Entertainment Weekly Bemoans Lack of Great Science Books

Posted by timothy on Wednesday June 25, 2008 @08:26AM from the that's-entertainment-weekly dept.

Bryan writes "A recent headline at Entertainment Weekly suggests that the '100 Best Reads' of the last 25 years do not include a single science book (not even a popular science book). In response, cosmologist Sean Carroll at Cosmic Variance has given an interesting analysis of EW's disappointing list, and Soul Physics is calling for suggestions on the Greatest Physics Books of the Last 25 Years. For all the great literature that science has produced in the last 25 years, EW's list seems to represent a major shortcoming in the field: it still isn't diffusing into popular culture." I'm not sure what Entertainment Weekly's standing to complain would come from. That aside, have science books ever in modern times been a driving force greater than ones intended as (mere) entertainment, religious instruction, etc? I'd put anything by Richard Feynman on this list, though.

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What about "A Brief History of Time"? by King_TJ · 2008-06-25 08:40 · Score: 0, Redundant

It seems to me that Stephen Hawking's contribution really catapulted him into pop-culture. He's been drawn in a number of cartoon TV shows, including Family Guy and I believe The Simpsons. (He had a cartoon role in a Dilbert TV cartoon as well, but of course, that's far less mainstream.)