We’re thrilled to announce three new acquisitions—stories of astronomy, geology, and immunology—that exemplify our mission to publish brilliant books about curiosity-driven science. What unifies them is a shared inquisitiveness about how the universe works and about the people who discovered how it works—who asked the questions and followed the evidence to uncover its secrets. Each of these authors masterfully draws on the history of discovery to illuminate our world, and we can’t wait to introduce their work to you.
An Expanding Universe
University of Washington/Dennis Wise Emily Levesque
“How does the entire universe work?” Edwin Hubble dared to ask this question when he pointed the world’s largest telescope at the sky in 1923. His observations revealed that not only did other galaxies beyond our own Milky Way exist, they were, as Emily Levesque writes, “hurtling away from us into nothingness.” The expansion rate of the universe became known as the Hubble constant (H for short), and the search for its precise value has motivated one of the greatest and longest-running scientific debates of all time. That’s the subject of award-winning astronomer Levesque’s STARLIGHT IS FALLING, which we’ll publish in late 2027. She tells the riveting story of the quest to uncover the Hubble constant, tracing alongside it the rapid evolution of how we pursue and support humanity’s biggest scientific questions. Spanning over a century, the book features an unforgettable cast of characters—Levesque paints wonderful portraits of the cowboys, clergymen, the ambidextrous math genius, and the famous and forgotten names of astronomy behind the work—as well as the cutting-edge telescopes built by titans of industry and national governments around the world. The result is an expansive, eye-opening account of scientific discovery at a cosmic scale, and what made it possible.
From Dust to Dust
Shevaun Williams Photography Lynn Soreghan
Some of our favorite nonfiction enlivens the stuff of everyday life, and in THE CAPITAL OF DUST, geoscientist Lynn Soreghan illuminates a most humble substance: mineral dust. Also known as loess, mineral dust, she writes, has “built civilizations, fed (and feeds) humanity, and archives planetary history.” Loess offers us a window into deep geological time, the record of how our planet has changed over the last four billion years, and how we got here. Weaving together findings from geology, archaeology, and paleoclimatology, Soreghan reveals that Earth’s dust “holds the potential energy that enabled and enables the manipulation of matter that underpins civilization.” The sheer range of Soreghan’s explorations and her ability to summon the forces that shaped our history from the seeming ephemera of windblown dust is thrilling. Her remarkable excavation will hit shelves in 2028.
What the Body Knows
NYU Shruti Naik
Continuing the theme of invisible worlds, we’re excited to announce immunologist Shruti Naik’s IMMUNE INTELLIGENCE, a new portrait of our immune system that reexamines how our bodies interact with the world. Our immune system, far from the brute fighting force of popular imagination, Naik argues, resembles a sophisticated cellular intelligence agency that predicts, coordinates, and orchestrates. “The immune system does not wait for an invader and then invent its answer,” she writes. “It imagines first.” This “immune intelligence,” the immune system’s ability to collect “biological information to make decisions, store memories, learn, and evolve,” fine-tunes everything from metabolism, organ repair, and even behavior. Naik writes with deep historical insight and a true wonder at the vagaries of immunology that have brought us to this new understanding. As funding is increasingly pulled from medical research and vaccine hesitancy abounds, IMMUNE INTELLIGENCE reveals the wonders of human biology and offers a sophisticated understanding of the science of human health. Coming in late 2028.
We’re eagerly counting down the days until June 9th, the pub date for Kevin Hartnett’s THE PROOF IN THE CODE! Learn more about the book and preorder your copy here. Much more news to come in next month’s newsletter, including events, reviews, and more—stay tuned!