Science/nature books

[AE35Unit]

What are your favourites? What are you reading,have read etc.
I'm about to start Life in the Undergrowth by David Attenborough. I'm a big fan and have all his books. (Must get his latest-completely missed Life in Cold Blood on TV)
Some of my faves are Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould
The Red Hourglass,forgot the author
A Fish Out of Time,again author unknown.
Oh and I nearly forgot,King Solomon's Ring by Konrad Lorenz

 

[Ursa major]

Oh and I nearly forgot,King Solomon's Ring by Konrad Lorenz

I think this was probably the first non-kiddy book about science that I ever read.

 

[Dave]

If you are not a scientist, didn't take any science at school, and have never ever read New Scientist, but you find you now have a hankering to understand what you have missed, could I suggest that a good place to start would be A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It is very easy to read and is a like one of those '***** for Dummies' books but with his humour added.

 

[K. Riehl]

Godel,Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter. It will challenge you; it won the Pulitzer prize. It deals with concepts of mathematics, symmetry, and intelligence. Here's the Wiki link if you want more info:
Gödel, Escher, Bach - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Saeltari]

Here are the ones that quickly pop to mind.

- Greek Fire, Poison Arrows, and Scorpion Bombs: Biological & Chemical Warfare in the Ancient World by Adrienne Mayor (08 ED.)
- Quantum Evolution: How Physics' Weirdest Theory Explains Life's Biggest Mystery by Johnjoe McFadden
- The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory by Brian Greene
- The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot
- A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
- Hyperspace: A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes, Time Warps, and the 10th Dimension by Michio Kaku

 

[the smiling weirwood]

I actually haven't read very many, but those that I have I enjoyed a great deal.

The Third Chimpanzee - Jared Diamond

Guns, Germs, and Steel:The Fate of Human Societies - Jared Diamond

The Seven Daughters of Eve - Bryan Sykes

The last one was very informative and easy transition to the world of mitochondrial DNA sequencing, but the latter half of the book is given over to fictional narratives which while interesting in and of themselves offer little to no information of value.

 

[AE35Unit]

Wow lots of books I've never heard of there,apart from Brief History of Time which is on my shelf but I haven't plucked up the courage to read it yet.

 

[Lady of Winterfell]

I also haven't read very many, but one I would recommend is Death by Black Hole by Neil Degrasse Tyson. He is quite humorous with this writing, but he is also very good at making things understandable to everyone. The book deals with many topics in astrophysics, such as antimatter, black holes, dark energy and dark matter, and a lot more. The book is a collection of essays, so its quite easy to read.