Here are 100 books that The Reinvention Of Science fans have personally recommended if you like
The Reinvention Of Science.
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I thought my scientific career peaked in 6th grade when I won the science fair since soon after, all my spare time went to ballet. In college, a broken foot prompted a shift from dance to arts journalism, and then an unplanned pregnancy, complicated birth, and postpartum depression prompted a shift to writing about women’s health. From this, I branched out to various types of science and history, always through the lens of feminism. As an author and journalist, my job is to be professionally curious; I’m always asking why, how, and where: Why are things the way they are? How did they get that way? And where are the women?
Dava Sobel is the unquestionable queen when it comes to writing the history of women in science. You can’t go wrong in choosing anything she’s written, but I particularly enjoyed this group portrait of the women hired as “human computers” at the Harvard Observatory in the late 1800s to interpret astronomical data and observations collected by the male astronomers.
While some of these women were trained scientists, many were simply wives, sisters, or daughters of the Harvard astronomers. Sobel deftly shows how, when given a chance, women were capable of incredible scientific inquiry. I love all of the vivid scenes Sobel recreates and how she is able to bring these women to life so eloquently.
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dava Sobel, the "inspiring" (People), little-known true story of women's landmark contributions to astronomy
A New York Times Book Review Notable Book
Named one of the best books of the year by NPR, The Economist, Smithsonian, Nature, and NPR's Science Friday
Nominated for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
"A joy to read." -The Wall Street Journal
In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or "human computers," to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. At the outset this group included the…
I am an astronomer and astrobiologist, and my field of work leads me to wonder about the origin of life in the universe and how scientific discoveries (and especially those related to space) affect culture, people's lives, or even civilization itself. All of the books listed here focus precisely on answering some of these concerns, which is why I find them extremely interesting.
I find it is a very fun book that nevertheless finds a good balance between rigor, seriousness and sense of humor. It deals with a typical science fiction topic, "What would we do if aliens invaded us," but it does so from what is really feasible.
This captivating read immersed me in the complex world of cosmic defense, the boundaries of space exploration, and modern warfare. After reading it, I realize how unprotected we are.
I am an astronomer and astrobiologist, and my field of work leads me to wonder about the origin of life in the universe and how scientific discoveries (and especially those related to space) affect culture, people's lives, or even civilization itself. All of the books listed here focus precisely on answering some of these concerns, which is why I find them extremely interesting.
One of my favorite topics is space exploration and the future of humanity on other stars. Will we ever be able to travel to Proxima Centauri (the closest star) and settle there? Is this type of interstellar travel feasible? The book is a dose of reality on this matter, exploring the possibilities and challenges of interstellar travel.
The book delves into propulsion methods, spacecraft designs, and the potential for human exploration beyond our solar system. The result is, in my point of view, an optimistic book that allows us to dream of a future among the stars.
The Starflight Handbook A Pioneer's Guide to Interstellar Travel"The Starflight Handbook is an indispensable compendium of the manyand varied methods for traversing the vast interstellar gulf--don'tleave the Solar System without it!" --Robert Forward "Verysensible, very complete and useful. Its good use of references andtechnical 'sidebars' adds to the book and allows the nontechnicaltext to be used by ordinary readers in an easy fashion. I certainlywould recommend this book to anyone doing any thinking at all aboutinterstellar flight or the notion of possibilities of contactsbetween hypothetical civilizations in different stat systems."--Louis Friedman Executive Director, The Planetary Society TheStarflight Handbook is the…
I am an astronomer and astrobiologist, and my field of work leads me to wonder about the origin of life in the universe and how scientific discoveries (and especially those related to space) affect culture, people's lives, or even civilization itself. All of the books listed here focus precisely on answering some of these concerns, which is why I find them extremely interesting.
This book tries to answer one of those vital questions that we have asked ourselves since we were children and that, at least in my case, continues to be part of my interest as an adult: Why don't we have any real proof of the existence of other civilizations beyond Earth?
