You need not choose these editions.
John Barrow, The Constants of Nature : From Alpha to Omega--the Numbers That Encode the Deepest Secrets of the Universe New York: Vintage Books, 2004, 368pp., paper. The Library Journal says:
Barrow here discusses the efforts of various scientists, including himself, to discern some deeper meaning in the various fundamental constants of physics-for example, the so-called fine-structure constant, the gravitational constant, and the speed of light in a vacuum. Why do these constants have the values that they do? What might be their interrelationships?
Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics. Boston: Shambhala Publications,
1991, 3rd Ed. 366pp., paper.
I don't agree with everything Capra has to say, but he provides some interesting
approaches to interconnections between Eastern mysticism and modern physics.
Kevin Davies, Cracking the Genome: Inside the Race to Unlock Human DNA. New York: The Free Press, 2001. This book describes the often-competitive and always-intriguing effort by Craig Venter, Francis Collins, James Watson, and many others to construct a complete gene sequence of the human genome. He describes the polities, the funding controversies, and the science of this struggle, and keeps a mostly positive view of the process.
Freeman Dyson, Disturbing the Universe. New York: Doubleday, 2001, paper. An autobiographical and philosophical discussion by an eminent physicist. Dyson has thought more carefully about extraterrestrial intelligence than most other writers.
Kenneth W. Ford, The Quantum World: Quantum Mechanics for Everyone Cambridge MA: Harvard U. Press, 270 pp., cloth. An educated-layman's guide to quantum mechanics, including the history of its development and some descriptions and photographs of the people who developed quantum theory. Very little mathematics, although there are a few Feynmann diagrams used as illustrations. Well-written.
James Gleick, Chaos: Making a New Science New York: Penguin USA,
1988. 352 pp., paper.
According to amazon.com,
Few writers distinguish themselves by their ability to write about complicated, even obscure topics clearly and engagingly. James Gleick, a former science writer for the New York Times, resides in this exclusive category. In Chaos, he takes on the job of depicting the first years of the study of chaos--the seemingly random patterns that characterize many natural phenomena.
Brian Greene, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory. New York: W.W.Norton, 1999. 448 pp., cloth. This now-famous popularization of string theory attempts to give a non-specialist a sense of where this field is going and how it might actually tell us something important about the largest and smallest size-scales of the universe: the interior of subatomic particles and the universe itself. A good read.
Alan H. Guth, The Inflationary Universe. Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1997, 358 pp., paper. A rambling and chatty account of the cosmology of the 1990's, up through the theories that suggest that our universe might be one of millions, each separated by astonishing distances from one another. Guth gives you some idea of how these theories have developed, and he puts a human face on the process.
Stephen W. Hawking, A Brief History of Time. Toronto: Bantam, 1988. 198 pp., cloth. A fascinating popular account of current astrophysics, written by (arguably) the leading cosmologist of our day. There is also an updated and expanded edition, The Illustrated Brief History of Time New York: Bantam, 248pp., cloth, that provides an additional chapter on wormholes and time travel, as well as updates on some of the original round of topics.
Robert F. Hazen and James Trefil, Science Matters: Achieving Scientific Literacy New York: Anchor / Doubleday, 1991. 295pp., paper. Hazen and Trefil are among the best scientific writers around. This book covers all of physics, astronomy, chemistry, and geology in eighteen chapters, and provides clear expositions of the connections among these disciplines. It's light on chemistry: there's almost nothing about chemical reactions or thermodynamics.
Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Beyond. publication data not available (I can't find my copy!). Heisenberg's autobiography, full of interesting insights. Based on reading I've done since reading this, I suggest you take some of what he says with a grain (or several millimoles) of salt. This one is out of print, but another book of Heisenberg's: Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science (Great Minds Series New York: Prometheus Books, 1999, 220pp., paper is available. amazon.com.
Werner Heisenberg, Across the Frontiers New York: Harper, 1974, 229 pp., paper. A collection of philosophical essays by one of the great physicists of the twentieth century.
John Horgan, The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the Scientific Age Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 308pp., cloth. Horgan's thesis is that the fundamental laws of science are either known or will be known in a few more decades. He therefore asks how science will respond to the accomplishment of its underlying objectives, and he has interviewed a dozen or so eminent scientists to see how they view this issue. Whether you agree with his thesis or not (and I don't), you should find this a thought-provoking book.
Darrell Huff, How to Lie with Statistics New York: W.W.Norton, 1954, 142 pp., paper. Note the publication date. Some of the examples that Huff gives seem a bit quaint today, with a half-century gulf between the date of publication and now. But his point, and the way that he characterizes it, is at least as pertinent and valid now as it was then.
Horace F. Judson, The Eighth Day of Creation. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1979. 686 pp., cloth. A journalistic account of the early days of molecular biology, up through the beginnings of the understanding of how translation and transcription really work.
