The 100 Best Science-y Books That We Can Think of
Jennifer Ouellette of Twisted Physics fame has thrown down the gauntlet for composing a list of the top 100 "science-y books" of all time. My additions are rather slapdash, but a thorough dash through my bookshelves and bibliography (ie, no splitting hairs between The Blind Watchmaker and The Selfish Gene). She has provided the first 75, and asks that we add our own favorites, adhering to these rules:
1. Highlight those you've read in full
2. Asterisk those you intend to read
3. Add any additional popular science books you think belong on the list
4. Link back to Jen (leave links or suggested additions in the comments, if you prefer) so she can keep track of everyone's additions. Then we can compile it all into one giant "Top 100" popular science books list, with room for honorable mentions. (I, for one, have some quirky choices in the list below.) Voila! We'll have awesome resource for general readers interested in delving into the fascinating world of science!
In addition to adding my faves at the end, I am also offering alternative suggestions by authors that Jen has listed, in underline.
0. Principia, Isaac Newton
Oh, just kidding. Granted, it's an influential work that pretty much founded modern physics, but has anybody read the Principia in its entirety lately? Really? How about De Revolutionibus? If so, do you not have a life? Seriously, Newton would turn over in his grave in horror at any inclusion of his masterpiece in a list of popular science books. Which is why I'm starting with....
1. Micrographia, Robert Hooke [I've looked at the pretty pictures, but that's not exactly "reading"]
2. The Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin
3. Never at Rest, Richard Westfall
4. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, Richard Feynman
4. QED, Richard Feynman
5. Tesla: Man Out of Time, Margaret Cheney
6. The Devil's Doctor, Philip Ball
7. The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes
8. Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos, Dennis Overbye
9. Physics for Entertainment, Yakov Perelman
10. 1-2-3 Infinity, George Gamow*
11. The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene
12. Warmth Disperses, Time Passes, Hans Christian von Bayer
13. Alice in Quantumland, Robert Gilmore
14. Where Does the Weirdness Go? David Lindley
15. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
16. A Force of Nature, Richard Rhodes
17. Black Holes and Time Warps, Kip Thorne
18. A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
19. Universal Foam, Sidney Perkowitz
20. Vermeer's Camera, Philip Steadman
21. The Code Book, Simon Singh
22. The Elements of Murder, John Emsley
22. The 13th Element, John Emsley
22. Molecules at an Exhibition, John Emsley — [A little contrived, basically his old columns, but proof that you can do a pop science book about molecules without showing any.— ER]
23. Soul Made Flesh, Carl Zimmer*
23. Evolution, Carl Zimmer
23. Microcosm, Carl Zimmer
24. Time's Arrow, Martin Amis
25. The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments, George Johnson*
26. Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman
27. Godel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter
28. The Curious Life of Robert Hooke, Lisa Jardine
29. A Matter of Degrees, Gino Segre
30. The Physics of Star Trek, Lawrence Krauss
30. Atom, Lawrence Krauss
31. E=mc<2>, David Bodanis
32. Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, Charles Seife*
33. Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold, Tom Shachtman
34. A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, Janna Levin
35. Warped Passages, Lisa Randall
36. Apollo's Fire, Michael Sims
37. Flatland, Edward Abbott
38. Fermat's Last Theorem, Amir Aczel*
39. Stiff, Mary Roach
40. Astroturf, M.G. Lord
41. The Periodic Table, Primo Levi
42. Longitude, Dava Sobel
43. The First Three Minutes, Steven Weinberg
44. The Mummy Congress, Heather Pringle
45. The Accelerating Universe, Mario Livio
46. Math and the Mona Lisa, Bulent Atalay
47. This is Your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin
48. The Executioner's Current, Richard Moran
49. Krakatoa, Simon Winchester
50. Pythagorus' Trousers, Margaret Wertheim
51. Neuromancer, William Gibson
52. The Physics of Superheroes, James Kakalios
53. The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump, Sandra Hempel
54. Another Day in the Frontal Lobe, Katrina Firlik
55. Einstein's Clocks and Poincare's Maps, Peter Galison
56. The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan
56. Cosmos, Carl Sagan
57. The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins
57. The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins
58. The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker
