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A Bedside Nature by Walter Gratzer (Macmillan. £19.95/$29.95, ISBN 0 333 651316) may not be the ideal book of its kind as it is likely to keep you reading into the small hours. Its subsidiary title explains why. “Genius and Eccentricity in Science 1869 to 1953” is a collection of significant contributions to the famous science journal under both heads, so you may run across Röntgen rays and also Oliver Lodge wondering if radium can assist milk to turn sour, debate over the term “scientist”, the famous appearance of nuclear fission and the survival of an earwig immersed in mercury. The illustrations are marvellously evocative.