Royal Society Prize for Science Books shortlist

"It's a transatlantic race between the American academics and the UK's journalists and biographers in the competition for this year's Royal Society Prize for Science Books. The shortlist for the world's most prestigious awards for science writing was announced 25 June, and was made up of three books written by US academics and three written by British journalists and biographers."

The six books shortlisted by the judges are:

* What the nose knows: The science of scent in everyday life by Avery Gilbert (Crown Publishers)

* Bad science by Ben Goldacre (Harper Perennial)

* The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science by Richard Holmes (HarperPress)

* Decoding the heavens: Solving the mystery of the world's first computer by Jo Marchant (William Heinemann)

* The drunkard's walk: How randomness rules our lives by Leonard Mlodinow (Penguin)

* Your inner fish: The amazing discovery of our 375-million-year-old ancestor by Neil Shubin (Penguin)

The winner will be announced at an event at the Royal Society on 15 September 2009 and awarded £10,000. The authors of each shortlisted book will receive £1000