A new book from Rebecca Solnit, promising to bring us hope in these "difficult times", is among our pick of popular science titles out this month - along with a guide on how to talk to AI, and a look at modern warfare March, in the northern hemisphere anyway, is about venturing out for some much-needed vitamin D and dodging showers. Forget that - just head for a decent café where you can delve into the marvellous science books we've got waiting for you. This month you can explore how animals shaped our world, how to spot liars from their language, what forest trees can tell us - and flowers as revolutionaries. There is some stronger stuff too, if you are in the mood: try AI in the hands of the US military, or a deep cultural look at how our world has changed beyond recognition. Whatever your choice, it's all guaranteed to enrich the inner you.

Can Michael Pollan crack the problem of consciousness in his new book? It is one of the most perplexing questions in science. You would expect our intimacy with it to give us a leg up in understanding how it works, but this has proven to be more of a hindrance than a help. So how can you study something objectively when it is also the very tool you are using to do the studying? This conundrum forms the backbone of Michael Pollan's latest book, Pollan's previous works include and The former helped bring the environmental and animal welfare impacts of the US food system to light, while the latter introduced the public to the psychedelic research renaissance.

Elon Musk's $1tn pay deal approved by Tesla shareholders Tesla shareholders have approved a record-breaking pay package for boss Elon Musk that could be worth nearly $1tn (£760bn). The unprecedented deal was approved by 75% of Tesla shareholders who cast votes at the firm's annual general meeting on Thursday. The deal requires Musk, who is already the world's richest man, to drastically raise the electric car firm's market value over a period of years. If he meets various targets, he will be rewarded with hundreds of millions of new shares. The scale of the deal is controversial, but the Tesla board argued that Musk might leave the company if it was not approved - and that it could not afford to lose him.

For years, Paul Kingsnorth was one of the most visible members of the green movement. Then he walked away from it. Now he wants us to walk away from everything else. For Kingsnorth, the Industrial Revolution marked the point of no return, the moment when we decided to play gods and turn our backs on the Earth. In 2014, Paul Kingsnorth was sunk in doubt. He was forty-one and had been on the green movement's front lines since the nineteen-nineties--working for Greenpeace and EarthAction, chaining himself to a bridge, getting tear-gassed outside a G-8 summit.

No, AI isn't going to kill us all, despite what this new book says In the totality of human existence, there are an awful lot of things for us to worry about. Money troubles, climate change and finding love and happiness rank highly on the list for many people, but for a dedicated few, one concern rises above all else: that artificial intelligence will eventually destroy the human race. Eliezer Yudkowsky at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute (MIRI) in California has been proselytising this cause for a quarter of a century, to a small if dedicated following. Then we entered the ChatGPT era, and his ideas on AI safety were thrust into the mainstream, echoed by tech CEOs and politicians alike. Writing with Nate Soares, also at MIRI, is Yudkowsky's attempt to distil his argument into a simple, easily digestible message that will be picked up across society.

Marc Berman is out to start a revolution. I am already a convert to his cause – and you may be too, having read in New Scientist about the extraordinary benefits of a nature walk, the healing power of plants and the magic of urban green spaces. If so, perhaps you will think there is nothing to be gained from a book about Berman's research. Nature and the Mind is for everyone from the adept to the uninitiated – it isn't simply written to educate and entertain, it is a call to action. This is the story of how an anxious boy, warned off studying medicine by his mother, a nurse, and law by his father, a lawyer, enrolled as an undergraduate in engineering and then went on to establish the revolutionary field of environmental neuroscience.

Will robots routinely take cheek swabs in the future – and if so, how soon will this happen? Robotic pets that boost well-being. It is hard to predict the future with any certainty, but, as a biomedical reporter, I was curious to read a book that envisions how fast-evolving technology could transform healthcare. In Hacking Humanity: How technology can save your health, and your life, Lara Lewington draws on more than a decade of experience as a technology reporter at the BBC to cover an impressive array of innovations: from medical robots to lab-grown organs and genetic editing to treat certain conditions. "Let me show you the way to a future where we shall be hacking humanity," she writes in the introduction.

These are our subscriber-only events where you get to listen in to conversations between editors and reporters. Now, I'm delighted to say we've got an absolute cracker of an event today. I'm very happy to have our prodigal daughter, Karen Hao, a fabulous AI journalist, here with us to talk about her new book. Hello, Karen, how are you doing? Thank you so much for having me back, Niall.

Former Biden administration aide Michael LaRosa claimed the White House pressured CNN to not book him after he left the White House, which CNN denied to Fox News Digital. A new book revealed that former President Joe Biden's team chose not to have the president take a cognitive test in February 2024, over concerns that taking the test itself would raise more questions about his age, The New York Times reported Sunday. Authors Tyler Pager, a reporter for The New York Times, Josh Dawsey, a reporter for the Wall Street Journal and Isaac Arnsdorf, a reporter for the Washington Post, wrote the book, titled, "2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America," which is set to be released in July. The book, one of several about the tumultuous 2024 presidential election, details that Biden's top aides debated having him complete a cognitive test to quell concerns about his age. The aides were reportedly confident Biden would pass the test.

Keeping a poker face had never struck me as much of a feat--until I had to keep one. My pulse quickened, my cheeks felt flushed, and my eyes were desperate to dart and size up the pot. What had been a mediocre hand was transformed, after the flop came down, into something spectacular: every card from seven to jack--a straight. All that remained was to play it cool and build up my cash prize. The bets started small, and then grew. The next two cards looked innocuous enough.