Britain's New Scientist weekly has just put out a selection of 25 popular science books that "have changed the world" [here].
I would have been a little worried if this list of books had included many works that I did not know. On the contrary, I was thrilled to discover that I had read 15 of their suggested titles, while most of the remaining titles rang a bell (in the sense that I had heard of them, and had a good idea of their themes). The only one of the 25 books that was a total newcomer to me was The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks (1985). Here are those that I've read:
• A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (1988)
• Brighter Than a Thousand Suns by Robert Jungk (1956)
• Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter (1979)
• Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (1997)
• On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1859)
• The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski (1973)
• The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg (1977)
• The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker (1994)
• The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976)
• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)
• The Double Helix by James Watson (1968)
• The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose (1989)
• The Mysterious Universe by James Jeans (1930)
• The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris (1967)
• What is Life? By Erwin Schrödinger (1944)
At the top of this list, the "big three" for me would be Dawkins, Watson and Pinker. I would have included a title by David Deutsch... but it's a fact that he remains a bit too recent to have changed the world yet. Maybe "will change the world". The same could be said of Lawrence Krauss.
• A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (1988)
• Brighter Than a Thousand Suns by Robert Jungk (1956)
• Godel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter (1979)
• Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (1997)
• On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1859)
• The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski (1973)
• The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg (1977)
• The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker (1994)
• The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976)
• Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)
• The Double Helix by James Watson (1968)
• The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose (1989)
• The Mysterious Universe by James Jeans (1930)
• The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris (1967)
• What is Life? By Erwin Schrödinger (1944)
At the top of this list, the "big three" for me would be Dawkins, Watson and Pinker. I would have included a title by David Deutsch... but it's a fact that he remains a bit too recent to have changed the world yet. Maybe "will change the world". The same could be said of Lawrence Krauss.
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