This Month

One of the upsides of the dominance of nonfiction is the wellspring of smart and popular science titles. This month we bring you books on the science of traffic, sex, randomness, and many other things that don't make sense. Besides these gee-whiz thrills, we review a natural history of the natural-history museum and a mega-anthology of American environmental writing. There's also a wrap-up of recent books on evolution and the benefits of mutation. We close with an interview with Dr. Carl Djerassi, who invented the Pill before embarking on a literary career.