Science Books

A

Aladdin

Registered Senior Member
So, what science books impressed you the most? What would be your top three (or top 10, or ...) science books that you'd recommend to pretty much anyone able to read? The ones kept on your personal "must-have" shelf, most likely read more than once already...?

Also, if you know of any science books that had success with young children I'd love to hear about them as well.

Thanks in advance!
 
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene

Before the Beginning by Sir Martin Rees

Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne.
 
i'm not really a science type of guy.
i'm more of the technical hands on type.
i don't have that many science books.
i do however have "hackh's chemical dictionary".
i also have "standard mathematical tables".
good reading:
"the double helix" by james watson.
"dark sun" by richard rhodes.
 
Fabric of Reality David Deutsch
Chaos James Gleick
Atom lawrence krauss
Beagle Diary Charles Darwin
 
Probably the one that had the greatest single impact on me was Richard Dawkins The Selfish Gene. Once you've read and understood that, you can't help but either change your whole worldview or else stick your head in the sand and pretend it never happened. In fact, everything Dawkins has written for the general public is well worth a read.

A similar eye-opening book (on a somewhat different subject) is Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs and Steel.

Back when I was lot younger, I read virtually any science book I could lay my hands on by Isaac Asimov, who as well as writing science fiction also wrote a lot of non-fiction science books.

I have a whole shelf of skeptical literature. Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World is still an excellent introduction to science and skepticism.

I also have a shelf full of advanced technical books on physics and mathematics, but they are all very specialised and nobody but a professional or student would recognise the authors.

PS leopold's post has jogged my memory. Richard Rhodes' book The Making of the Atomic Bomb is fascinating if you're into the history of science (and this particular event in world history).
 
The Starfish and the Spider: The Unstoppable Power of Leaderless Organizations

The Prince

The Art of War - Sun Tzu

Utility of Force: The Art of War in the Modern World

The Intelligent Investor

The Selfish Gene

The Mating Mind

To pick one from the list...I'd have to say the Art of War by Sun Tzu, IMO the Samuel B. Griffith translation is the best, because of the selected commentaries. The Art of War is basically the bible for business and strategy...
 
"The God Particle" Leon Lederman
"The Particle at the End of the Universe" Sean Carroll
"Time Reborn" Lee Smolin
"Einstein's Telescope" Evalyn Gates
"Not Even Wrong" Peter Woit
"Mismeasure of Man" Stephen Jay Gould
"The Quark and the Jaguar" Murray Gell Mann
"The Feynman Lectures in Physics" Richard Feynman
"Simplexity" Jeffrey Kluger
 
James R said:
PS leopold's post has jogged my memory. Richard Rhodes' book The Making of the Atomic Bomb is fascinating if you're into the history of science (and this particular event in world history).
Click to expand...

Probably still the best book I have read.
 
AlexG said:
The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene

Before the Beginning by Sir Martin Rees

Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne.
Click to expand...

Read the first and the last Alex.
A book I did read and found interesting was by Sir Martin Rees and Mitch Begalman.... "Gravity's Fatal Attraction"
 
I grew up on Carl Sagan. I also like Michio Kaku, and Brian Greene to name a few. Are there any new must reads out there right now?
 
river said:
Paul LaViolette
Secrets of Antigravity Propulsion
Click to expand...
The thread is asking for science books.
You haven't listed one.

exchemist said:
Readers, check this out on the subject of Paul Laviolette and his beliefs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrogravitics
Click to expand...
Oh, it's worse than that...
He's also the guy that was able to successfully decipher the lost science said to be encoded in the lores of the Tarot and astrology.

(IOW perfect woo for River to subscribe to).
 
Dywyddyr said:
The thread is asking for science books.
You haven't listed one.


Oh, it's worse than that...
He's also the guy that was able to successfully decipher the lost science said to be encoded in the lores of the Tarot and astrology.

(IOW perfect woo for River to subscribe to).
Click to expand...

Yes, River is a sort of anti-science troll, really, who can be counted on to try to put a spanner in the works or in other ways waste your time. Luckily, most regular readers have worked this out. I myself found out the hard way, via a determinedly silly correspondence on the subject of water, which you can still find buried somewhere in the Chemistry section. I took him at face value then, but never since. I have adopted a policy of not addressing him directly, in order to discourage further timewasting.
 
the book called TESLA , inventor of the electrical age by W. Bernard Carlson ,pub. 2013 ( is a professor of science , technology , and society in the School of Engineering and Applied Science and professor of history , at the University of Virginia , ) . He not only gets into Tesla's biography , but also the electrical thinking and thinkers of his time .

with also explaining the details of some of Tesla's inventions

well worth the read
 
"One, Two, Three...Infinity" by George Gamow. This book opened me to the wonders of science.

Also, "The Seven Mysteries of Life" by Guy Murchie.
 
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