Scientist Camilla Pang has won the Royal Society Science Book Prize for her Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us about Life, Love and Relationships, the Guardian reports.
Pang’s book, published in the U.S. under the title An Outsider’s Guide to Humans: What Science Taught Me About What We Do and Who We Are, is “an instruction manual for life, love, and relationships” from the scientist, who has Asperger’s syndrome, the book’s American publisher, Viking, says. A reviewer for Kirkus called the book a work of “ingenious pop psychology.”
The chair of the judging panel for the award, Anne Osbourn, praised Pang’s book as “an intelligent and charming investigation into how we understand human behavior, drawing on the author’s superpower of neurodivergence.”
Pang beat out five other books for the award, including Bill Bryson’s The Body and Susannah Cahalan’s The Great Pretender.
Pang reacted to her victory on Twitter, writing, “I have no words. What an absolute honour. Literally in bits. Thank you so much to everyone and congratulations to the amazing authors on the shortlist. You are all incredible.”
The Royal Society Science Book Prize, which comes with a $32,500 cash award, was first given out in 1988. Past winners include Jared Diamond for Guns, Germs, and Steel, Stephen Hawking for The Universe in a Nutshell, and Caroline Criado Perez for Invisible Women.
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
