Two Things I'm Reading Right Now

So since I am desperately trying to finish a PhD in particle physics and my research goes in spurts where I have weeks like the last one (60+ hours of work) followed by weeks like this one (stumped on a problem that has me baffled) I find myself with some odd time to catch up on reading as well as research. So I thought I'd post two of the things I am reading right now.

1) Dark Matter: A Primer by Katherine Garrett, Gintaras Duda
This seems to be a nice introduction to the story, case for, and current research in the phenomenon known as dark matter. The reading is a bit dense for the non-scientist, but someone with upper level undergraduate or beginning level graduate knowledge in physics should be able to follow and enjoy what seems to be a well layed out paper on the subject with lots of good references to follow up with.
I try my best to troll http://arxiv.org at least once a week. It is a great way to stay on top of what is being published in my field
(http://arxiv.org/pdf/1006.2483)

2) Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature by Janine Beynus

I'm only ~100 pages into this book and I'm already pretty hooked. This books seems to be all about the idea of extending our research into the problems that we face with industrialization, pollution, and expanding population by taking points from nature instead of trying to control nature.
Answering problems of energy, agriculture, and other wide subjects by asking, "How does nature manage to feed/power the entire bio-sphere without people intervening? And, where do humans fit into this plan?"
I'm always fascinated by people that take on the tough questions by asking the simple ones...and this book is all about it.

So, there it is...the things I do in addition to research that take away from me ever getting done in time ;-)