Shortlist for 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize announced

The Royal Society has today announced the six titles shortlisted for the 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize, which celebrates the best popular science writing from across the globe. The announcement was made by one of this year’s five judges, Bobby Seagull, at the Edinburgh International Book Festival following an event with the Prize’s 2020 winner Camilla Pang. 

All of this year’s authors make the list for the first time, with books that cover an array of important scientific themes through compelling and accessible storytelling. The full shortlist, selected from 254 submissions published between 1 July 2023 and 30 September 2024, is as follows:

• Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution by Cat Bohannon (Hutchinson Heinemann) 
• Everything Is Predictable: How Bayes’ Remarkable Theorem Explains the World by Tom Chivers (Weidenfeld & Nicolson) 
• Your Face Belongs to Us: The Secretive Startup Dismantling Your Privacy by Kashmir Hill (Simon & Schuster) 
• The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction by Gísli Pálsson (Princeton University Press) 
• Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality by Venki Ramakrishnan (Hodder Press) 
• A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through? by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith (Particular Books) 

Professor John Hutchinson, chair of the 2024 judges, said: 

“Competition for this shortlist was extreme. 2023-2024 has been an incredible year for great science books. Our shortlist spans a wonderful variety of highly timely topics: from artificial intelligence and privacy issues to the challenges of space settlement, to the underappreciated importance of a statistical method, to the evolution of female reproductive biology, to the discovery of human-induced extinction itself, and to the biology of ageing and death. There’s something for everyone interested in science here, whether it’s for your own leisure reading and enlightenment, a generous gift to someone else, or for education in STEM disciplines. Humanity needs creative and scholarly books like these that digest the huge wealth of modern scientific understanding and translate it into accessible impact.”

President of the Royal Society, Sir Adrian Smith FRS, said: 

“Science is central to all of our lives and is woven through every aspect of our existence. For this reason, people from all walks of life should be able to access it easily. Our Trivedi Science Book Prize, the only one in the world dedicated to popular science writing, provides a vital link between the expert scientific community and the public, communicating pioneering but often technical research to mainstream audiences. Each of this year’s shortlisted books is a testament to both the wonders of science and the art of writing and bring these fascinating and varied areas of enquiry and discovery to curious readers everywhere.”

Alongside Professor John Hutchinson, the 2024 judging panel comprises Booker Prize-winning author and screenwriter Eleanor Catton; New Scientist Comment and Culture Editor Alison Flood; teacher, broadcaster and writer Bobby Seagull; and lecturer in Functional Materials at Imperial College London, and Royal Society University Research Fellow, Dr Jess Wade.

The shortlisted titles represent the judges’ pick of the most fascinating and relevant science writing over the past 12 months. Collectively, the list reflects the various ways in which science impacts our society and culture, tackling topics and ideas spanning the past, present and future of humanity and our world. 

In Your Face Belongs to Us, Kashmir Hill offers a gripping true story about the mysterious startup Clearview AI, a facial recognition platform with an alleged 98.6% accuracy rate, and the implications of this type of technology being a part of our everyday lives. Kelly and Zach Weinersmith meanwhile explore the quickening progression of space technologies in A City on Mars, investigating one of the biggest questions facing humanity: whether and how to become multiplanetary. 

Cat Bohannon’s Eve spans 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex, in a sweeping revision of human history, and an urgent corrective for a world that has for too long focused primarily on the male body. In another revolutionary biological text, in Why We Die, Venki Ramakrishnan explains the latest scientific understanding of exactly why we age and how we might prevent it. He examines cutting-edge efforts to extend lifespan, and raises profound questions around death, ageing, and how to increase our chances of living long, healthy and fulfilled lives.

Gisli Pálsson’s The Last of Its Kind offers a powerful perspective on the human causes of mass extinction, through the specific example of the great auk - a flightless bird, the last of which were killed in Iceland in 1844. The book brings together firsthand accounts and rare, unpublished material, bringing to life a bygone age of Victorian scientific exploration while offering vital insights into the extinction of species. 

Everything Is Predictable by award-winning science writer Tom Chivers gives a captivating tour of Bayes' theorem and its impact on modern life, from medical testing to artificial intelligence. Whilst Bayes was an eighteenth-century Presbyterian minister and amateur mathematician who lived an obscure life, today Bayesian principles are widely used in modelling and forecasting.

The Royal Society Science Book Prize has championed non-fiction books that celebrate the collective joy of science writing for more than 30 years. Previous winning titles cover diverse themes, ranging from the sensory experiences of animals to the evolution of all life on earth, and a fresh perspective on human behaviour and relationships. Recent winners include Ed Yong, Henry Gee, Merlin Sheldrake, Camilla Pang, and Caroline Criado Perez. 

