Gift guide: Science books

Someone on your Christmas list is probably worried about global warming or genetically modified foods. Maybe someone else has a vital interest in stem-cell research. Almost everyone is curious about how science intersects, and sometimes collides, with religion and culture. Fortunately, recent science books offer in-depth information on all of these topics.

"The Weather Makers" by Tim Flannery (Atlantic Monthly Press, $24, 357 pages) weaves fact after fact into a very readable book that forcefully warns about the dangers of global warming.

"Mendel in the Kitchen: A Scientist's View of Genetically Modified Foods" by Nina Fedoroff and Nancy Marie Brown (Joseph Henry Press, $24.95, 370 pages) makes a powerful case for using genetically modified foods (famously labeled "Frankenfoods" by its opponents) to feed a growing, hungry planet at low cost.

"The Proteus Effect: Stem Cells and Their Promise for Medicine" by Ann B. Parson (Joseph Henry Press, $24.95, 301 pages) explains clearly why stem cells could play a big role in defeating diseases from juvenile diabetes to Parkinson's.

In "The Language of God" by Francis S. Collins (Free Press, $26, 294 pages), a leading scientist who headed the human genome project, Collins details his conversion from atheist to devout Christian. What persuades him to change is mankind's capacity for altruism, which he believes to be contrary to all natural instincts and must come from God.

In "Our Inner Ape" by Frans de Waal (Riverhead, $25.95, 288 pages) a top primatologist shows how studying apes can enlighten us about the origins of human morality. He cites numerous examples of apes' capacity for kindness and altruism to argue that morality did not spring from reason, culture or religion, but from our primate ancestors.