59. An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears
60. Consilience, E.O. Wilson
61. Wonderful Life, Stephen J. Gould
62. Teaching a Stone to Talk, Annie Dillard
63. Fire in the Brain, Ronald K. Siegel
64. The Life of a Cell, Lewis Thomas
65. Coming of Age in the Milky Way, Timothy Ferris
65. The Whole Shebang, Timothy Ferris
66. Storm World, Chris Mooney
67. The Carbon Age, Eric Roston
68. The Black Hole Wars, Leonard Susskind
69. Copenhagen, Michael Frayn
70. From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne
71. Gut Symmetries, Jeanette Winterson
72. Chaos, James Gleick
73. Innumeracy, John Allen Paulos*
74. The Physics of NASCAR, Diandra Leslie-Pelecky
75. Subtle is the Lord, Abraham Pais
76. The Physics of the Buffyverse, Jennifer Ouellette
77. The King of Infinite Space, Siobhan Roberts
78. Atoms, Electrons, and Change, Peter Atkins
79. The Chemical History of a Candle, Michael Faraday
80. The Weather Makers, Tim Flannery
81. Ice, Mariana Gosnell
81. Thin Ice, Mark Bowen
82. Big Bang, Simon Singh
83. The Unthinkable, Amanda Ripley
84. The Black Cloud, Fred Hoyle
85. The Gifts of Athena, Joel Mokyr
86. Conflict in the Cosmos, Simon Mitton
87. Power, Sex, Suicide, Nick Lane
88. Origins, Neil de Grasse Tyson
89. Field Notes From a Catastrophe, Elizabeth Kolbert
90. Guns, Germs, and Steel OR The Third Chimpanzee, Jared Diamond
91. Energy at the Crossroads, Vaclav Smil
92. Perfect Symmetry, Jim Baggott
93. Genome, Matt Ridley
94. Why We Run, Bernd Heinrich [Initially, Racing the Antelope]
95. Endless Forms Most Beautiful, Sean B.(!) Carroll
96. Life on a Young Planet, Andrew Knoll
97. Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan
98. The Family That Couldn't Sleep, D.T. Max
99. The Same and Not the Same, Roald Hoffmann
100. Complexity, Mitch Waldrop
101. Einstein, Walter Isaacson
102. The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage
103. Six Degrees, Duncan Watts
104. The Control of Nature, John McPhee
105. Dune, Frank Herbert
106. Freakonomics, Stephen D. Leavitt
107. Cradle to Cradle, Bill McDonough
108. Natural Capitalism, Paul Hawkins, Amory Lovins, Hunter Lovins
109. The Constants of Nature, John D. Barrow
110. The Quark and the Jaguar, Murray Gell-Mann
111. Lonely Planets, David Grinspoon
112. The Diamond Makers, Robert Hazen
113. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
114. Out of Control, Kevin Kelly
115. Hell and high Water, Joseph Romm
116. The Wine of Life and Other Essays, Harold Morowitz
117. Life as a Geological Force, Pieter Westbroek
118. Neftyanaya promyshlennost v Pennsylvannii i na Kavkase, Dmitri Mendeleev
119. The Areas of My Expertise, John Hodgman
1. Highlight those you've read in full
2. Asterisk those you intend to read
3. Add any additional popular science books you think belong on the list
4. Link back to Jen (leave links or suggested additions in the comments, if you prefer) so she can keep track of everyone's additions. Then we can compile it all into one giant "Top 100" popular science books list, with room for honorable mentions. (I, for one, have some quirky choices in the list below.) Voila! We'll have awesome resource for general readers interested in delving into the fascinating world of science!
In addition to adding my faves at the end, I am also offering alternative suggestions by authors that Jen has listed, in underline.
0. Principia, Isaac Newton
Oh, just kidding. Granted, it's an influential work that pretty much founded modern physics, but has anybody read the Principia in its entirety lately? Really? How about De Revolutionibus? If so, do you not have a life? Seriously, Newton would turn over in his grave in horror at any inclusion of his masterpiece in a list of popular science books. Which is why I'm starting with....
1. Micrographia, Robert Hooke [I've looked at the pretty pictures, but that's not exactly "reading"]
2. The Origin of the Species, Charles Darwin
3. Never at Rest, Richard Westfall
4. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman, Richard Feynman
4. QED, Richard Feynman
5. Tesla: Man Out of Time, Margaret Cheney
6. The Devil's Doctor, Philip Ball
7. The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes
8. Lonely Hearts of the Cosmos, Dennis Overbye
9. Physics for Entertainment, Yakov Perelman
10. 1-2-3 Infinity, George Gamow*
11. The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene
12. Warmth Disperses, Time Passes, Hans Christian von Bayer
13. Alice in Quantumland, Robert Gilmore
14. Where Does the Weirdness Go? David Lindley
15. A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson
16. A Force of Nature, Richard Rhodes
17. Black Holes and Time Warps, Kip Thorne
18. A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
19. Universal Foam, Sidney Perkowitz
