November 2025 new releases

A fascinating history of physicist Ernest Rutherford, who developed the key concepts underlying modern physics today.

By the mid-nineteenth century, physicists believed they had discovered the last secrets of the universe. Then a new world opened up: one of waves, particles, and new, fundamental forces. This mysterious world swiftly captured the public imagination, not least because of the technical revolution that emerged from it, giving the world everything from radio to TV, X-ray machines, smoke detectors, and more.

One of the key movers of this new world was Ernest Rutherford, who became popularly known as the “father of the atom” in recognition of his pioneering role in particle physics. But he was far more than that. Through his roles at Manchester University and then the Cavendish Laboratory in England, he steered a new generation of highly influential physicists such as Niels Bohr, helping to shape much of the way we understand physics today—from quantum mechanics to the “standard model” of particles.

This immersive history explores the discovery of that science, using Rutherford’s life as a vehicle to steer the journey. It explains just why this science seized the public imagination of the day, and why Rutherford’s contribution was integral not just to the technical revolution of the twentieth century, but to the way we now understand the nature of the universe. And it explains how that science works, in engaging, accessible terms.

A scientific true-crime caper stretching across the globe, The Butterfly Thief pieces together the bizarre story of one of the largest, most systematic, and baffling museum heists in the records of natural history.

In January 1947, a chance discovery rocks the world of natural science—over 3,000 rare and precious butterfly specimens have vanished from the most prestigious natural history museums in Australia. Alarmingly, the missing insects include many priceless “holotypes”: the first specimen of a given species to be identified, against which all others are compared.

New Scotland Yard and a team of entomologists are tasked to catch the culprit, and the person they suspect turns out to be a fascinating, larger-than-life figure—British ex-soldier, former champion skier, painter, semi-professional yodeller, and amateur lepidopterologist Colin Wyatt.

But who was this man, and how did he pull off such an ambitious string of burglaries? What did he serve to gain from amassing a vast illicit collection of specimens? What was the root of his obsession, and was he really a criminal, marked for life by his thefts, or a gifted and imaginative collector?

A delightful puzzlebox of a mystery drawing from unpublished dossiers, case files, and on-the-ground reporting, The Butterfly Thief unfolds this captivating tale of stolen specimens in rich, spellbinding detail.