The government will “follow the science”, we’ve been told, repeatedly, this year. It’s a revealing phrase, showing how, in some minds at least, “science” has become an indisputably reliable guide to life. But we should be careful, as these books suggest.

In Fraud in the Lab (Harvard University Press, £28.95; Tablet price £26), Nicolas Chevassus-au-Louis charts some of the more egregious examples of recent scientific deceit: plagiarism, manipulated results, outright falsification. The problem, he argues, is that the intense pressure on scientists today – to “publish or perish” – is corrupting the culture of science and positively incentivising misconduct and dishonesty.