The winner of this year’s Prize will be revealed at a ceremony at the Royal Society on 24 October, where he or she will be presented with a cheque for £25,000. Each of the five shortlisted authors will receive a cheque for £2,500. 

The judging panel’s praise for the 2024 shortlist  

On Eve by Cat Bohannon

"From the start, Bohannon establishes the profound need for this book. Far from being confrontational, however, its tone is welcoming and informative, both thoroughly researched and academic whilst also highly readable and at times humorous. There are relatable cultural references throughout, and it feels like Bohannon is presenting this as science for the people. It is a vital call to action for us to do things better, and to ultimately allow women and girls to occupy a bigger space in society.”

On Everything Is Predictable by Tom Chivers

“This is a highly impressive book that immediately hooks the reader in. Chivers is an exemplary writer and his distinctive voice shines through as he covers Thomas Bayes’ theories in an accessible and exciting way. This is a book for anyone who wishes to expand their knowledge of maths, and it illuminates aspects of probability and its applications in today’s society that are hugely relevant to us all.”

On Your Face Belongs to Us by Kashmir Hill

"Hill’s book is fiercely researched and unflinchingly details a dark side of science, in a true story that has a thriller-like, cinematic quality through sheer impact. It is packed with staggering accounts of individuals being wrongly convicted and facing major injustices but is such a compelling subject that we all need to know more about now, as we grapple with the impact of AI in our society.”

On The Last of Its Kind by Gísli Pálsson

"The Last Of Its Kind tackles a huge topic – human-induced extinction – from a surprising and intimate perspective, with the case of the great auk becoming a microcosm for what we know, today, as a tragically widespread plight. It is well documented, well written and powerful, bringing together personal accounts and historical records, and reframes the topic of extinction in a moving and profoundly sad way by its focus on this one fascinating species.” 

On Why We Die by Venki Ramakrishnan

"Why We Die is such an important and timely read, covering a subject matter that we should all know more about, and talk more openly about. Ramakrishnan poses questions and sets out his topic in a welcoming and accessible way, combined with robust, cutting-edge research where he expertly weaves in insights from fellow scientists. It is beautifully written, making us reconsider the way we think about death, ageing, and the human experience.”

On A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith

“At a time when billionaires’ comments about space travel seem to be rarely out of the news, this comic illustrator and writer duo give a simultaneously entertaining yet measured analysis of the merits and numerous potential challenges of humans settling in space. In a wonderfully creative way, they analyse one of the biggest questions about the future of humanity in a conversational and refreshing tone.” 

About the shortlisted authors

Cat Bohannon is a researcher and author with a PhD from Columbia University in the evolution of narrative and cognition. Her essays and poems have appeared in Scientific American, Mind, Science Magazine, The Best American Nonrequired Reading, The Georgia Review, The Story Collider and Poets Against the War. She lives in the US with her partner and two children.

Tom Chivers is a science writer and author. He was given Royal Statistical Society 'Statistical Excellence in Journalism' awards in 2018 and 2020 and was declared the Science Writer of the Year by the Association of British Science Writers in 2021. His two previous books are The Rationalist's Guide To The Galaxy and How To Read Numbers (with David Chivers).

Kashmir Hill is an award-winning technology reporter at The New York Times. She is interested in how technology is shaping our lives and impacting our privacy, and has written for publications including The New Yorker, The Washington Post and Forbes. Your Face Belongs To Us is her first book. 

Gísli Pálsson is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Iceland. His books include The Human Age, Down To Earth, and The Man Who Stole Himself. Pálsson has worked in environmental anthropology, fishing communities, extinction studies and arctic cultures. He is a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland and formerly, Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study. 

Venki Ramakrishnan received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for uncovering the structure of the ribosome. He runs the Ramakrishnan Lab at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. From 2015 to 2020, he served as the president of the Royal Society and is a Member of the US National Academy of Sciences, Leopoldina and EMBO, and a Foreign Member of the Indian National Science Academy. Among his many other awards and honours are the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine and the Padma Vibushan. He is the author of Gene Machine. 

The Weinersmiths, a wife-and-husband research team, co-wrote the New York Times bestselling Soonish. Dr. Kelly Weinersmith is adjunct faculty in the BioSciences Department at Rice University. Her research has been featured in The Atlantic, National Geographic, BBC World, Science, Nature and more. Zach Weinersmith makes the acclaimed webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. His work has been featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Forbes, Science Friday and elsewhere.inersmith makes the acclaimed webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. His work has been featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Slate, Forbes, Science Friday and elsewhere. 

Find out more about the 2024 Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize.