Books by David Quammen
“This is a book about the COVID-19 pandemic, but what makes this read unique is that it doesn’t go into the preparedness of countries or how they dealt with COVID-19. Rather, it takes you on a detective-like journey through the science of COVID-19. It looks at the theories on its origins and the scientists who worked relentlessly on understanding the biology of the virus itself and then the development of the vaccines against it. A lot of people think that the vaccine development happened quite fast, me included. However, in reality, RNA-type vaccine technology has been in the works for years. Scientists have been working on mRNA vaccine technology for decades and were then able to take that technology and effectively apply it to COVID-19.” Read more...
The Best Science Books of 2023: The Royal Society Book Prize
Rebecca Henry, Scientist
“Quammen is one of the great science journalists, and this is a monument of a book—a masterful retelling of how the ‘tree of life’ was recast in the twentieth century by a band of original thinkers.” Read more...
The Best Science Books of 2018
Barbara Kiser, Science Writer
“I don’t think anyone has described the fragmentation of nature in the modern world as brilliantly as Quammen. He likens an ecosystem to a Persian carpet. Cut a beautiful, complex carpet into tiny squares, he says, and you get not tiny carpets, but a lot of useless scraps of material fraying at the edges. That’s what we’ve done to our ecosystems. For the most part, nature now exists only in tiny pockets, oases in a biological desert, fraying at the edges. Species that exist in these little Noah’s arks are increasingly vulnerable to assault by pollution, climate change and predators. Populations that – unlike birds or flying insects – are unable to move and mingle with other populations suffer from genetic impoverishment. This is what happens on small islands in mid-ocean. Islands are where species most commonly go extinct. Quammen’s wondrous peregrination of islands takes us on a journey of evolutions and extinctions in order to illustrate how like islands our continents have become.” Read more...
Interviews where books by David Quammen were recommended
The best books on Wilding, recommended by Isabella Tree
Is there room for both humans and wild nature to flourish on an increasingly crowded planet? The author Isabella Tree argues that ‘wilding’ can be benefit both, and chooses five books to support her case.
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1
The Eighth Day of Creation: Makers of the Revolution in Biology
by Horace Freeland Judson -
2
Darwin: The Life of a Tormented Evolutionist
by Adrian Desmond & James Moore -
3
The Man Who Found the Missing Link
by Pat Shipman -
4
The Statue Within: An Autobiography
by Francois Jacob -
5
The Song of the Dodo
by David Quammen
The Best Biology Books, recommended by Sean B Carroll
The Best Biology Books, recommended by Sean B Carroll
What do molecules in a cell have in common with lions in the Serengeti? They all follow rules, says scientist and author Sean B Carroll. He chooses the best books on biology, from the death of the dodo to the discovery of DNA.
The best books on Man and Nature, recommended by TC Boyle
The novelist and nature lover T C Boyle tells us about delicious dodos, angry tigers, snakes on planes and why Viagra saves rhinos.
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1
Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray
by Sabine Hossenfelder -
2
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.
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1
An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us
by Ed Yong -
2
Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus
by David Quammen -
3
Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature's Secrets to Longevity
by Nicklas Brendborg -
4
Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World in a Big Way
by Roma Agrawal -
5
Taking Flight: The Evolutionary Story of Life on the Wing
by Lev Parikian -
6
The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science
by Kate Zernike
The Best Science Books of 2023: The Royal Society Book Prize, recommended by Rebecca Henry
The Best Science Books of 2023: The Royal Society Book Prize, recommended by Rebecca Henry
The Royal Society, set up in the 1660s, is a fellowship of some of the world’s most eminent scientists. It also has an annual book prize, celebrating the best popular science writing. Neuroscientist Rebecca Henry, one of this year’s judges, talks us through the fabulous books that made the 2023 shortlist—and explains how good science writing can change the way you see the world around you.