Sign up for our newsletter We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday. A long-term study followed the lives of children forced to fight in Sierra Leone’s civil war from 1991 to 2002. The research revealed trauma’s effects on their psychosocial development and the factors that have helped some former child soldiers recover. Black Religion in the Madhouse Judith Weisenfeld NYU Press | $35 After slavery’s abolition and the U.S. Civil War, white psychiatrists pathologized Black religious practices as mental illness. A historian of religion unpacks how these racist views shaped the burgeoning field of psychiatry. The Salmon Cannon and the Levitating Frog Carly Anne York Basic Books | $30 An animal physiologist makes a case for the value of basic science: Curiosity-driven research, which seeks to understand how the world works, may not always have foreseeable applications but could lead to unexpected benefits. Source: https://www.sciencenews.org/article/favorite-science-books-2025-review-shop