Science for an Educated Citizen
Explore essential science books for an educated citizen. Discover top reads to understand key scientific concepts and stay informed in today's world.
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The Selfish Gene
by Richard Dawkins
Science need not be dull and bogged down by jargon, as Richard Dawkins proves in this entertaining look at evolution. The themes he takes up are the concepts of altruistic and selfish behaviour; the genetical definition of selfish interest; the evolution of aggressive behaviour; kinshiptheory; sex ratio theory; reciprocal altruism; deceit; and the natural selection of sex differences. 'Should be read, can be read by almost anyone. It describes with great skill a new face of the theory of evolution.' W.D. Hamilton, Science
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Why Is Sex Fun?
by Jared M. Diamond
From the New York Times bestselling author of Upheaval, a fun and wide-ranging exploration of why human sexuality is so different from other animals', and how it made us who we are To us humans, the sex lives of animals seem weird. But it's our own sex lives that are truly bizarre. We are the only social species to insist on carrying out sex privately. Stranger yet, we have sex at any time, even during periods of infertility, such as pregnancy or post-menopause. A human female doesn't know her precise time of fertility and certainly doesn't advertise it to human males by the striking color changes, smells, and sounds used by other female mammals. Why do we differ so radically in these and other important aspects of our sexuality from our closest ancestor, the apes? Why does the human female, virtually alone among mammals, go through menopause? Why does the human male stand out as one of the few mammals to stay with the female he impregnates, to help raise the children that he sired? Why is the human penis so unnecessarily large? There is no one better qualified than Jared Diamond to explain the evolutionary forces that operated on our ancestors to make us so different sexually. With wit and a wealth of fascinating examples, Why Is Sex Fun? shows how our sexuality, as much as our large brains or upright posture, led to human' rise in the animal kingdom.
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A Short History of Nearly Everything
by Bill Bryson
One of the worldâs most beloved writers and New York Times bestselling author of A Walk in the Woods and The Body takes his ultimate journeyâinto the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer. In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trailâwell, most of it. In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understandâand, if possible, answerâthe oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the worldâs most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.
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The Demon-Haunted World
by Carl Sagan
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ⢠From the renowned astronomer and author of Cosmos comes a âpowerful [and] stirring defense of informed rationalityâ (The Washington Post Book World) in a world where fake news stories and Internet conspiracy theories play to a disaffected American populace. LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE WINNER ⢠âGlorious . . . A spirited defense of science . . . From the first page to the last, this book is a manifesto for clear thought.ââLos Angeles Times How can we make intelligent decisions about our increasingly technology-driven lives if we donât understand the difference between the myths of pseudoscience, New Age thinking, and fundamentalist zealotry and the testable hypotheses of science? Casting a wide net through history and culture, Pulitzer Prizeâwinning author and distinguished astronomer Carl Sagan argues that scientific thinking is critical not only to the pursuit of truth but to the very well-being of our democratic institutions. He examines and authoritatively debunks such celebrated fallacies as witchcraft, faith healings, demons, and UFOs. And yet, disturbingly, in todayâs so-called information age, pseudoscience is burgeoning, with stories of alien abduction, âchannelingâ past lives, and communal hallucinations commanding growing attention and respect. As Sagan demonstrates with lucid eloquence, the siren song of unreason is not just a cultural wrong turn but a dangerous plunge into darkness that threatens our most basic freedoms.
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Genius
by James Gleick
To his colleagues, Richard Feynman was not so much a genius as he was a full-blown magician: someone who âdoes things that nobody else could do and that seem completely unexpected.â The path he cleared for twentieth-century physics led from the making of the atomic bomb to a Nobel Prize-winning theory of quantam electrodynamics to his devastating exposĂŠ of the Challenger space shuttle disaster. At the same time, the ebullient Feynman established a reputation as an eccentric showman, a master safe cracker and bongo player, and a wizard of seduction. Now James Gleick, author of the bestselling Chaos, unravels teh dense skein of Feynmanâs thought as well as the paradoxes of his character in a biographyâwhich was nominated for a National Book Awardâof outstanding lucidity and compassion.
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A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper
by John Allen Paulos
The author examines the role of mathematics in understanding social issues.
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The Botany of Desire
by Michael Pollan
âPollan shines a light on our own nature as well as on our implication in the natural world.â âThe New York Times âA wry, informed pastoral.â âThe New Yorker The book that helped make Michael Pollan, the New York Times bestselling author of How to Change Your Mind, Cooked and The Omnivoreâs Dilemma, one of the most trusted food experts in America Every schoolchild learns about the mutually beneficial dance of honeybees and flowers: The bee collects nectar and pollen to make honey and, in the process, spreads the flowersâ genes far and wide. In The Botany of Desire, Michael Pollan ingeniously demonstrates how people and domesticated plants have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship. He masterfully links four fundamental human desiresâsweetness, beauty, intoxication, and controlâwith the plants that satisfy them: the apple, the tulip, marijuana, and the potato. In telling the stories of four familiar species, Pollan illustrates how the plants have evolved to satisfy humankindâs most basic yearnings. And just as weâve benefited from these plants, we have also done well by them. So who is really domesticating whom?