This question has its own name: the Fermi Paradox, the apparent contradiction between the high probability of extraterrestrial life and the lack of evidence for alien civilizations. I enjoyed how the author, Stephen Webb, goes over all the possible solutions to this paradox that science has been able to imagine. In the end, Webb gives his own solution (which does not match mine).
Given the fact that there are perhaps 400 billion stars in our Galaxy alone, and perhaps 400 billion galaxies in the Universe, it stands to reason that somewhere out there, in the 14-billion-year-old cosmos, there is or once was a civilization at least as advanced as our own. The sheer enormity of the numbers almost demands that we accept the truth of this hypothesis. Why, then, have we encountered no evidence, no messages, no artifacts of these extraterrestrials?
In this second, significantly revised and expanded edition of his widely popular book, Webb discusses in detail the (for now!) 75 most…
I was once an academic philosopher, but I found it too glamorous and well-paid so I became a novelist and private intellectual mentor instead. I wroteYou Are Herebecause I love whatscience knows, but an interest in howscience knows drew me into the philosophy of science, where a puzzle lurks. Scientists claim that the essence of their craft is captured in a 17th Century formula, “the scientific method”... and in a 20th Century litmus test, “falsifiability.” Philosophers claim that these two ideas are (a) both nonsense and (b) in any case mutually contradictory. So what’s going on?
Where and why did the modern idea of “thescientific method” show up? The somewhat disturbing answer is that it emerged from highly rhetorical attempts—mainly in one U.S. pop sci magazine in the early twentieth century—to distance wonderful “science” (in its modern sense, which was invented in the 1870s) from anything merely humanistic. The details of this hidden history leave you with the vertiginous sense that the very words we use in this area—science, rational, evidence, know—constitute a kind of fog of evidence-free non-rational assumptions.
The surprising history of the scientific method-from an evolutionary account of thinking to a simple set of steps-and the rise of psychology in the nineteenth century.
The idea of a single scientific method, shared across specialties and teachable to ten-year-olds, is just over a hundred years old. For centuries prior, science had meant a kind of knowledge, made from facts gathered through direct observation or deduced from first principles. But during the nineteenth century, science came to mean something else: a way of thinking.
The Scientific Method tells the story of how this approach took hold in laboratories, the field,…
As a kid, I never stopped asking “But why?” Learning the answers always led me to new questions, and I’ve been on a life-long journey to understand the world, and how everything works. I wanted to give the joy of discovery, and the empowerment of understanding, to a new generation of readers. The amazing story of evolution seemed to be a great starting point. I wrote the book I wanted to read to my own daughter, full of adventures and grown-up science, told in a way kids can understand.
A more conceptual connection to evolution, this creative book introduces the amazing fact of life and introduces young readers to the fact that all life on Earth is related. I love the way the vibrant illustrations track development from cells to creatures and show how humans, mammals, fish, reptiles, and birds are connected. With back matter to support adults to explain evolution in an age-appropriate way, this story can be a great introduction to answering the question “where do people come from?”
"This is a beautiful and important book—a reminder that humans are deeply connected with every other animal on this glorious planet." —Sy Montgomery, Naturalist and New York Times best selling author
If gills appear, will it be a fish? From fish to frogs to humans, Who Will It Be? introduces the theory of evolution, exploring connections between humans and all life on Earth.
Exploring the origin of animals from fish to frogs to humans, Who Will It Be? introduces Darwin’s theory of evolution to children with a simple, captivating story.
Vibrant illustrations and eye-catching primary colors transition the story, driving…
I'm an experimental social psychologist and Scientia Professor at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. I grew up in Hungary, and after an adventurous escape I ended up in Sydney. I received my DPhil and DSc degrees from the University of Oxford, and I spent various periods working at Oxford, Stanford, Heidelberg, and Giessen. For my work I received the Order of Australia, as well as the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award, the Alexander von Humboldt Prize, and a Rockefeller Fellowship. As somebody who experienced totalitarian communism firsthand, I am very interested in the reasons for the recent spread of totalitarian, tribal ideologies, potentially undermining Western liberalism, undoubtedly the most successful civilization in human history.
