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1. Black Holes and Baby Universes by Stephen Hawking, Bantam

2. River out of Eden by Richard Dawkins, Weidenfeld and Nicolson

3. Stephen Hawking for Beginners by J. McEvoy, Icon

4. Moon Shot by Alan Shepard and Deke Slayton, Virgin

5. Chaos by James Gleick, Sphere

6. Superstrings by F. David Peat, Abacus

7. The Language Instinct by Steve Pinker, Penguin

8. The Emporer’s New Mind by Roger Penrose, Oxford

9. The Arrow of Time by Peter Coveney and Roger Highfield, Fontana

10. Fire in the Equations by Kitty Ferguson, Bantam

The break up of Britain’s Net Book Agreement signals cheaper fiction, travel books and biographies, but probably won’t affect most science titles. The good news is that booksellers intend to discount popular science, probably focusing on paperbacks and book-of-the-month deals. What they will not risk is cut-price fiction paid for by inflated prices for student texts. So prices may shift for this week’s list, prepared with W. H. Smith (Fax: 01793 562570) – which has joined the discounters.