The best science books

Economists are poets / But don’t know it.  Economic modeling uses metaphors, not as mere ornaments or elucidations but as the very meat of the science (just as in physics or history). In her famous book, McCloskey illustrates the point with trenchant wit.  Her point is to not attack economics, but to show how it actually works its persuasions—for which she chooses great economists whose scientific work she admires. 

Economists are poets / But don’t know it.  Economic modeling uses metaphors, not as mere ornaments or elucidations but as the very meat of the science (just as in physics or history). In her famous book, McCloskey illustrates the point with trenchant wit.  Her point is to not attack economics, but to show how it actually works its persuasions—for which she chooses great economists whose scientific work she admires. 

Economists are poets / But don’t know it.  Economic modeling uses metaphors, not as mere ornaments or elucidations but as the very meat of the science (just as in physics or history). In her famous book, McCloskey illustrates the point with trenchant wit.  Her point is to not attack economics, but to show how it actually works its persuasions—for which she chooses great economists whose scientific work she admires. 

In the early 20th century, discoveries in quantum mechanics proved Consciousness is the ground of all being. This finding contradicted scientific materialism, which posited matter as foundational; instead, matter results from the Mind. Moreover, Consciousness was antecedently linked to a First Mind, the universe a mental and spiritual construction of a Divine Being. The Full Extent expands on these quantum truths and considers their spiritual implications, positioning the human future.

In the 1970s, seduced by the power ballad “Don’t Cry for Me Argentina” and the cover art on Bruce Chatwin’s “In Patagonia”, Nick Coghlan fled rainy Britain to take up a job at a posh boarding school in Buenos Aires. Over the course of three long summers, he and his wife Jenny fell in love with the windswept plains and snow-capped peaks of southern South America. Once Nick’s contract was up, they vowed one day to return. They did so 25 years later, aboard a tiny blue sailboat. Nick’s book is a riveting account of a year exploring the wildest and loneliest waters in the world, in the wake of Cook and Darwin: “A story by adventurers for adventurers” (Pacific Rim Review of Books).  

It is easy to acknowledge that most business owners and entrepreneurs don’t consider accounting to be their favorite part of business. While they agree on the importance and value accounting brings, the subject matter isn’t sexy. How Much Does It Cost to Make a Donut? takes general accounting principles and shows the reader how to apply them to everyday business issues through stories rather than mathematical exercises. Through a series of entrepreneurial lessons learned, the author illustrates how even the most simple accounting decision can have a profound effect.

A spy is suddenly aware she's being stalked through the streets of an overseas city. A special ops soldier intuitively recognizes something's "off" during a high-risk mission. In these life-threatening situations, experts know exactly how to use their senses and what actions to take. The Power of Awareness will make sure you will, too.

In his empowering book, Dan Schilling shares how to identify and avoid threats using situational awareness and intuition just like the pros. Told with wit and wisdom, this compelling guide uses harrowing stories from Dan's special operations career and those of other experts to outline six easily implemented rules you can apply anywhere to improve your personal safety. By the last page you'll know that your own Power of Awareness can save your life.

In 1859 Charles Darwin's revolutionary The Origin of Species was first published—but the book was just another example of the ferment and change happening in that year. In that year scientists peered through microscopes and discovered the workings of tiny organisms; technology made huge leaps and bounds as machines took on tasks with a speed and consistency never before seen; the concepts of time and distance were themselves challenged as telegraph cables, train lines, and steamships crisscrossed the globe; and everything was illuminated as powerful telescopes looked to the heavens and gas lamps lit the streets. Mr Darwin's incredible shrinking world takes readers back to this amazing and innovative year.

My most recent book, Endless Novelties, is about adventure and scientific discovery during the three-and-a-half-year long Challenger expedition of the 1870s, which set out with the aim – no less – of determining the physical, chemical, and biological characteristics of the world’s oceans, with particular attention to the deep sea (the title comes from a phrase the expedition’s scientific director used to describe what they might find).

I examine the factors that drove the small band of ceaselessly curious scientists on board Challenger (numbering only six, and embedded with more than 250 British Navy personnel who ran the ship) to leave their comfortable lives in Britain and embark on a long, difficult, and sometimes dangerous sea voyage. I explore their triumphs and hardships, their humor in the face of adversity, and most of all the discoveries they made by dredging up strange materials and creatures from the seafloor, and examining the biology of remote oceanic islands.

Caroline Herschel was a quiet, unassuming, always accommodating eighteenth-century singer turned astronomer. She discovered several comets, nebulae, and star clusters and contributed in various ways to a family project that allowed her brother, William Herschel to become an astronomer so prolific and inventive he is sometimes termed the father of modern astrophysics. Curiously, much of the work that made Caroline her own name in astronomy took place in a 10-year period entirely missing from her journal.

My book looks at those 10 years, in part to celebrate that work which made her the first woman ever published in the Royal Society and a respected name across Europe, but also to understand why she decided to destroy the journal evidencing of her thoughts and feelings during that same period.