This book is a real tour de force, applying the rationale of self-governing and naturally emerging evolutionary mechanisms to explain a wide variety of social, biological, cultural, and civilizational processes.
The book offers wonderful insights into such topics as the emergence of creative ideas, the growth of cities, the evolution of language, why state-controlled health care and education systems are often inefficient, the resilience of free-market economies, the rise of morality and trust as a consequence of natural social interactions, and much more besides.
Readable, entertaining, and full of incredibly useful information.
The New York Times bestselling author of The Rational Optimist and Genome returns with a fascinating, brilliant argument for evolution that definitively dispels a dangerous, widespread myth: that we can command and control our world.
The Evolution of Everything is about bottom-up order and its enemy, the top-down twitch—the endless fascination human beings have for design rather than evolution, for direction rather than emergence. Drawing on anecdotes from science, economics, history, politics and philosophy, Matt Ridley’s wide-ranging, highly opinionated opus demolishes conventional assumptions that major scientific and social imperatives are dictated by those on high, whether in government, business, academia,…
Formerly curator of astronomy at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich, I am an occasional writer and researcher and a now full-time primary school teacher in the north of England. My popular books include The Stargazer’s Guide and The Quiet Revolution of Caroline Herschel; I have also contributed to various academic publications, including a paper on William Herschel for Notes & Records of the Royal Society which won their 2014 Essay Award.
To properly understand where women fit in to the history of science, we need to have a fair grasp of what science and the history of science is, and this book offers a perfect introduction. It is the antidote to many linear “progress” driven narratives that insist that the history of western science is simply a straight line from the Greeks with each generation building and improving on the one before. This book attempts to tell the whole story of science, science from across the world, the internationalism of it, the politics, the interrelation between ideas and culture. Although not strictly about historical women in science, I’ve included it here as a kind of foundation to understanding the rest.
Science: A Four Thousand Year History rewrites science's past. Instead of focussing on difficult experiments and abstract theories, Patricia Fara shows how science has always belonged to the practical world of war, politics, and business. Rather than glorifying scientists as idealized heroes, she tells true stories about real people - men (and some women) who needed to earn their living, who made mistakes, and who trampled down their rivals in their quest for success.
Fara sweeps through the centuries, from ancient Babylon right up to the latest hi-tech experiments in genetics and particle physics, illuminating the financial interests, imperial ambitions,…
Trained as a physicist and employed for twenty years as an engineer, my great interest in the application of science then led me to write. I authored technical papers on the physics underpinning venerable machines such as pendulum clocks and waterwheels; these were read by the chief editor at Johns Hopkins University Press, who invited me to turn them into a popular science book–the first of fourteen. Often, technological advances were made empirically–the development of sailing ships, bridges, or pocket watches–by working people with no formal knowledge of science, yet their designs survive as triumphs of human thought, as well as useful machines.
My first go-to book when I want an intro to some aspect of science history. I learn something new (ok–something old) every time I open this book.
Published sixty years ago and surely out of print–but a classic. Covers all the sciences from the dawn of history. Surprisingly readable and SO comprehensive. (Except for the last 60 years. But you knew that.)
The evolution of scientific inquiry and ideas since the time of the ancient Babylonians and the influence of modern cultural and technological convictions and expectations on contemporary research are examined
Science is truth and always evolving as we discover new things. Like a child, scientists are always asking "Why this? Why that?" Great scientists like great artists are childlike or at least manage to harness the wonder of their childhood self. If a child is interested in the world around them they will never be bored. It will set them up for life and that's a truly precious thing.
I love a lift-the-flap book, and this is one of my favorites. Neale Layton manages to cram the Big Bang theory and the first 13 billion years of life in the universe into nine spreads fizzing with flaps and pop-ups drawn in his wonderful, scratchy, childlike sketches.
This pop-up book is literally larger than life! Neal's unique perspective on Evolution, the beginnings of the world and the Big Bang theory presents life in a format accessible to even the very young - a perfect gift book for all. With pops, flaps and tabs.
