Each year, London’s Royal Society grants ‘the world’s most prestigious award for science writing’ to a popular science author. This year’s nominees have just been announced.

A Life Decoded, by J. Craig Venter
Coral: A pessimist in paradise by Steve Jones
Gut Feelings by Gerd Gigerenzer
Six Degrees: Our future on a hotter planet by Mark Lynas
The Sun Kings by Stuart Clark
Why Beauty is Truth by Ian Stewart

The winning author will be announced on 16 June.

Has anyone read any of these? I’m tempted by the coral book, as I know nothing about the beasties. Then again, the author has (deservedly) won enough book awards to seed his own reef by now.