The best new popular science books of July 2026

From friendship in a world of chatbots to what it means to be alive, this month's new popular science books are asking some big questions. Australia's tiger quoll - as featured in Dan Werb's Our Wild Familiars, out this month Life, being alive and death are big themes in the new popular science books out in July, not to mention that small thing of being a human and all the messy feelings and sensory stuff that goes with it. Then there's also AI filling the future - in ways that worry one of the world's leading forensic scientists, as well as ethicists who are paid to think about this sort of thing. I'm looking forward to delving into the worlds of volcanoes and pharmacology, which look positively safe and stable in comparison Can friendship with a chatbot ever be as good as friendship with a gang of flesh-and-blood besties? Is there still and will there - can there - always be something about human friendships that will elude the smartest of simulations?