Selected for Indies Introduce, the American Booksellers Association’s list of best summer/fall debut books (read the judging panel’s comments here)

“Lively and revelatory… It couldn’t be more timely.” — ELIZABETH KOLBERT, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History

“Beautifully written… Authentically conveys the daily life and mind of the scientist.” — ALAN LIGHTMAN, author of Einstein’s Dreams and co-author of The Shape of Wonder: How Scientists Think, Work, and Live

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Sourcebooks | July 21, 2026 | Hardcover | ISBN 9781728275970

Advance Praise

“Opening Lost in Curiosity is like walking through a door into a sometimes strange but always beautiful land, full of the unexpected adventures that science offers, the puzzles, the challenges, and the bright flash of understanding when it all comes together. It’s the kind of trip you won't want to miss.” — DEBORAH BLUM, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Poison Squad: One Chemist’s Single-Minded Crusade for Food Safety at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

“One of the most honest books about science I’ve ever read, and an utter delight.” — SABRINA IMBLER, author of How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

“Roberta Kwok expertly details the passions and chance that ignite scientific inquiry, and reveals how frustration and struggle go hand in hand with discovery.” — JONATHAN C. SLAGHT, award-winning author of Tigers Between Empires: The Improbable Return of Great Cats to the Forests of Russia and China

“Roberta Kwok’s warm, humane portraits of scientists in the midst of unfinished work jump from jungles to deserts and span the cosmic to the microscopic... An enthralling glimpse of hidden worlds.” — MELISSA L. SEVIGNY, author of Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon

“Insightful and beautifully written... Kwok’s gorgeous writing makes her subjects feel alive on the page.” — CHRISTIE ASCHWANDEN, NYT bestselling author of Good to Go: What the Athlete in All of Us Can Learn from the Strange Science of Recovery and producer/host of Scientific American’s Uncertain podcast

“A charming, compelling, and much-needed reminder that even the least glamorous work can be full of beauty.” — MICHELLE NIJHUIS, author of Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction

“Readers will come away feeling closer to those who have chosen science—and more than a little in awe of their tenacity.” — BETHANY BROOKSHIRE, author of Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains

“The charm of this book lies in its first-person perspective and in hearing stories not of famous researchers at the top of their field but of graduate students and postdocs doing the grunt work on the front lines… A clear-eyed but still inspiring look at the joys and frustrations of being a young scientist.” — Library Journal

What Indie Booksellers Are Saying

“Lost in Curiosity revived a childlike sense of wonder in me. I loved journeying along on these adventures with Kwok and the scientists she follows on these crazy missions.” — Amani Jackson, The Ivy Bookshop, Baltimore, MD

“Lost in Curiosity is PHENOMENAL; it is science journalism at its finest… [Kwok] reveals how people are at the very heart of science — how their hopes, dreams, and passions drive our understanding of the world… If you weren’t insatiably curious before reading Lost in Curiosity, you certainly will be after.” — Chloe Lesh, Eagle Harbor Book Co., Bainbridge Island, WA

“Roberta Kwok portrays science as a deeply human endeavour with passion and intellectual rigor tempered by slow progress and setbacks, but also yielding wonder and unexpected insight… Great for all readers with a curious bent!” —Toni Thayer, Loganberry Books, Shaker Heights, OH

“I never knew how much I wanted to know about frogs, the aquifers below the ice of Greenland, and the search for moons in other galaxies! Roberta Kwok has made hard science available and relatable to all of us.” — Jocele Skinner, Shared Stories Books, Caldwell, ID

Events

Launch event at Third Place Books in Seattle on Tuesday, July 21

Details on more events in Washington state, the Bay Area, and Washington DC coming soon

The real story of science isn’t a triumphant breakthrough. It’s messy, mysterious, and deeply human.

In Lost in Curiosity, award-winning journalist Roberta Kwok pulls back the curtain on what scientific discovery actually looks like… Not a Eureka moment, but a fraught, often chaotic pursuit of truth.

Chronicling researchers’ struggles and hopes in the field and lab, Kwok documents it all: fending off relentless snowfall on a remote Greenland glacier, desperately searching for an elusive frog in the rainforests of Borneo, and scrambling to capture fleeting signals of a faraway moon outside our solar system. These are the untold stories of devoted young scientists and restless minds who are chasing nature’s riddles, without knowing what they’ll uncover.

Through vivid reporting and moments of unexpected emotion, Kwok reveals the inner lives of researchers who care profoundly about understanding our world and saving what’s left of it. From enigmatic fossils and mind-bending physics to the puzzling behavior of wild animals, Lost in Curiosity is a journey through the questions that keep scientists up at night—and the sometimes strange, always illuminating paths they take to answer them.

Featuring illustrations by biologist and artist Emma Regnier
Funded by the MIT Knight Science Journalism program and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation

INTRODUCTION: Into the Wardrobe
GEOLOGY: The Invisible River
EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY: Call of the Guardian Frog
ASTRONOMY: Moon on Fire
ECOLOGY: The Heroes We Need
CLIMATE CHANGE: Emerald Dreams
PHYSICS: Paper Labyrinth
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY: Bright Lines
CHEMISTRY: A Space of Possibility
PALEONTOLOGY: Through a Glass Darkly
EPILOGUE: An Act of Humility

About the Author

Roberta Kwok is a science writer whose work has appeared in The New York Times, NewYorker.com, Nature, New Scientist, Audubon, and other publications. She has received a fellowship from the Knight Science Journalism Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Geophysical Union. Before becoming a journalist, Kwok worked in a genetics lab at Stanford University. She lives in the Seattle area and is originally from Canada.