Suggest some science books

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

We've been plotting some new features for SFN and one was a sort of bookstore with all sorts of science-related books.

 

So, I'd like to solicit ideas for science books. We should stick with the basics: books about physics, cosmology, medicine, etc. without having books that require a PhD. to understand. Things that someone highly interested in science, but without a degree in it, could sit down and read and enjoy.

 

Suggest away.

[hotcommodity]

"How to Ace Calculus" was one of the first math books I've read outside of issued texts. I found it to be helpful as well as entertaining. Authors: Colin Adams - Joel Hass - Abigail Thompson .

[timo]

Andrew Liddle: "An Introduction to Modern Cosmology".

[ydoaPs]

The Elegant Universe and The Fabric of The Cosmos by Brian Greene are good. Penrose's Road to Reality is good as well. I can't remember the author, but The Physics of Star Trek and The Biology of Star Trek were good reads. Of course, you have A Brief History of Time and The Universe in a Nutshell by Hawking.

 

For the more adventurous reader, there is Gravitation by Thorne, Wheeler, and Misner.

[Klaynos]

2 from me...

 

An excellent maths book, especially good for things such as matrices:

Spiegel M.R. (1971), Advanced Mathematics for Engineers and Scientists, Schaum Outline Series, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 0-070-60216-6 (UL: 510 SPI)

 

A really excellent quantum mechanics book:

Rae A.I.M. (2002), Quantum Mechanics (4th edition), Institute of Physics Publishing, ISBN 0-7503-0839-7 (UL: 530.12 RAE)

[timo]

Things that someone highly interested in science, but without a degree in it, could sit down and read and enjoy.

What about not restricting it to books and not restricting it to pre-scientific level? What about recommendations for someone with a scientific degree in a related area (e.g. an introductionary text about GR which is readable for physicists who didn´t take the GR course during their studies)? I see the additional advantage that on this level, a good recommendation can be really helpful while for stuff like "linear algebra for engineers" it´s mostly just a matter of taste who prefers which book.

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Sure, that would be fine.

[Dave]

For anybody who's on an undergraduate mathematics degree and wants to learn about some of the theory behind fractal geometry, I highly recommend Fractal Geometry: Mathematical Foundations and Applications (2nd ed) by Falconer. It's a really excellent book.