Science non-fiction books?

[Von Zombie]

A while back I watched a documentary about quantum physics, and black holes. I'm no scientist, and I'm not quite sure how much of it I actually understood, but I found it quite interesting. On to my question... can anyone recommend any book(s) on a similar topic. Preferably something aimed at the layman that doesn't read like a textbook?

[berk]

I haven't gotten round to reading this one myself yet, but Martin Rees's Our Cosmic Habitat looks like it might a good one for your purposes. I have read another book by him that I liked, so I don't feel totally out of line recommending this one. At the very least it's short, < 200pp.

[Black Vespa]

The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design[ by Leonard Susskind.

It flows more easily than most books on the subject, doesn't read like a techinal manual, - a truly lucid read.

[Black Vespa]

addendum:

just this year, he recently published this :

THE BLACK HOLE WAR: My battle with Stephen Hawking to make the world safe for quantum mechanics

but i haven't read it yet.

[Expletive Deleted]

Speaking of Stephen Hawking, his "A Brief History of Time" is worth a read.

[Von Zombie]

Cool, I'm gonna check my library for the listed titles. I'm pretty sure I saw the Hawking book last time I was there, but I figured it would be way over my head and didn't bother giving it a better look. Thanks all.

[Doodle Bob]

I would also recommend Lisa Randall's Warped Passages, one of the coolest books explaining how physicists are currently thinking of and studying subatomic theory.

Another interesting one is The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene

What's very interesting is that both of these books focus on string theory, for which there has yet to be developed any experiment that would confirm or deny it.

[dademan]

Hey, I'm pretty sure the movie you talked about was "What the Bleep do we KNow?", right?

In that case, they acually produced a book by the same title.

[Expletive Deleted]

If that's the case, skip the science books and head straight for the new age section. I mean, one of the "experts" in the movie was a woman claiming to channel a thirty thousand year-old Atlantean guru.

[Inkthinker]

The Science of the Discworld (I, II and III).

Yeah, I know, the Disc is fiction, but unlike other "science of" books, they don't attempt to explain anything regarding the fictional world... it's more like they use the fiction as a framework to write about our universe and how it works. The first book was essentially earth sciences and physics, the second one was evolutionary and biological sciences, and the third one is kinda all over the place (still reading it).

[Roquefort Raider]

If that's the case, skip the science books and head straight for the new age section. I mean, one of the "experts" in the movie was a woman claiming to channel a thirty thousand year-old Atlantean guru.

This review (http://skeptico.blogs.com/skeptico/2005/04/what_the_bleep_.html) certainly puts that movie (and associated books or whatnots) into the pseudo-scientific category.

In other words... anyone who is interested in actual science should steer clear from it!

[Agent Helix]

I find myself enjoying some of the more esoteric and terrestrial books on science and natural history. I'm currently reading Spook by Mary Roach, which is a scientific look (from the viewpoint of an outsider) on several aspects of concepts of life after death, from "soul-weighing" to modern scientists attempting to measure the electromagnetic volume of human consciousness. It helps that it's a very funny book, too.

[Ice'Lord]

The Universe in a nutshell is a great read and has lots of illustrations to help you as you go.

[Paul McEnery]

Late to the party here, but there is one book that's the absolute must read for anyone wanting to get up to speed on science without having an aneurysm, and that's Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.

It's approachable without being dumb, covers all the sciences (and much else besides) and pulls it all together into context in one neat 600 page package.

[Von Zombie]

Hey, I'm pretty sure the movie you talked about was "What the Bleep do we KNow?", right?

In that case, they acually produced a book by the same title.

Could be, I cant say for sure though.

I'm on the wait list for Hawking's book, hopefully it comes in soon. Short History of Nearly Everything sounds cool, I'll keep my eye out for that.

[Cyke]

Late to the party here, but there is one book that's the absolute must read for anyone wanting to get up to speed on science without having an aneurysm, and that's Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.

It's approachable without being dumb, covers all the sciences (and much else besides) and pulls it all together into context in one neat 600 page package.

In being late to the party, you beat me to the punch.

To follow up, it's pretty dern funny at times, too. What appears to be meaningless historical anecdotes in the lives of various scientific minds over the years often turn into great nuggets that frame huge discoveries (or the lack of, sometimes).

[Jonathan Bogart]

Just casting a vote for Dava Sobel's The Planets, which is a pretty great look at the scientific realities our solar system through the lens of literature and religion. She's one of the few science writers that makes me think that fiction is frivolous.

[DocAbsurd]

I just started browsing through the Physics of Superheroes by James Kakalios. While the science is directly applied to super heroics, the equations are pure physics. It's been a great review of stuff I haven't thought twice about since high school. And I absolutely love how he 'fixes' some of the science while giving applicable credit to so much more.

[Von Zombie]

Had to drop some books off yesterday, and I picked up Hawking's A Briefer History of Time. I guess it's just an update, with some of the more technical stuff cut out, to the earlier version. Hopefully I'll get some time to read some in the next couple days.

[Apotheosis]

Can't believe that no one is yet to mention Carl Sagan's - Cosmos. Absolutely fantabulous.

[Expletive Deleted]

Can't believe that no one is yet to mention Carl Sagan's - Cosmos. Absolutely fantabulous.I'm a big fan of his THE DEMON-HAUNTED WORLD: SCIENCE AS A CANDLE IN THE DARK. It's a thorough debunking of myth, pseudoscience, and quackery, as well as a beautiful affirmation of science and skepticism.

[Roquefort Raider]

If we move to other sciences than physics, I'd recommend these two books :

Richard Dawkins' The ancestor's tale, a description of our species' family tree told with Chaucer's Canterbury tales as the model. It's impressive by its scope, but it remains thrilling and often very funny throughout.

For those interested in the fossil record, I can't think of anything better than Donal Prothero's evolution. Prothero is a professional, not an armchair paleontologist, and I learned a lot about geology in that book. (I never thought that geology could be interesting, but there we go).

[mikekerr3]

The book " the Tao of modern physics" is not as new age as the title would sugest. pretty good look a modern physics if you cant handle heavy math.

[SensorBoy]

http://www.amazon.com/Six-Easy-Pieces-Essentials-Explained/dp/0201408252/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1224796633&sr=8-3

Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by Its Most Brilliant Teacher

Basically, a condensed version of the first half of the legendary Feynman Lectures.

Ultra-well worth reading.