2017 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize

Cordelia Fine

The Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize 2017 winner is —

  • Testosterone Rex: Unmaking the Myths of Our Gendered Minds by Cordelia Fine (Icon Books)

The award, celebrating its 30th anniversary, recognizes the best of science writing for a non-specialist audience. The winner was announced September 19.

In Testosterone Rex, Fine uses the latest scientific evidence to challenge – and ultimately overturn – dominant views on both masculinity and femininity, calling for readers to rethink their differences whatever their sex. Testosterone Rex was chosen from a six-strong international shortlist with Fine becoming the third woman to scoop the Prize in as many years, following Andrea Wulf (The Invention of Nature) in 2016 and Gaia Vince (Adventures in the Anthropocene) in 2015.

Chairing this year’s panel of judges was Professor Richard Fortey, award-winning writer and television presenter, palaeontologist and Royal Society Fellow, joined by award-winning novelist and games writer, Naomi Alderman; writer and presenter of BBC Radio 4’s All in the Mind, Claudia Hammond; Channel 4’s Topical Specialist Factual Commissioner, Shaminder Nahal and former Royal Society University Research Fellow, Sam Gilbert.

Fine will receive a cheque for £25,000, and £2,500 was awarded to each of the other five shortlisted authors.

7 thoughts on “2017 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize

  1. That’s a fantastic title, and Cordelia Fine has done some very good work on the topic in the past. I’ll have to check this one out.

  2. This is down in the footnotes, but the mention of two previous winner titles “The Invention of Nature” (“The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science”) and “Adventures in the Anthropocene” led me to drop those titles into my e-book wishlist after reading a bit about them. Thanks Mike! This seems like an award I should pay attention to.

  3. Ken, do you read the Best American Science and Nature Writing anthologies? They are full of good stuff.

    And I agree with you — I wasn’t familiar with this award either, but it certainly seems to point us toward some interesting work.

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