91av

A HEDGE and a horror, light and dark science—there’s an eclectic bunch of paperbacks this month. Roy Moxham’s The Great Hedge of India describes his search for an extraordinary barrier stretching a thousand miles through northern India in the late 19th century. Thorny trees—the Indian plum, prickly pear and acacia—formed an impenetrable living wall about 5 metres tall. Its purpose was to control the trade in salt, which was taxed heavily to swell the coffers of the British. Follow Moxham on his indefatigable hunt for the Great Hedge through libraries, across fields and in and out of villages across the Punjab. Moxham deals with both the science of salt and the desperate measures people took to get salt that was free of the hated British taxes.

Horror lurks underwater in Michael Capuzzo’s Close to Shore. The BBC plans to broadcast this grisly shark tale in time to discourage summer swimming in the Northern hemisphere. Capuzzo’s great white shark attacked swimmers off the coast of New Jersey in 1916. Hardly anyone believed it possible—the received wisdom was that sharks didn’t prey on humans. If all this sounds familiar, the attacks in the summer of 1916 were the inspiration for Peter Benchley’s Jaws.

Now for a “lighter” tale: Brian Clegg’s wonderful Light Years. He covers not only the science but also the art of light, some of it surprisingly early. In 1734, Louis Bertrand Castel played what must have been the first light and music concert. Keys on his clavichord shifted coloured tapes in front of candles to produce light patterns. “An extraordinary book”, said our reviewer.

For the darker side of science, you can’t beat Robert Park’s Voodoo Science. He picks out the distinctions between, for example, pathological science in which scientists fool themselves, and pseudoscience created when scientific uncertainty is propped up with religious or political beliefs. Park writes to the point and is a great read. You’ll enjoy his piece on the failed attempt to sue power companies over cancer supposedly caused by electromagnetic fields.