13 Things That Don't Make Sense, By Michael Brooks

Remember the cold fusion debacle a few years ago? The scientists involved were excoriated when no one could reproduce their results, but recent discoveries suggest that they might have been heading in the right direction. "What is clear, what is now more than a maybe, is that nuclear processes can be unlocked without a great drama of fire and storm."

In this impressively knowledgeable book, an articulate scientist explores mysteries from the "biggest virus known to science... and staggeringly hard to kill" to the idea that both life and death are "anomalies". Brooks will rile scientific orthodoxy with his open-minded approach to homeopathy: a line of current research suggests that it works through chemical reaction, not extreme dilution.