Context rules from maths to history. John Cornwell’s Hitler’s Scientists (Penguin, £8.99/$16) contemplates science in Germany from its flowering in the 19th century, its perverse role as helpmate of Nazis, to its collapse at the end of the second world war. Laying bare the vulnerability of research to its funders and consumers forces the reader to consider what kind of ethical controls and balances we now possess. The modern context for science is near-market profitability without much of an ethical take on outcomes.
Penguin has less harrowing books out: physicist Len Fisher explores everyday life with a scientist’s eye from…
