In a bumper crop of picks at the nexus of science and culture, we present our top 10 book reviews, and top 10 blog posts from our arts and culture blog, A view from the bridge — and the Books & Arts editor’s top 20 picks.

Reviews

Genomics: DNA and diasporas

Fatimah L. C. Jackson weighs up a study on the cultural politics of genetic testing among African Americans. 20 January 2016

Drug discovery: A life of tumult and triumph

Marian Turner reviews the memoir of émigré virologist and millionaire philanthropist Jan Vilcek. 10 February 2016

Museums: Ethics of exhibition

David Hurst Thomas explores the controversies over collections of human remains and plundered artefacts. 16 March 2016

Technology: Beyond the 'InterNyet'

Michael D. Gordin reviews a history of the Soviets' failed national computer network. 27 April 2016

Energy: Oilman at the peak

Gregor Macdonald applauds a biography of prescient geologist and energy theorist Marion King Hubbert. 6 April 2016

Epidemiology: Chasing epidemics

Tilli Tansey engages with the medical autobiography of a pioneer in the field of HIV/AIDS. 25 May 2016

Ecology: The sea-otter whisperer

Jane Lubchenco applauds James Estes's chronicle of his 45 years studying the complexities of an apex predator. 18 May 2016

Q&A: Fabulous fact fisher

Biomechanist Adam Summers of the University of Washington's Friday Harbor Laboratories has spent much of his life working out how fish move. But he has another role that some would consider more prestigious – as Pixar's 'fabulous fish guy'. 15 June 2016

Science fiction: The science that fed Frankenstein

Richard Holmes ponders the discoveries that inspired the young Mary Shelley to write her classic, 200 years ago. 27 July 2016

Conservation: Geniuses of place

Ethan Carr traces the arc of influence in landscape creation and preservation from 'Capability' Brown to Frederick Law Olmsted and the US National Park Service. 6 July 2016

A view from the bridge

Breaking barriers: the US space programme’s black women mathematicians

Alexandra Witze extols Hidden Figures, a book celebrating the African American women mathematicians behind the US space programme. 6 September 2016

The equations of love

Mathematical biologist Marten Scheffer looks at how the laws of dynamical systems play out in love. 20 May 2016

Reflections of a Moonwalker

Elizabeth Gibney follows the trajectory of Apollo astronaut Gene Cernan in documentary The Last Man on the Moon. 4 April 2016

The art of engineering: 9 Evenings revisited

Barbara Kiser marks the 50th anniversary of 9 Evenings, a seminal collaboration between Bell Labs engineers and avant-garde artists. 27 October 2016

Share the repair

Sustainability expert Martin Charter reveals a circular-economy revolution in ‘share and repair’ communities. 23 March 2016

Industrial optimist: Moholy-Nagy revisited

Jeff Tollefson is energized by a show on the Bauhaus ‘industrial artist’ Lázló Moholy-Nagy. 13 June 2016

CRISPR patent belongs to aliens

Sara Reardon checks out the CRISPR-esque storyline in this year’s reboot of The X-Files. 29 February 2016

Charlotte Brontë’s brushes with science

Barbara Kiser explores Victorian novelist Charlotte Brontë’s close encounters with the science of her day. 20 April 2016

Smoke on the water

Rich Monastersky assesses Hollywood’s take on the Deepwater Horizon blowout in Peter Berg’s eponymous film. 12 October 2016

An artist on Mars: Georgia O’Keeffe

Barbara Kiser relishes an exhibition on artist Georgia O’Keeffe, whose visual paeans to geomorphology changed the face of nature painting. 10 August 2016