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Herewith a list of science books. Not scientific treatises, nor educational text books, but something much better. One must call them popular science books, but this is not gee-whizz science. These are books written by thoughtful people, scientists and others, to make accessible to readers of equally thoughtful disposition new perspectives in the understanding of reality.
Since maybe Robert Ardrey and Desmond Morris in the 60's, a trickle has become a flood and today the accessibility of science is truly one of the wonders of our culture.
These books are the real reason for this site. I find myself telling everyone about them, hoping they will find them as exciting as I did. They are not chosen systematically to provide any kind of coverage of science in breadth or depth. They are just a few of the books that have spoken especially clearly to me. Each in its way provides extraordinary insights into what and how and why we know the world we live in. And our capacity for insight is at least as marvellous as any of those insights themselves.
Today it is a pair of lists, one in alphabetical order by author, the other grouped under topic headings, just below. The groupings are somewhat idiosyncratic so I have added some preliminary explanations. But there is a plan; the intention is eventually fuller discussion of the ideas in them.
I do not include the conventional information on publisher and publication date, since most of these books have been published under several imprints. The date provided here is the date of first edition, regardless of language of origin; this gives an idea of where the books fit relative to each other. However, since this might positively mislead a search for an English version, the first English-language edition date is added if different.
(You may think I had forgotten a few rather obvious books. For example, Hawking's Brief History of Time, Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind, Pinker's How The Mind Works. No, I hadn't forgotten them, and yes they are not on the lists...)
After evolution, civilisation. A process, not a state. Lifestyles shifting in response to climate, geography and population changed us physically, challenged us mentally, and moved us geographically until we arrive at today's mankind, uniquely and dangerously different from everything round us. Here are four takes on various stages of that process.
The Descent of Woman (1972). Morgan, Elaine. Blows fizzy bubbles up the noses of professional anthropologists by asking if perhaps Mother and Child attracted at least as much attention from evolution as did Man the Mighty Hunter? And it all happened on the beach? Three later books (see list) improve her answers but none of them state the questions so deliciously. And the questions are the reasons why you should read this book.
Neanderthals, Bandits and Farmers (1997). Tudge, Colin. We kind of believe that agriculture is part of man's ordained ascent and hence a Good Thing. Colin Tudge suggests farming was a forced response to climate change that early man must have regarded as little short of disaster. And hence a very Bad Thing. Short and snappy book, read it in an hour or so, change your whole idea about the glories of civilisation!
The Wheelwright's Shop (1923)(1993). Sturt, George. Note the date of original publication of this one, but trust me. This book talks about the what/why/how of being a wheelwright. Craftsmanship is the way mankind typically handled technical knowledge before he invented science (and thus redefined technology) less than 500 years ago. Inarticulate but effective, undocumented but informed, this is a very different way of knowing from the way our society does it, but it was effective for maybe 4000 years.
Guns, Germs and Steel (1997). Diamond, Jared
Evolution is perhaps the greatest idea of science since Galileo imported maths into physics. These books explore its insight from a variety of viewpoints, scales and timeframes.
The Origins of Life (1998). Maynard Smith, John & Szathmary. A look at evolution as a process of establishing complexity. They identify a number of major hurdles that the development process overcame in order to reach todays levels of complexity. In particular how did it all get started? How do you go from RNA to DNA? How do you get to eukaryotic cells? What about multicellular stuff? And a few more!! A challenging read, but superb science from two biologists with incomparable credentials.
Climbing Mount Improbable (1996). Dawkins, Richard. This is an excellent scientific description of what evolution is and what it is not, and how it works, and how it can lead to mind-boggling complexity! Dawkins is an uncompromising champion of the ideas of Darwinian evolution. Ends with a wonderful explanation of the symbiosis between fig and wasp that is absolutely essential for the survival of each!
The Variety of Life (2000 ). Tudge, Colin
The Beak of the Finch (1994). Weiner, Jonathan. Evolution is usually thought of as being too slow for us to see in action. Not so. This author and his students watched it all happen as populations of birds in the Galapagos islands responded to climatic fluctuations over periods of a few years.
The Ghosts of Evolution (2000). Barlow, Connie
Much of our reality seems to lie beyond the direct reach of our senses. Yet that reality intrudes into any curious mind. Science is the curious mind's response. And that curious mind has achieved extraordinary insights.
