- What the nose knows: The science of scent in everyday life, by Avery Gilbert. See official site.
- Bad Science, by Ben Goldacre. See our review and official site.
- The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic generation discovered the beauty and terror of science, by Richard Holmes. See Guardian review.
- Decoding the heavens: Solving the mystery of the world's first computer, by Jo Marchant. This is about the Antikythera Mechanism: see official site.
- The drunkard's walk: How randomness rules our lives, by Leonard Mlodinow. See official site.
- Your inner fish: The amazing discovery of our 375-million-year-old ancestor, by Neil Shubin. See official site.
And also a link recommendation today: Ptak Science Books. Like JSBlog, it's a bookshop blog with eclectic and cross-genre interests, but it focuses on science:
The History of Ideas -- unusual connections in the history of science, math, art and social history
Picked at random:
- Odd Images Department: Submerged, Miniature, 19th Century People;
- The Shotgun in the Service of Natural History--Shooting Flowers;
- Curious, Impracticable and Useless Inventions: Gun Hats and Steel Fish, 1920;
- Crazy-Insane Eyes Selling Mercedes, 1924. Bad Ideas #22;
- Institutionalized Racism and the Sale of Toys and Music and Frivolities;
- Nazi Propaganda and the Battle for Europe, 1941: the War at Sea;
- and so on.
Check it out; it won't disappoint. The main bookstore site - John F Ptak Science Books - is interesting in itself: for instance, for its gallery of historical panoramic photos.
- Ray
On the Ptak blog, did you see his post on "Richard Saunders (1613-1692) [who] was perhaps the foremost historian, astrologer and seer of human moles and their predictive forces" ?
ReplyDeleteOf the science book prize contenders, the only one I'ver read is the Shubin's (it was a gift). I thought it was intersting, but not well written.
Holy moly, yes indeed. As to the books, I've only read Bad Science, but The Age of Wonder and Decoding the heavens look definitely up my street.
ReplyDelete