What science books do you recommend?

[dimreepr]

The edge of physics by Anil Ananthaswamy

 

The black hole war by Leonard Susskind

 

Physics of the impossible by Michio Kaku

 

The day we found the universe by Marcia Bartusiak

 

The grand design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow, I’m still reading this one but very good so far.

 

 

[Bill Angel]

Science related books that I have enjoyed reading recently:

 

"For the love of Physics" the autobiography of the physicist Walter Lewin.

 

"once before time; a whole story of the universe" by martin bojowald

 

"A UNIVERSE FROM NOTHING (Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing)" By Lawrence M. Krauss

[Greg H.]

The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

 

 

I'll second that one, and add in A Brief History of Time by Hawking as well.

 

Evolution Isn't What it Used to Be: The Augmented Animal and the Whole Wired World by Walter Truett Anderson

 

The Dinosaur Heresies by Richard Bakker

 

 

Edit to add

A Shortcut Through Time: The Path to the Quantum Computer by George Johnson

 

Edited May 16, 2012 by Greg H.

[daniton]

 

The Flying Circus of Physics - Jearl Walker

The Lightness of Being - Frank Wilczek

[Ayesha]

"Chemistry: The central Science" is a very good book related to chemistry.

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0321696727#reader_B0054S6MF0

"Zoology by Miller/Harley" is also a very good book.

 

http://www.amazon.com/dp/0073228079

[J.Nassar]

The Emperor of All Maladies

A magnificent, profoundly humane “biography” of cancer, from its first documented appearances thousands of years ago through the epic battles in the twentieth century to cure, control, and conquer it to a radical new understanding of its essence.

[Bill Angel]

A good book that I am currently reading:

"The 4 Percent Universe"

Subtitled: "Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality" by Richard Panek

Published in 2011

[Addictive Science]

Hi All, this is my first time posting on this forum. I decided to start on this thread because I feel the best way to get to know someone I by knowing what they know or in this case have read and or are reading. If you have any questing about the books or would like a recommendation feel free to ask. Happy reading!

 

Here is a link to my "GoodReads" Page.

 

Here is a link to Some of the books Have Read/Currently Reading:

 

Books I've Read

 

Books I'm Currently Reading

[studiot]

These books listed are accessible from middle high school through senior high and onto first degree level, except the last which took me right the way through O level, A level, Degree, Professional Institution and Postgrad and is still going strong.

 

Atkins Molecules. (P W Atkins) a really delightful book described by some as the most beautiful chemistry book ever written.

 

The Mathematical Mechanic (Walter Levi) a brilliant melding of maths and physics. Levi sets out to prove mathematical theorems in as many physics ways as possible.

 

Cats Paws and Catapaults (Steven Vogel). Compares and contrasts the approach by Nature asd Man to the solution of important engineering problems. describes materials science v muscle action and much more.

 

From Calculus to Chaos (Acheson.) The development of non linear dynamics brought to life and a uniquely simple way.

 

The Penguin and Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Geometry. (David Wells) Fascinating reading for a dark winter's night. Did you know Napoleon was responsible for a theorem in Maths?

 

The Day the Earth Nearly Died (Michael J Benton) Wonderful balanced roundup geological study of the five main mass extinctions in the Earth's geological history and more.

 

and finally that piece de resistance

 

A Compendium of Mathematics and Physics (Myler and Sutton)

Edited January 1, 2014 by studiot

[smellincoffee]

Assuming Sagan's works are gratis...

 

Phantoms in the Brain, V.S. Ramachandran.

 

The Ghosts of Evolution, Connie Barlow. On 'ecological anachronisms',

 

The Wild Life of Our Bodies, Rob Dunn

 

Our Inner Ape, Frans De Waal

[Nicholas Kang]

Einstein Relatively Simple by Ira Mark Egdall

The Future of the Mind by Michio Kaku

Hyperspace by Michio Kaku

[CuriousStudent]

Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality

Excellent book on quantum mysteries!

[AtomicRuby]

A Silent Spring by Rachel Carson

[beecee]

The best book I have ever read and I recommend anyone with any interest in science should read it, is "The Making of the Atomic Bomb"  by Richard Rhodes.

Not so much about what the title says, but more a complete history of late 19th century, and 20th century physics, from Curie, Bequeral, Rhotegen and Rutherford, through to Mitner, Fermi, Szillard, Bohr and Einstein, up to the Manhatten project and the likes of Feynman and Oppenheimer and culminating of course in the dropping of Little Boy and Fat Man and a vivid account of the results. A truly inspirational read.

 

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

Wow, seven years since I started this thread and it's still alive.

2 hours ago, beecee said:

The best book I have ever read and I recommend anyone with any interest in science should read it, is "The Making of the Atomic Bomb"  by Richard Rhodes.