For think of this. We are star-stuff, made of the matter that is forged in the hearts of stars.
Atoms of Silence (1981)(84)). Reeves, Hubert. We are made of the stuff of stars, literally; the atoms that constitute your body today were created in the hearts of stars long since dead. Very good account of the how the universe and its contents came into being.
Coming of Age in the Milky Way (1988). Ferris, Timothy. The title really does sum up the book. Excellent and very readable overview of how we came to know what we do know about the origins, present state and future development of the large scale universe. I think this is better than his more recent update on the same subject called "The Whole Shebang"
Nothingness (1994)(99). Genz, Henning
The Elegant Universe (1999). Greene, Brian
The Five Ages of the Universe (1999). Adams, Fred & Greg Laughlin
What remains to be discovered (1998). Maddox, John. Some people have been making headlines suggesting the end of science, thinking we already understand everything except maybe some details. They thought so at the beginning of the last century too. This book indicates how wrong this idea is and how much there is for science to do in the areas we know about, quite apart from areas not yet dreamed of!
Well, not actually mechanical. I mean, mind considered as machine - normal mortal matter, with neither need nor benefit of the customary spiritual infusion nor the more recently fashionable quantum fizz.
These books explore the nature of mind and thought, what it is and how it knows... Heavier than the other books listed here, these most repay the effort they deserve.
The User Illusion, (1991)(1998). Norretranders, Tor. Norretranders discusses ways of thinking about information and information processing that may illuminate our attempts to understand how the mind works. I was blown away by this book, in particular by the concept of exformation and the light it sheds on information, bandwidth, Shannon and so on. Skip the first chapters on Maxwell's demon unless you are interested in philosophy of science or thermodynamics - (I am and they are worth the effort) but the rest of the book stands up without them.
The Fabric of Reality (1997). Deutsch, David. This guy reasserts the existence of an objective reality that we cannot directly observe with our senses. In the face of long established conventional philosophy on this subject, which aggravated the hell out of me at university and since, this is like water in the desert. Again skip the first chapter (what's with these guys?) unless you are into multiverses and such - the rest of the book manages pretty well without them! Oh, also he must be one of the first guys to use the concept of virtual reality and simulators as a serious tool of philosophical enquiry (but see Daniel Dennet below!).
Darwin's Dangerous Idea (1995). Dennet, Daniel.
Brain Children (1998). Dennet, Daniel .
Figments of Reality (1997). Stewart, Ian & Cohen, Jack.
The Language Instinct (1994). Pinker, Stephen. Pinker talks about language from a scientific focus and finds that he must discuss evolution and mans conscious mind as well. More in his subsequent "Words and Rules"
Adams, Fred & Greg Laughlin (1999). The Five Ages of the Universe
Barlow, Connie (2000). The Ghosts of Evolution
Dawkins, Richard (1996). Climbing Mount Improbable
Dennet, Daniel (1995). Darwin's Dangerous Idea
Dennet, Daniel (1998). Brain Children
Deutsch, David (1997). The Fabric of Reality
Diamond, Jared (1997). Guns, Germs and Steel
Ferris, Timothy (1988). Coming of Age in the Milky Way
Ferris, Timothy (1997). The Whole Shebang
Genz, Henning (1994)(99). Nothingness
Greene, Brian (1999). The Elegant Universe
Maddox, John (1998). What remains to be discovered
Maynard Smith, John & Szathmary (1998). The Origins of Life
Morgan, Elaine (1972). The Descent of Woman
Morgan, Elaine (1982). The Aquatic Ape
Morgan, Elaine (1994). The Descent of the Child
Morgan, Elaine (1990). The Scars of Evolution
Morgan, Elaine (1997). The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis
Norretranders, Tor, (1991)(1998). The User Illusion
Pinker, Stephen (1994). The Language Instinct
Pinker, Steven (1999). Words and Rules
Reeves, Hubert (1981)(84)). Atoms of Silence
Stewart, Ian & Cohen, Jack (1997). Figments of Reality
Sturt, George (1923)(1993). The Wheelwright's Shop
Tudge, Colin (1997). Neanderthals, Bandits and Farmers
Tudge, Colin (2000 ). The Variety of Life
Weiner, Jonathan (1994). The Beak of the Finch