Itโs been an uneasy year for science. While there were significant milestones, like breakthroughs in gene editing for rare diseases and novel insights into early human evolution (including fire-making), the U.S. science community at large was rocked by institutional challenges. Drastic federal cuts froze thousands of research grants, and the Trump administration began actively working to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research. Meanwhile, fraudulent scientific research papers are on the rise โ casting a shadow over academic integrity.
Our picks for this yearโs best in arts and entertainment.
Thankfully, we can still turn to our bookshelves โ and podcasts โ to ground us. We tapped science doyenne Alie Ward, the host of the funny cult favorite โOlogiesโ podcast, to share her picks for the best science books of 2025.
Spanning fascinating subjects from bees to human anatomy, Wardโs insightful list reminds us that books remain a timeless vessel for truth and knowledge.
โFerns: Lessons in Survival From Earthโs Most Adaptable Plantsโ
By Fay-Wei Li and Jacob S. Suissa
Hardie Grant Books: 192 pages, $45
โDr. Li is the botanist of our dreams… 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 because they were listening to โBorn This Wayโ a lot in the lab and also because there are sequences in their DNA that are โGAGA.โ
โLaura Silburnโs illustrations are gorgeous โ 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 weโve seen so much science research being underfunded, especially in the last year, thereโs 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 โ thatโs 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 someoneโs passion and their dedication to studying it, we learn that it can change our lives.โ
โThe ABCs of Californiaโs Native Beesโ
By Krystle Hickman
Heyday: 240 pages, $38
โKrystle is an astounding photographer 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. Theyโre not native to L.A. Theyโre not native to this country. Theyโre 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 wouldnโt even consider โ and that a lot of people wouldnโt even identify as bees.
โThe 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 youโre getting to see these gorgeous landscape pictures. Youโre getting to see what it took to find the bee, how to look for it, and more about this particular species. Itโs organized in these ABCs that you can pick up at any chapter and check out a bee youโve never heard of before.โ
(Little, Brown and Company)
โHumanish: What Talking to Your Cat or Naming Your Car Reveals About the Uniquely Human Need to Humanizeโ
By Justin Gregg
Little, Brown: 304 pages, $30
โJustin is hilarious. 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 youโre reading a friendโs email who just has something really interesting to tell you.
โThis 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, โIโll be your best friend.โ
โJustin speaks to human psychology and our need to want to be friends or villainize objects โor technology or animals โ and project our own humanity onto them in ways that are sometimes helpful and sometimes dangerous.
โAs 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 doesnโt stick or the interest isnโt there. He really addresses the question of โWell, what does this mean for my life?โโ
โReplaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomyโ
By Mary Roach
W.W. Norton & Co: 288 pages, $28.99
โIโm a long term simp for Mary Roach.
โThe 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. Sheโs rooting around in archives and old papers โ she just makes anything interesting.
โMary really is both an ally and an outsider, and I think that thatโs a really beautiful thing in her book.โ
โThe Double Tax: How Women of Color Are Overcharged and Underpaidโ
By Anna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman
Portfolio: 256 pages, $29
โAnna Gifty Opoku-Agyeman is an absolute force. Iโve 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, 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 โ these extra resources that they are expected to provide.
โI was really excited to read about specifically women of color, because that is something that I donโt 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, โWhat can we do about this?โ Itโs not just enough to discuss this, but what can be done?
โShe has totals of what the gender gap is and what the double tax is, and itโs written up like a receipt. This book really addresses the double tax in a way that, even if you have no insight or itโs something that you havenโt thought about โ or you are someone who hasnโt experienced this โ itโs laying it out economically in a way that is really accessible and has a lot of impact.โ
Recinos is an arts and culture journalist and creative nonfiction writer based in Los Angeles. Her first essay collection, โUnderneath the Palm Trees,โ is forthcoming in early 2027.