Solar messengers
The author of this book, Helen Gordon, is a writer and natural historian focused principally on events occurring in the natural world and a variety of other scientific topics. The occurrence of flaming objects descending to Earth from the sky over the ages has evoked a miscellany of reactions, including awe and even veneration, and Gordon chronicles several of these responses here.
Facts on friction
Jennifer Vail is a tribologist on a mission to tell the world about the wonders of friction. Her TED talk The Science of Friction has been viewed millions of times, and on the back of that success, Harvard University Press commissioned her to write a book about her favourite subject.