News

Be Curious: Great Science Books of 2015

Posted on January 13, 2016

Learn about our world with these books for the general reader.

RainRain: A Natural and Cultural History
by Cynthia Barnett
Cynthia Barnett’s Rain begins four billion years ago with the torrents that filled the oceans, and builds to the storms of climate change.  It weaves together science, the true shape of a raindrop, with the human story of our ambition to control rain.  As climate change upends rainfall patterns and unleashes increasingly severe storms and drought, Barnett shows rain to be a unifying force in a fractured world.

Galileo's Middle FingerGalileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science
by Alice Dreger
Galileo’s Middle Finger describes Dreger’s long and harrowing journeys between the two camps for which she felt equal empathy: social justice activists determined to win and researchers determined to put hard truths before comfort. An unforgettable vision of the importance of rigorous truth seeking in today’s America, where both the free press and free scholarly inquiry struggle under dire economic and political threats.

Intimate BondThe Intimate Bond: How Animals Shaped Human History
by Brian Fagan
Animals, and our ever-changing relationship with them, have left an indelible mark on human history. From the dawn of our existence, animals and humans have been constantly redefining their relationship with one another, and entire civilizations have risen and fallen upon this curious bond we share with our fellow fauna.  Fagan reveals the profound influence that animals have exercised on human history and how, in fact, they often drove it.
Big ScienceBig Science Ernest Lawrence and the Invention That Launched the Military-Industrial Complex
by Michael Hiltzik
The untold story of how science went “big,” built the bombs that helped win World War II, and became dependent on government and industry–and the forgotten genius who started it all, Ernest Lawrence.   The incredible story of how one invention changed the world and of the man principally responsible for it.

H for HawkH is for Hawk
by Helen Macdonald
Heart-wrenching and humorous, this book is an unflinching account of bereavement and a unique look at the magnetism of an extraordinary beast, with a parallel examination of a legendary writer’s eccentric falconry. Obsession, madness, memory, myth, and history combine to achieve a distinctive blend of nature writing and memoir from an outstanding literary innovator.

Dark Matter DinosDark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe
by Lisa Randall
Professor Randall explains the underlying science of our world in the breathtaking tale of a Universe in which the small and the large, the visible and the hidden are intimately related. Illuminating the deep relationships that are critical to our world as well as the astonishing beauty of the structures and connections that surround us. It’s impossible to read this book and look at either Earth or sky again in the same way.

Thunder & LightningThunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future
by Lauren Redniss
Lauren Redniss, author of Radioactive, comes a dazzling fusion of storytelling, visual art, and reportage that grapples with weather in all its dimensions: its danger and its beauty, why it happens and what it means. Redniss visits the headquarters of the National Weather Service, recounts top-secret rainmaking operations during the Vietnam War, and examines the economic impact of disasters like Hurricane Katrina.

Beyond WordsBeyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel
by Carl Safina
Beyond Words brings forth powerful and illuminating insight into the unique personalities of animals through extraordinary stories of animal joy, grief, jealousy, anger, and love. The similarity between human and nonhuman consciousness, self-awareness, and empathy calls us to re-evaluate how we interact with animals.

Invention ScienceThe Invention of Science: The Scientific Revolution from 1500 To 1750
by David Wootton
Before 1492, all significant knowledge was believed to be already available there was no concept of progress, as people looked to the past, not the future, for understanding. David Wootton argues that the discovery of America demonstrated that new knowledge was possible: indeed, it introduced the very concept of discovery and opened the way to the invention of science.

Invention NatureThe Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World
by Andrea Wulf
Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age.  Now Andrea Wulf brings the man and his achievements back into focus: his daring expeditions and investigation of wild environments around the world and his discoveries of similarities between climate and vegetation zones on different continents. She also discusses his prediction of human-induced climate change.