20. Vermeer's Camera, Philip Steadman
21. The Code Book, Simon Singh
22. The Elements of Murder, John Emsley
22. The 13th Element, John Emsley
22. Molecules at an Exhibition, John Emsley — [A little contrived, basically his old columns, but proof that you can do a pop science book about molecules without showing any.— ER]
23. Soul Made Flesh, Carl Zimmer*
23. Evolution, Carl Zimmer
23. Microcosm, Carl Zimmer
24. Time's Arrow, Martin Amis
25. The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments, George Johnson*
26. Einstein's Dreams, Alan Lightman
27. Godel, Escher, Bach, Douglas Hofstadter
28. The Curious Life of Robert Hooke, Lisa Jardine
29. A Matter of Degrees, Gino Segre
30. The Physics of Star Trek, Lawrence Krauss
30. Atom, Lawrence Krauss
31. E=mc<2>, David Bodanis
32. Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea, Charles Seife*
33. Absolute Zero: The Conquest of Cold, Tom Shachtman
34. A Madman Dreams of Turing Machines, Janna Levin
35. Warped Passages, Lisa Randall
36. Apollo's Fire, Michael Sims
37. Flatland, Edward Abbott
38. Fermat's Last Theorem, Amir Aczel*
39. Stiff, Mary Roach
40. Astroturf, M.G. Lord
41. The Periodic Table, Primo Levi
42. Longitude, Dava Sobel
43. The First Three Minutes, Steven Weinberg
44. The Mummy Congress, Heather Pringle
45. The Accelerating Universe, Mario Livio
46. Math and the Mona Lisa, Bulent Atalay
47. This is Your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin
48. The Executioner's Current, Richard Moran
49. Krakatoa, Simon Winchester
50. Pythagorus' Trousers, Margaret Wertheim
51. Neuromancer, William Gibson
52. The Physics of Superheroes, James Kakalios
53. The Strange Case of the Broad Street Pump, Sandra Hempel
54. Another Day in the Frontal Lobe, Katrina Firlik
55. Einstein's Clocks and Poincare's Maps, Peter Galison
56. The Demon-Haunted World, Carl Sagan
56. Cosmos, Carl Sagan
57. The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins
57. The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins
58. The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker
59. An Instance of the Fingerpost, Iain Pears
60. Consilience, E.O. Wilson
61. Wonderful Life, Stephen J. Gould
62. Teaching a Stone to Talk, Annie Dillard
63. Fire in the Brain, Ronald K. Siegel
64. The Life of a Cell, Lewis Thomas
65. Coming of Age in the Milky Way, Timothy Ferris
65. The Whole Shebang, Timothy Ferris
66. Storm World, Chris Mooney
67. The Carbon Age, Eric Roston
68. The Black Hole Wars, Leonard Susskind
69. Copenhagen, Michael Frayn
70. From the Earth to the Moon, Jules Verne
71. Gut Symmetries, Jeanette Winterson
72. Chaos, James Gleick
73. Innumeracy, John Allen Paulos*
74. The Physics of NASCAR, Diandra Leslie-Pelecky
75. Subtle is the Lord, Abraham Pais
76. The Physics of the Buffyverse, Jennifer Ouellette
77. The King of Infinite Space, Siobhan Roberts
78. Atoms, Electrons, and Change, Peter Atkins
79. The Chemical History of a Candle, Michael Faraday
80. The Weather Makers, Tim Flannery
81. Ice, Mariana Gosnell
81. Thin Ice, Mark Bowen
82. Big Bang, Simon Singh
83. The Unthinkable, Amanda Ripley
84. The Black Cloud, Fred Hoyle
85. The Gifts of Athena, Joel Mokyr
86. Conflict in the Cosmos, Simon Mitton
87. Power, Sex, Suicide, Nick Lane
88. Origins, Neil de Grasse Tyson
89. Field Notes From a Catastrophe, Elizabeth Kolbert
90. Guns, Germs, and Steel OR The Third Chimpanzee, Jared Diamond
91. Energy at the Crossroads, Vaclav Smil
92. Perfect Symmetry, Jim Baggott
93. Genome, Matt Ridley
94. Why We Run, Bernd Heinrich [Initially, Racing the Antelope]
95. Endless Forms Most Beautiful, Sean B.(!) Carroll
96. Life on a Young Planet, Andrew Knoll
97. Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan
98. The Family That Couldn't Sleep, D.T. Max
99. The Same and Not the Same, Roald Hoffmann
100. Complexity, Mitch Waldrop
101. Einstein, Walter Isaacson
102. The Victorian Internet, Tom Standage
103. Six Degrees, Duncan Watts
104. The Control of Nature, John McPhee
105. Dune, Frank Herbert
106. Freakonomics, Stephen D. Leavitt
107. Cradle to Cradle, Bill McDonough
108. Natural Capitalism, Paul Hawkins, Amory Lovins, Hunter Lovins
109. The Constants of Nature, John D. Barrow
110. The Quark and the Jaguar, Murray Gell-Mann
111. Lonely Planets, David Grinspoon
112. The Diamond Makers, Robert Hazen
113. Slaughterhouse Five, Kurt Vonnegut
114. Out of Control, Kevin Kelly
115. Hell and high Water, Joseph Romm
116. The Wine of Life and Other Essays, Harold Morowitz
117. Life as a Geological Force, Pieter Westbroek
118. Neftyanaya promyshlennost v Pennsylvannii i na Kavkase, Dmitri Mendeleev
119. The Areas of My Expertise, John Hodgman
Excellent list! I knew I'd forgotten a lot of gems! And nice addition of Hodgman....
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