Books

Khannie

About the only books I read are popular science books. Anything else just doesn't float my boat for the most part.

Here's a list of books I've really enjoyed. Please post yours.

If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens... Where Is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to Fermi's Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life - Stephen Webb
Absolutely _cracking_ book. A real must for anyone who's interested in SETI.


Cosmos - Carl Sagan
Really well written. A little out of date, but makes for a great read.

Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies - Jared Diamond
A critical look at the wests rise to wealth / dominance.

I've somewhat enjoyed others, but this is my top 3 from the last 10 years.

AtomicHorror

An obvious one maybe: Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Not an easy read for a Biologist mind you!

pauln

I'd be the same as Khannie, only read science related books.
A few good ones I read where;

The elegant universe by Brian Greene.
A good explanation of the basic physics of the universe and the newer theories.

The code book by Simon Singh.
An a good book explaining cryptography and its history/techniques if your into that kind of thing.

Pretty much all the books written by Richard Feynman, some of them are more entertaining than scientific but still a good read. I'm working my way through his lecture series notes, bit heavy going so pacing myself :rolleyes:.

At the moment I'm reading The Oxford book of modern science writing by Richard Dawkins. It is a good book and plenty of interesting material but because of his biology background it is biased towards that area and at times I'm struggling having never studied any biology.

r3nu4l

One of my favourites is:

Science a History - 1543-2001, by John Gribbin.

I think I like it so much because it covers everything from astronomy and physics to chemistry and biological sciences and mathematics...in other words, science!

A Brief history of time is also an excellent read as AtomicHorror suggested. I'm a Biologist who didn't do any University or leaving cert physics* and I enjoyed it



*I do however have a pass degree in Maths

Khannie

Just last night I was thinking that I must read that "50 solutions" book again. <Insert more recommendations from me here>

Anyway....

pauln wrote: »

The elegant universe by Brian Greene.
A good explanation of the basic physics of the universe and the newer theories.

Couldn't make my way through this.

pauln wrote: »

The code book by Simon Singh.
An a good book explaining cryptography and its history/techniques if your into that kind of thing.

Forgot about this. Read it a good few years ago. Top notch book.

pauln wrote: »

Pretty much all the books written by Richard Feynman, some of them are more entertaining than scientific but still a good read. I'm working my way through his lecture series notes, bit heavy going so pacing myself :rolleyes:.

Ah yes. Forgot about this. His series has been in and out of my cart on amazon a few times. I have a voucher so will probably finally give it a lash.

pauln wrote: »

At the moment I'm reading The Oxford book of modern science writing by Richard Dawkins. It is a good book and plenty of interesting material but because of his biology background it is biased towards that area and at times I'm struggling having never studied any biology.

Investimigating.....

r3nu4l wrote: »

Science a History - 1543-2001, by John Gribbin.

investimigating.....

On "A brief history"....yeah....decent. Didn't finish it. It required a bit of effort to get into. I will eventually go through it on holiday some day.

g'em

Genome by Matt Ridley - an easy read that 'explains' what's in our 23 pairs of chromosomes.

The Red Queen also by Matt Ridley - a really interesting (and one of the most comprehensive accounts I've read) take on sexual selection and evolution.

Y: The Descent of Men by Steve Jones - the implications of the Y chromosome and it's effects on manhood; funny and engaging.

Khannie

Forgot about this one. Really enjoyed it......

Rare Earth - Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe - Peter Douglas Ward and Donald Brownlee

thebaldsoprano

How to solve it - G Polya

This happens to be my favourite maths book and you wouldn't need an indepth knowledge on the subject to read it.

It'll give you a good idea on what it's like to put a theorem together and such things.