Science Books
recommended by scientists and science writers
Last updated: November 19, 2024
The Best Apollo Books, recommended by Christopher Riley
The lesson of the Apollo programme is that anything is possible, says filmmaker and author Christopher Riley. He talks us through the best books (and one documentary) about America’s race with the Soviet Union to put the first man on the Moon.
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Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different
by Philip Ball -
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Hello World: How to Be Human in the Age of the Machine
by Hannah Fry -
3
Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain
by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore -
4
The Order of Time
by Carlo Rovelli -
5
A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes
by Adam Rutherford
The Best Science Books to Take on Holiday, recommended by Jim Al-Khalili
The Best Science Books to Take on Holiday, recommended by Jim Al-Khalili
Aah, the holidays! Time to lie on the grass and read the latest novel. Or are you looking for something more demanding? Physicist and popular science author Jim Al-Khalili, who has just written his first sci-fi thriller, Sunfall, suggests some highly readable science books for those who prefer their holiday reads to be nonfiction.
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The Simple Science of Flight: From Insects to Jumbo Jets
by Henk Tennekes -
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Cosmos
by Carl Sagan -
3
In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World
by Ian Stewart -
4
Power Speed and Form: Engineers in the Making of the Twentieth Century
by David P. Billington and David P. Billington & Jr -
5
Ausgepowert: Das Ende des Olzeitalters als Chance
by Marcel Hänggi
The best books on Engineering, recommended by Ante Shoda
The best books on Engineering, recommended by Ante Shoda
What should a budding engineer—or even an experienced one—read for a better understanding of the science and trade? And how does engineering help make our lives better every day? Ante Shoda, an engineer for Honda Racing in California, recommends the best books for a fundamental understanding of engineering.
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Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray
by Sabine Hossenfelder -
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The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life
by David Quammen -
3
Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto
by Alan Stern & David Grinspoon -
4
The Biological Mind: How Brain, Body, and Environment Collaborate to Make Us Who We Are
by Alan Jasanoff -
5
A Lab of One’s Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War
by Patricia Fara
The Best Science Books of 2018, recommended by Barbara Kiser
The Best Science Books of 2018, recommended by Barbara Kiser
“As life on Earth is rocked by conflict and environmental crisis, these serene little scientific emissaries remind us of how different it can be when we collaborate selflessly in the getting of knowledge.” Barbara Kiser, veteran science journalist and the books and arts editor at Nature, chooses the best science books of 2018.
The best books on Science and Wonder, recommended by Caspar Henderson
When we see a rainbow or another beautiful spectacle in nature, what is that sense of wonder we are filled with? How can we nurture it? Caspar Henderson, author of A New Map of Wonders (and Five Books science and environment editor) recommends the best books to help us develop our sense of wonder.
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A Lab of One’s Own: Science and Suffrage in the First World War
by Patricia Fara -
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Eve to Evolution: Darwin, Science, and Women's Rights in Gilded Age America
by Kimberly Hamlin -
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Wally Funk's Race for Space: The Extraordinary Story of a Female Aviation Pioneer
by Sue Nelson -
4
The Woman That Never Evolved
by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy -
5
The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal
by Desmond Morris
The best books on Scientific Differences between Women and Men, recommended by Angela Saini
The best books on Scientific Differences between Women and Men, recommended by Angela Saini
Consideration of differences between men and women has been obscured by centuries of biological essentialism, argues Angela Saini – author of Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong. Here she discusses five books that examine or demonstrate the misogynistic lens through which female capability has been viewed.
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Statistical Evidence: A Likelihood Paradigm
by Richard Royall -
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Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics
by Nathan Yau -
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Storytelling with Data: A Data Visualization Guide for Business Professionals
by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic -
4
An Introduction to Statistical Learning: with Applications in R
by Daniela Witten, Gareth James, Robert Tibshirani & Trevor Hastie -
5
Design Thinking: Understanding How Designers Think and Work
by Nigel Cross
The best books on Data Science, recommended by Roger D. Peng
The best books on Data Science, recommended by Roger D. Peng
From complex techniques only used by academic statisticians, data science has risen to extreme popularity in only a few years. Roger D. Peng, Professor of Biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University and founder of one of the largest data science online courses, helps us understand this discipline and recommends the five best books to delve into it.
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X and the City: Modeling Aspects of Urban Life
by John A. Adam -
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In Pursuit of the Traveling Salesman: Mathematics at the Limits of Computation
by William J. Cook -
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Who's #1?: The Science of Rating and Ranking
by Amy N. Langville and Carl D. Meyer -
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50 Visions of Mathematics
by Sam Parc -
5
In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World
by Ian Stewart
The best books on Applied Mathematics, recommended by Nick Higham
The best books on Applied Mathematics, recommended by Nick Higham
It can be used to understand everything from bedbugs to traffic jams and helps us take photos and fly planes. Maths professor and author Nick Higham picks five books that show the many wonders of applied maths.
The best books on Transhumanism, recommended by Mark O'Connell
The journalist and author Mark O’Connell explored the nature of transhumanism—the belief that technology will help us evolve beyond our current physical and mental limitations—in his award-winning book To Be A Machine. Here he selects five key books that speak directly to the movement.
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Leonhard Euler: Mathematical Genius in the Enlightenment
by Ronald S. Calinger -
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A Concise History of Mathematics
by Dirk S. Struik -
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The History of Mathematics: A Reader
by Jeremy Gray & John Fauvel -
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The Mathematical Pamphlets of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and Related Pieces
by Charles Dodgson -
5
Mathematical Models
by H. M. Cundy and A. P. Rollett.
The best books on The History of Mathematics, recommended by Robin Wilson
The best books on The History of Mathematics, recommended by Robin Wilson
Why should we be interested in the history of mathematics? Mathematics, like painting, music, literature, has a long history, says Robin Wilson. Indeed, it’s longer than most, since the first writing is believed to be numerical. Mathematics is also multicultural, with its historical origins in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.