In his 1994 publication of The Astonishing Hypothesis: The Scientific Search for the Soul, Francis Crick presents an interesting and controversial theory on the makeup of human life. His general assumption is that a person's "mind" is really just a connection of nerve cells and associated molecules. The "soul," he contends, does not exist.

Genetically Engineered Food: A Self-Defense Guide for Consumers (2000) is an informative look at food production today. Ronnie Cummins and Ben Lilliston argue that genetically engineered food presents health risks to humans and is bad news for the environment.

Physician and lawyer Philip R. Reilly discusses true tales of crime, history, illness, ethics, and human behavior in Abraham Lincoln's DNA and Other Adventures in Genetics. Published in 2000, this book illustrates interesting principles of human genetics and broader issues surrounding the more controversial tales.

In the classic novel Brave...