Gordon Kane, Supersymmetry: Unveiling the Ultimate Laws of Nature Cambridge: Perseus, 2000, 199pp., paper. This provides a layman's treatment of modern particle physics that comes in between Lederman's book (q.v.) and Greene's (q.v.). Does every ordinary particle have a supersymmetric partner, such that the supersymmetric partners of ordinary leptons are bosons and vice versa? This book explores this possibility and what it would mean if that were true.
Leon Lederman and Dick Teresi, The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question? New York: Delta, 1994, paper. An entertaining summary of the search for fundamental particles, culminating in the search for the top quark (successfully completed at Fermilab shortly after this book was published) and the Higgs boson (still being sought at CERN, Fermilab, and elsewhere). Lederman has numerous interesting anecdotes to relate, and he has a healthy disrespect for pure theory in science. He's on the IIT BCPS faculty.
Penny Le Couteur and Jay Burreson, Napoleon's Buttons: 17 Molecules that Changed History New York: Tarcher / Penguin, 2003, 376 pp., paper. An examination of seventeen molecules (or classes of molecules) and the influence they have had on history. Among the molecules they examine are ascorbic acid, silk, phenol, and salt. Engagingly written and relatively free of diatribe.
Robert L. Park, Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud New York: Oxford U. Press USA, 240pp., paper, ISBN 0195147103. Clumsily organized and rather preachy, this book is nonetheless useful in providing stories about science errors and outright frauds.
John Allen Paulos, Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences New York: Hill & Wang, 2001, 180 pp., paper. According to amazon.com,
John Allen Paulos, A Mathematician Looks at the Newspaper. New York: Anchor/Random House, 1996. 212 pp., paper. A mathematical look at current events, as reported in the print media.
John Allen Paulos, Mathematics and Humor. Chicago: U. Chicago Press, 1980. 116 pp., paper. This is not a joke book: it is an inquiry into the ways in which humor and mathematics exercise some of the same faculties in a human. It's intriguing and well-written.
John Allen Paulos, Once Upon a Number. New York: Basic Books / Perseus, 1998. 214 pp., paper. The subtitle of this book is "The hidden mathematical logic of stories," and that characterizes the book: it describes the mathematics embedded in storytelling.
Thomas Powers, Heisenberg's War: The Secret History of the German Bomb. New York: Little, Brown, 1994, paper. A scholarly and thorough inquiry into the German effort to develop nuclear fission either into an energy source or a weapon during World War II. The fundamental question raised by Powers is: did Heisenberg deliberately mislead the Nazis into thinking that a nuclear bomb was an impossibility?
Oliver Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars: Seven Paradoxical Tales. New York: Vintage, 1995, 328 pp., paper. Sacks, an eminent neurologist, has interviewed seven individuals with unusual neurological disorders who have interesting stories to tell.
Pamela H. Smith, The Body of the Artisan: Art and Experience in the Scientific Revolution Chicago: U.of Chicago Press, 2004, 367pp., cloth. Prof. Smith teaches history at my alma mater. She questions the traditional separation between intellectuals who work with their minds and artisans who shape objects with their bodies, and examines the thinkers and artisans of the era of the Scientific Revolution as evidence. Profusely and pertinently illustrated and carefully written.
James D. Watson, DNA: The Secret of Life New York: Knopf, 2003, 447pp., paper. A chatty discussion of the significance of modern genetics, written by one of the central actors in the drama. This book is in an intermediate category between a scientific work and a popular-science work, and as such may be a highly suitable read for those of you interested in getting a clear view of what genetics is about.
James D. Watson, The Double Helix. New York: Norton, 1980. 300 pp., paper. This Norton critical edition includes several papers by Watson and Crick, and several commentaries on The Double Helix by other players in the molecular biology game. An account of the determination of the three-dimensional structure of DNA in the late 1940's and early 1950's. Watson has a breezy, journalistic style that makes him an entertaining read. This book illustrates the fact that academic scientists can be and often are ambitious and competitive. Like Heisenberg, Watson has some axes to grind and should not be taken as absolutely factual.
Barry Werth, The Billion Dollar Molecule. New York: Touchstone, 1994. 455 pp., paper. Account of the founding and maturation of Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a biotech startup company in Cambridge, MA. Vertex has succeeded scientifically and financially, although its financial success was obtained in a different field from that originally envisioned by its brilliant and opinionated founder, Joshua Boger.
David R. Williams, Sin Boldly: Dr. Dave's Guide to Writing the College Paper. New York: Perseus, 2000. 202 pp., paper. This is a different kind of book from the rest of the ones on this list in that it has little to do with science or its cultural implications. Instead, it's a massively useful book for anyone who wants to improve his or her writing. The title comes from Martin Luther.
Last updated by Andy Howard on Thursday 23 August 2006.