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The Nautilus Winter Reading List 2025
Ten books we loved to start your new year off right.
- By Nautilus Editors
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The Psychedelic Scientist
High on ayahuasca, Bruce Damer saw how life on Earth began. He may very well be right.
- By Mattha Busby
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Crick and Watson Did Not Steal Franklin’s Data
Matthew Cobb’s 3 greatest revelations while writing his book Crick: A Mind in Motion
- By Matthew Cobb
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These “Living Rocks” Are Living It Up
Unassuming ancient microbe communities are surprisingly skilled at storing away lots of carbon
- By Molly Glick
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Monster Stars Roamed the Cosmos at the Dawn of Time
“A bit like dinosaurs on Earth—they were enormous and primitive”
- By Jake Currie
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Eat Your Molecules
Food, food, food. Eat salmon, just not farmed. Wine is good for you. No, it’s not. Fasting boosts your immune system. Check that, it gives you migraines. Cottage cheese is the best protein. What do you mean you don’t like kale? It fights cancer. No, really, ice cream protects against diabetes. Blueberries are the best […]
- By Kevin Berger
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Is the Drought in the Southwest Permanent?
New models foretell more dry years ahead
- By Syris Valentine
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What’s Your City’s Hoofprint?
A new study measures the impact meat eating has on the planet, one city at a time
- By Katharine Gammon
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Could Virtual Reality Help Doctors Learn Empathy?
Medical schools are testing simulations to bridge the emotional gulf between physicians and their patients
- By Zoe Cunniffe
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The Nautilus Reading List About the Cosmos
Our writers have read a universe of books on space and astronomy. Here are their favorites.
- By Nautilus Writers
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Nature’s Prescription for Our Future
Why caring for nature is caring for ourselves
- By Dona Bertarelli
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Naked Clams and Sunken Ships
A brazen plan to grow an animal that has been the bane of sailors for centuries—to feed the world
- By Alex Riley
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The Problem with Farmed Seafood
We’re decimating the ocean to feed farmed fish. But an innovative solution has surfaced.
- By John Steele
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The Ochre Origins of Art
Ancient use of this red powder is found wherever there were humans
- By Philip Marsden
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The Hidden Landscape Holding Back the Sea
The fate of our planet’s coasts rests on Antarctic bedrock
- By Evan Howell
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Gaia’s Got a Fever
An aging Earth, like an aging body, is increasingly vulnerable to heat’s fatal strikes
- By James Lovelock
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How to Print a Human
We desperately need new organs, and we’re running out of ways to get them
- By Mary Roach
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The Secret Superpowers of Frog Skin
The slime coating frog bodies could hold the key to fighting infections, healings wounds and even curing cancer
- By Sofia Quaglia
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Will Trump’s Immigration Policies Hurt US Nobel Chances?
Drastic cuts to science funding and immigration restrictions could hobble the country’s research enterprise
- By Molly Glick
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The Periscope: Book Weeding, Fact-Checking, and Imperiled Fruit Fly Data
What Nautilus executive editor Katherine Courage has been tuning into recently
- By Katherine Harmon Courage
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He Erased Memory in Mice. Then Thought About Erasing His Own
Sunk in grief and alcoholism, this neuroscientist discovered the power of memory in himself
- By Kevin Berger
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To Be More Creative, Immigrate
Creativity flourishes when people cross borders—and when those borders blur through deep, human connection
- By Keith Sawyer
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The Pretense of Political Debate
Grandstanding acts of persuasion restrict free speech and real learning. Just ask Socrates.
- By Agnes Callard
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In the Land of the Eyeless Dragons
The cave-dwelling olm is a canary in the coal mine for environmental change
- By Gary Hartley
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Extreme Heat Will Change You
High temperatures can alter our bodies at the molecular level
- By Diana Kwon
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Visit the 7 Most Extreme Planets in the Universe
From molten glass rain to oceans of lava, an intergalactic tour of the most terrifying and beautiful climates out there
- By Claire Cameron
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The Mathematical Mysteries of Fireflies
What blinking bugs reveal about synchrony in the universe
- By Evelyn Lamb
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Manta Rays at Play
Underwater, the mantas circled Evie, ready for a game. A work of fiction.
