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Good Science Books for the Layman - Page 3

post #31 of 45
5/26/10 at 1:35pm
This: http://www.amazon.com/Life-Ascending.../dp/0393065960 Life Ascending: The Ten Greatest Inventions of Evolution, by Nick Lane I'm not a science guy, I'm a sociology guy, but my dad is a scientist, and gave me this book to read. It's a great mix of narrative and science, and while some concepts are impossible to describe (consciousness, for example), the rest is great. Highly recommend.
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post #32 of 45
5/26/10 at 1:39pm
I've had "Surely, you must be joking Mr. Feynman!" reccomended to me. http://www.amazon.com/Surely-Feynman.../dp/0393316041 A series of anecdotes shouldn't by rights add up to an autobiography, but that's just one of the many pieces of received wisdom that Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman (1918-88) cheerfully ignores in his engagingly eccentric book, a bestseller ever since its initial publication in 1985. Fiercely independent (read the chapter entitled "Judging Books by Their Covers"), intolerant of stupidity even when it comes packaged as high intellectualism (check out "Is Electricity Fire?"), unafraid to offend (see "You Just Ask Them?"), Feynman informs by entertaining.
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post #33 of 45
5/26/10 at 1:40pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by scarphe View Post
Feynman´s lectures on physics
+ a gazillion. I'm saddened every time I think about the fact that I was never able to hear him speak. The man was a fantastic speaker, extremely charming, and just a great role model all around, of the kind we rarely find anymore. It's very interesting to read about his interactions with his father as a boy.
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post #34 of 45
5/26/10 at 1:51pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by AntiHero84 View Post
I agree, Bill Bryson is fantastic. I never read this particular book, but did read Made in America: An Informal History of the English Language in the United States . He can take some of the most boring topics and make them fascinating.

I have that book. It's a wonderful read.
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post #35 of 45
5/26/10 at 4:41pm
I might be pushing this idea, but I just finished Guns, Germs, and Steel, which details the effects of geography and climate on human development. To those who know, it's much much more than that, but I believe that it's above all else a science book. It also deals heavily upon the findings of paleontologists and really gives you a good idea on how to think critically.
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post #36 of 45
5/26/10 at 6:02pm
Carl Sagan is good. I would start with Broca's Brain.

If you have interest in Brain/Neuroscience/Psychology/Neurology I would recommend:

In Search of Memory: The Emergence of a New Science of Mind - Kandel
Island of the Colorblind and Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat - both by Sacks
Great and Desperate Cures: The Rise and Decline of Psychosurgery and Other Radical Treatments for Mental Illness - Valenstein

Have fun reading!
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post #37 of 45
5/26/10 at 6:48pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by scarphe View Post
Feynman´s lectures on physics

I can't really see this as a book for laypeople. I'd say it's somewhere between a textbook and a pop book. I enjoy the lectures, but I'm a physicist.

I agree that Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman is an excellent book. Not really about science, but since it's the musings of a scientist, there is a lot of science woven in.

Right now I'm reading Physics for Future Presidents and enjoying it immensely. It's a book for laypeople which discusses the science behind global issues like terrorism, energy, and global warming.
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post #38 of 45
5/26/10 at 8:08pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MetroStyles View Post
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is a good and easy intro to the progression of science over the last few hundred years, with interesting anecdotes and details that make it less boring than most reads of such type.

My first thought. Listened to this on audiobook. Enjoyed it.
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post #39 of 45
5/26/10 at 8:13pm
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post #40 of 45
5/26/10 at 8:16pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Valor View Post
Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Kuhn

Noice!!
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post #41 of 45
5/26/10 at 10:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ComboOrgan View Post
I can't really see this as a book for laypeople. I'd say it's somewhere between a textbook and a pop book. I enjoy the lectures, but I'm a physicist. I agree that Surely You're Joking Mr. Feynman is an excellent book. Not really about science, but since it's the musings of a scientist, there is a lot of science woven in. Right now I'm reading Physics for Future Presidents and enjoying it immensely. It's a book for laypeople which discusses the science behind global issues like terrorism, energy, and global warming.
than what are lay people? i assumed it meant people that have decent education, but may not have specialized knowledgge of a certain field. the lectures were essetianlly designed for that sort of group, university students fresh out of secondary school. i am not physicist, but i use the lectures as my physics reference whenever i feel i am forgeting soemthing. I have not had any problem understanding most of it.
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post #42 of 45
5/26/10 at 11:15pm
Physics for Entertainment

Published in 1913, a best-seller in the 1930s and long out of print, Physics for Entertainment was translated from Russian into many languages and influenced science students around the world. Among them was Grigori Yakovlevich Perelman, the Russian mathematician (unrelated to the author), who solved the Poincaré conjecture, and who was awarded and rejected the Fields Medal. Grigori's father, an electrical engineer, gave him Physics for Entertainment to encourage his son's interest in mathematics. In the foreword, the book's author describes the contents as "conundrums, brain-teasers, entertaining anecdotes, and unexpected comparisons," adding, "I have quoted extensively from Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Mark Twain and other writers, because, besides providing entertainment, the fantastic experiments these writers describe may well serve as instructive illustrations at physics classes." The book's topics included how to jump from a moving car, and why, "according to the law of buoyancy, we would never drown in the Dead Sea." Ideas from this book are still used by science teachers today. Yakov Isidorovich Perelman died in the siege of Leningrad in 1942.


Quote:
Originally Posted by mgoose View Post
Innumeracy...by John Allan Paulos

Just donated my copy of that to my local library today.
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post #43 of 45
5/27/10 at 12:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by scarphe View Post
than what are lay people? i assumed it meant people that have decent education, but may not have specialized knowledgge of a certain field. the lectures were essetianlly designed for that sort of group, university students fresh out of secondary school.

i am not physicist, but i use the lectures as my physics reference whenever i feel i am forgeting soemthing. I have not had any problem understanding most of it.

By laypeople, I suppose I meant people who do not use science as part of their professions.

I assumed the point of the thread was to find science books which are good entertainment. I don't doubt that you find Feynman's lectures to be an excellent reference, but I wouldn't suggest them to the popular reader for entertainment. For that purpose, Feynman's collections of anecdotes are much better IMO.
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post #44 of 45
5/27/10 at 1:33am
Maybe I'm just dumb but I thought the feynman lectures on physics were really hard stuff (we are talking about the textbook made from his cal-state class). I couldn't imagine getting through that book in less then a year and thats with alot of rather hard work everyday. I don't think most first year physics students would want to read it never mind laypeople.
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post #45 of 45
5/27/10 at 10:11pm
A brief history of time - Stephen Hawking
Good for explaining the basics of the major discoveries about space-time.

Sperm Wars/The Red Queen

Reasons for why selfishness evolved, as well as altruism. Fascinating to know that we're all being directed by that little packet of genes we got by chance.
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