Agreed, this book is excellent, along with its sequel Dark Sun about the hydrogen bomb. Brilliantly written.

Admittedly my own reading has started to lean towards history instead of science. Some interesting science books I've read in the past few years:

• Primates and Philosophers, by Frans de Waal and others, in the form of an extended essay by de Waal and responses to his points. de Waal is a primatologist, and the book is about the origins of moral behavior in humans, with de Waal pointing out basic elements of sympathy and empathy visible in the great apes, and the respondents entering extended argument about to what extent this suggests human morality is entirely evolved instead of invented.
• The Better Angels of Our Nature, by Steven Pinker. Pinker is probably the best scientist I've read at writing an extended and well-researched argument. Again on the theme of morality, and why violence has declined over the centuries.

The SFN crowd may also enjoy these less sciency books:

• Anti-Intellectualism in American Life, by Richard Hoftsadter. Written in 1964, giving a long history of anti-intellectual ideas (including anti-science ideas) in the United States since its colonization. Broken up into discussions of religion (including more history of American religion than I had ever encountered before), politics, culture, and education, and remarkably even-handed for a book on this subject. (It doesn't consist simply of a bunch of snark about what uncultured morons Americans are.)
• Double Star, by Robert Heinlein. A fun sci-fi story about an actor hired to double for the solar system's most prominent politician, unexpectedly finding himself in deeper than he expected. Amusing to see the 1950s vision of the future: spacecraft easily fly to Mars, but government records have to be kept on microfilm on the Moon -- no Internet or advanced computers.

[Klaynos]

An Introduction to Error Analysis: The Study of Uncertainties in Physical Measurements by John Robert Taylor. 

I think this should be forced reading to everyone doing a numeric subject or any kind of experiment design or analysis. 

[Mordred]

4 hours ago, Klaynos said:

An Introduction to Error Analysis: The Study of Uncertainties in Physical Measurements by John Robert Taylor. 

I think this should be forced reading to everyone doing a numeric subject or any kind of experiment design or analysis. 

Lol excellent book I agree with that sentiment

 

Another good book is Mathematical methods for Physicists by G. B. Arfken, H. J. Weber, and F. E. Harris.

Edited August 8, 2017 by Mordred

[Hypsibius]

Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe, by Theodore Gray  (author),‎ Nick Mann (photographer)

The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography, by Simon Singh

Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem, by Simon Singh

 

[amarinthal]

Reality is not what it seems by Rovelli
Road to reality by Penrose
Reductionism in art and brain science by Kandel

[mox]

On 2/19/2012 at 6:15 PM, Observer B said:

The Trouble with Physics - Lee Smolin

One of the best modern physics books around. Not very technical, and discusses the current state of physics and the problems faced by modern science.

 

 

I enjoy Lee Smolin's books a lot. I would love to read what he has to say in hindsight today with regard to Part III of "Trouble With Physics" ("Beyond String Theory") which is nearly 15 years old now. He raises some really interesting things back then, I'd love to read where we're at right now with regards to that stuff.

[johndawson123]

I do personally like AstroScience Book. Their is the world outside the earth.

[Hans de Vries]

Has anyone here read Neil deGrasse Tyson's books? How good are they?

[beecee]

Best science book I have read? By a long way, "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes.  Not so much about the making of the bomb, as more a total history of late 19th, to 20th century Physics and Chemistry from Rhoentgen and Bequeral, to Curie and Mitner and through to Fermi, Bohr, Feynman and Einstein. Great read!!

 

Edited January 5, 2021 by beecee

[Markus Hanke]

For the more technically minded people with an interest in (classical) gravity - Misner/Thorne/Wheeler “Gravitation”.

Hands down one of the best texts I have ever read on the subject. There are some real gems in there that simply aren’t found in any other text - like their excellent presentation of exterior calculus and Ricci calculus, with a visualisation of the electromagnetic field as a honeycomb-like structure in spacetime; and their derivation of the form of both Maxwell and Einstein equations from the same topological “boundary of a boundary is zero” principle, to pick just two examples. I have learned more about geometrodynamics from this 1500+ pages book than from all other books I’ve read on the subject combined. Caveat: it dates back to the 1970s (I think), so some information given about cosmology and gravitational waves is outdated. The other thing is that it has been long out of print, so it can be hard to find copies at an affordable price; I picked mine up off eBay, and I’ve also seen it on Amazon.

Anyway, this text is considered the gold standard in General Relativity for a reason. Very highly recommended!

[joigus]

17 hours ago, Markus Hanke said:

Caveat: it dates back to the 1970s (I think), so some information given about cosmology and gravitational waves is outdated. The other thing is that it has been long out of print, so it can be hard to find copies at an affordable price; I picked mine up off eBay, and I’ve also seen it on Amazon.

The book itself in an excellent example of gravity too --6 pounder.