- By Richard Powers
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The Sean Carrolls Explain the Universe
Why are we here? Is there life on other planets? The renowned scientists who share a name share their answers to life’s big questions.
- By John Steele
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Back to the Galapagos
A visit with evolutionary biologists Peter and Rosemary Grant.
- By Jonathan Weiner
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The Reality Ouroboros
Toward a new understanding of the nature of reality.
- By David Krakauer & David Wolpert
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Why Physics Is Unreasonably Good at Creating New Math
The secret sauce is the real world.
- By Ananyo Bhattacharya
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What Makes a Memory Real?
Changing the narrative on false memories might be surprisingly simple.
- By Jim Davies
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The Soviet Rebel of Music
He composed on a computer in a dangerous time. His echo is still heard today.
- By Grigori Guitchounts
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The Animals That Turn Bodily Fluids into Weapons
Four explosive tales of blood, spit, and venom.
- By Kristen French
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How Whales Could Help Us Speak to Aliens
Learning to decode complex communication on Earth may give us a leg up if intelligent life from space makes contact.
- By Claire Cameron
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Does Your Personality Put You At a Higher Risk of Dying?
- By Kristen French
- Currents
Taking stock of your foibles could extend your life
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These Fatal Gauntlets Kill Thousands of Endangered Seabirds Every Year
- By Devin Reese
- Currents
Study maps the deadly areas where birds cross paths with fishing vessels
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These Baby Stars Have Mysterious Companions
- By Molly Glick
- Currents
The Gaia telescope peeked through gas and dust to pick out the possible beginnings of new planets around infant stars
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What Makes Someone Good at Reading the Room?
- By Kristen French
- Currents
Those who have this special skill may be better at weighing ambiguous cues
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Tiny Hints of Soldier Stomach Troubles in Roman Britain
- By Molly Glick
- Currents
Sediment from a Roman military settlement revealed traces of parasites that trigger gastrointestinal distress, despite efforts to keep the ancient encampment clean
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Cosmic Collision Caught on Camera
- By Jake Currie
- Currents
Astronomers witnessed the aftermath of not one but two collisions in space
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Parachute Science Continues to Prevail in Global South Biodiversity Studies
- By Devin Reese
- Currents
The privilege of describing new species is skewed to Global Northerners
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How Animals Navigate Darkness
- By Kristen French
- Currents
Mouse brains perform a clever mechanism to count their steps and keep them on track
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The Feathery Dinosaurs That Couldn’t Fly
- By Molly Glick
- Currents
Close inspection of “exceptionally preserved” fossils suggests that some dinosaurs shed their ability to take off
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The Silver Lining in Disappointment
- By Kristen French
- Currents
It triggers a reaction in the brains of mice that helps them change their behavior
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We Overestimate the Prevalence of Online Trolls
- By Molly Glick
- Currents
This misconception can prompt us to feel pessimistic about our peers—and the world
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These Butterflies Change Visual Systems with Seasons
- By Devin Reese
- Currents
There’s more than what meets the eye in a color-swapping insect
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Titan May Not Host a Massive Ocean After All
- By Jake Currie
- Currents
But the moon’s slushy interior could still harbor pockets of life-sustaining water
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The 3 Ways We Read Between the Lines
- By Kristen French
- Currents
How humans infer meaning from spoken language is more complex than we thought
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Ancient Bee Nests Hiding in Regurgitated, Fossilized Bones
- By Molly Glick
- Currents
A cave in the Dominican Republic has revealed the first recorded instance of bee larvae tucked into fossils
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How Earth’s Atmosphere Reached the Moon
- By Jake Currie
- Currents
And what this might mean for colonizing other worlds
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An Ancient Fingerprint Among Clues to a 2,000-year-old Invasion of Denmark
- By Molly Glick
- Currents
Previously unexamined, “remarkable” evidence could help scientists track down the unsuccessful attackers whose boat was thrown in a bog
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Is Earth’s Core Like an Onion?
- By Devin Reese
- Currents
Chemical layering deep inside may explain weird seismic wave behavior