Elephant’s Secret Sense by Caitlin O’Connell
(FreePress, $24)

Airborne sounds aren’t the only signals pachyderms pick up:They also communicate with one another through the Earth, detectingseismic signals of warning or of greeting with their sensitive trunksand feet. These low-frequency rumblings were first uncovered byecologist Caitlin O’Connell, who now describes her revolutionary work.Her memoir evocatively captures 14 years of fieldwork and scientificexperiments that moved an unorthodox hunch about elephant communicationinto the scientific mainstream.  —Jennifer Barone