The best new popular science books for January 2026 include titles by Claudia Hammond and Deborah Cohen

Here in the northern hemisphere, January always seems to be the longest and dreariest month of the year, so how lucky we are to have a wealth of new science books to liven up our days. This month, we can explore everything from what the arts bring to our lives to the unsung hero that is friction. What about the origin of ideas? Or what do we lose when we light up our skies? Maybe January isn’t long enough…

Artistic Healing by Daisy Fancourt

What if playing the piano, dancing, visiting art galleries or even lying in the mud listening to Wolf Alice at Glastonbury was good for the body, mind and longevity? What if it could help us develop brain resilience in the face of dementia? This is just part of Daisy Fancourt’s ambitious and tantalizing speech in her new book. In theory, she is well placed to make her case as professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London and director of the WHO’s arts and health initiative. British TV doctor Xand van Tulleken calls it an “incredible antidote” to the “deluge of nonsense” we are given daily about how to live better. A license to have fun – what’s not to love?

Here’s a question we’ve all asked ourselves – and we immediately poured ourselves another drink while we thought about it. The story of why we consume alcohol for everything from celebration to relaxation and integration (the biology, not moral failure) is in the hands of surgeon and clinical researcher Charles Knowles. As he happens to be a recovering alcoholic, this should be the ultimate view on what happens in our brains, why and how alcohol hijacks our survival instincts, overrides the ability to choose, and most importantly, how alcohol consumption can spiral out of control. More importantly, he has a scientific “plan” for how to escape this vicious cycle. Less preachy and more scientific – good decision.

We all do it: running to the internet for help when we’re sick. Or if we want to become the best version of ourselves – with wonderfully low blood pressure, perfect blood sugar, not the slightest excess fat, and perfectly focused on being happy, successful citizens. But who are these experts who live online, who do not know our personal medical history? Science writer Deborah Cohen wonders why we would trust them with our lives, without any proof of their qualifications or impartiality. Good question. I hope she has good answers.

Polar War by Kenneth R. Rosen

What will happen with the melting Arctic is something we will all need to wake up to – and quickly – as pipelines are sabotaged, global lines of communication severed, and untapped natural resources are exposed in a new scramble for position and power? It’s no wonder that geopolitical writer and sometime war correspondent Kenneth Rosen found himself stuck in a world that would justify his book’s subtitle: “Submarines, Spies, and the Struggle for Power in a Melting Arctic.” Terrifying, in a good way.

Did it all start at the center – big cities, established ideas, conventions in all their forms? No, says Charles Foster, in what appears to be a thought-provoking counter-theory: the best ideas are born at the periphery. In what is billed as a “fascinating and philosophical travel book,” Foster travels “from the distant frontiers of the planet…and of human culture and consciousness to the far reaches of continents, of evolution, of artistic and political movements, and of life itself.” Stir the stuff if it provides even half of it.

Forget the holiday season: everyday life seems rushed, with too many things to do and less time to do it. This phenomenon even owes its name to the effect it produces: crushing. How to make it stop? BBC journalist Claudia Hammond does it, dividing her book into chapters covering everything from procrastination and fear of regret to striving for perfectionism and endless to-do lists. She offers a psychological toolbox and a stack of scientific knowledge to keep us from burning out among her “ways to relieve pressure,” as the book’s subtitle puts it. It’s the right time, that’s for sure.

Whether you’re struggling to lose weight or worried about the implications of getting what you think you want, the GLP-1 drug Ozempic and other weight loss drugs are bound to make headlines this year. Reuters columnist Aimee Donnellan seeks to trace the history of Novo Nordisk’s race to develop a ‘cure’ for obesity with Ozempic, a diabetes drug that targets the GLP-1 hormone and makes people feel fuller for longer, with the economic, political and social implications – and the underlying scientific question: Are these drugs too good to be true?

Every year, our night skies become at least 120% brighter – and that’s not just a big deal for astronomers, but also for our wildlife (not to mention our sleep cycles). In Night travelTravel writer and “dark sky” advocate Megan Eaves-Egenes travels the world to understand our connection to the night sky. Billed as a way to “find solace in the stars at a difficult time in one’s own life”, she embarks on a journey that takes her from New Zealand to Uzbekistan, from Italy to Japan, from Germany to the Himalayas, exploring what darkness means in the world and over time – and above all, it seems, what we stand to lose.

Friction by Jennifer Vail

The story of an invisible force can be very interesting to read – and the “biography” of friction, as author Jennifer Vail calls it, looks promising. We’re talking here about the force that resists the movements we encounter in daily life (think squeaky door hinges or highway-worn car tires), but also about its power from the first spark of fire to the industrial revolution to the unexpected role in the race to understand viruses, and much more. He’s an unsung hero to most (but not, of course, to Newton, Da Vinci and their ilk) – but, hopefully, not for very long.

From Ada Lovelace’s pioneering algorithms and Alan Turing’s famous test of artificial intelligence to Deep Blue’s chess victory, ChatGPT, this is presented as a guided tour of the monuments and failures of the great ongoing AI story. This sounds like fun, coming from an AI professor at the University of New South Wales, Australia. The big question, of course, is: can this huge story really be contained in a small book? Well, Carlo Rovelli passed for physics, so fingers crossed.