Slashdot Mirror
The Best of Popular Science?
Stront asks: "No doubt like many on Slashdot, I am an avid reader of popular science, and am constantly on the search for good examples of the genre. Now, The Elegant Universe is probably the best on Superstrings; the excellent Genome received a very favourable review on Slashdot; and probably the most anticipated book on Quantum physics is the soon to be released The New Quantum Universe, the follow up to the highly rated The Quantum Universe. Now of the thousands of Popular Science books available, what does Slashdot recommend for the other innumerable sciences such as of relativity, molecular biology, consciousness, astronomy etc?"
The latter presents a very readable summary of what is perhaps the first rigorous application of the scientific method to history. Since it's the first, he started by answering the big questions of the past thirteen thousand years. Essentially: how did Eurasians come to own the world? He knows, and now I do.
The former is a tour de force covering all aspects of northern experience, from early exploration to detailed descriptions of the critters who survive there, and how. I just open it anywhere, now, and start reading, and am always captivated. The maps alone bring delight.
Well, looking at my shelf now, I think pretty much anything by Stephen Jay Gould is a sure bet. His collections of essays (eg The Panda's Thumb, Ever Since Darwin) are the best evolutionary discussions I have come across, if that is what you're interested in.
Another good book is The Whole Shebang, by Timothy Ferris. It's a good introduction to various aspects of cosmology and astrophysics. I haven't read it for over a year, so I really can't go into more specifics. Definitely worth a look.
Hawking is good, but I'm sure everyone else will tell you that too. I've read a couple books by Carl Sagan, but I can't remember much about them, including the titles. They were definitely a good read, though.
No other titles are coming to mind, for some reason. Hope this helps!