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Oliver Sacks’ book, Hallucinations, is an investigation into auditory, visual, tactile and olfactory hallucinations, their many guises, their psychological sources and their personal and cultural resonances.

Adam Rutherford’s Creation is a gripping account of the synthetic biology revolution: how it is both unlocking the mystery of life’s origin and providing the means to engineer new life-forms from scratch.

Emily Mayhew’s Wounded is the story of a journey: from injury on the battlefield to recovery in Britain. It is the story of the soldiers themselves but it is also the story of those who cared for them – stretcher bearers and medical officers, surgeons and chaplains, nurses and ambulance drivers. People on the verge of collapse, overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of casualties and terrible injuries who, with determination and improvisation, saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Wounded is the story of the men and women who made it possible.

For the next six weeks we are celebrating the Wellcome Book Prize shortlist.

A story of botany, exploration and desire, spanning across much of the 19th century. The novel follows the fortunes of the brilliant Alma Whittaker (daughter of a bold and charismatic botanical explorer) as she comes into her own within the world of plants and science. As Alma’s careful studies of moss take her deeper into the mysteries of evolution, the man she loves draws her in the opposite direction—into the realm of the spiritual, the divine and the magical.