Recommend your favorite Science or Technology book.

[Carpe Occasio]

Coming of Age in the Milky Way (Timothy Ferris)

E=MC2 (David Bodanis)

Zero (Charles Seife)

The Universe and Dr. Einstein (Lincoln Barnett)

The Handy Physics Answer Book (P. Erik Gundersen)

Physics of the Impossible (Michio Kaku)

The Hot Zone (Richard Preston)

[fancier]

yes............we all need that.........

I posted this in another thread so I'll just copy and paste it here as well:

They really need to make Carl Sagan's "The Demon Haunted World" mandatory reading for adults and children alike. You shouldn't be allowed out of your home or allowed to own a computer without having read Sagan's book first.

They should make you read it and then take a test on it's content and then issue you a license.....

[opali]

My Inventions

is Nikola Tesla's autobiography. Though not an overly technical read, it is interesting to have a peek at this visionary's 'inner workings,' He was a disturbed man, I think, and given to drama (for the sake of the press) late in his life. But no doubt he was absolutely brilliant.

[Cooter Brown]

Many of my favorites have already been mentioned directly, or at least overlap with those that have. I'll add one that, I'm ashamed to admit, I didn't read until earlier this year.

The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin provides a chronological framework for advances in technology made over the last 3000 years. Subjects range from clocks and navigation to medicine and the information sciences.

Nothing is covered in tremendous depth, of course, but the variety of topics is great enough that even the most devoted student of the history of technology will learn many new things.

[Santaman]

Mr Scott's guide to the Enterprise by Shane Johnson.

[rramarr]

1001001 wrote:

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I haven't read the book, but the documentary was fascinating. It did a good job introducing difficult concepts, like 11 dimensions and membrane universes.

My first favorite too

Chris_Johnston wrote:

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Thanks for reminding me that I need to bust out Kip Thorne's Black Holes & Time Warps and take another stab at it!

My second favorite!

[FlyingLemons]

The New Time Travellers by David Toomey. I always find popsci books a little basic, but on the other hand it's a nice introduction to the theories of time travel that modern physics has come up with.

Plus, with time travel and parallel universes being back in fashion in the world of Trek, it serves as a nice primer on some of the theories behind these things...

[plague]

Emh wrote:

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The Universe in a Nutshell by Steven Hawking is a fun read.

I agree with this one and recommend it. Although I seem to recall that one or more of the theories in it are now out of date.

I also recommend How Computers Work by Ron White and Timothy Edward Downs. I was looking for a very beginner computer book for someone, that started with the fundamentals, and this was the best I could find. I think that once you learn the concepts of how they work, it's much easier to start learning how to actually operate them and maintain them.

[Daedalus12]

Bate, Mueller and White's classic text on the Fundamentals of Astrodynamics.

No it's not a pop science book. It's a certainly a goldmine for any aspiring astronomy or aerospace eng. students. I used this as a student but I think it's also good for anyone who is just curious about orbital mechanics.

[ring]

A brief history of time......anytime.....

Hi,I am new to this site but will be humble enough to recommend a book on computer networking science and technology- Joint International Conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Systems (2006 : Saint Malo, France)

Have a trial on the same.Beleive me it is very very informative.
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[firecrackerrrr]

Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku really stands out for me (as well as Physics of the Impossible and Hyperspace by him as well), Feynman Lectures on Physics, The Character of Physical Law by Feynman is fantastic; Introduction to Quantum Theory (David Park), Scientists and Engineers, 5th edition, by Serway & Beichner, Black Holes and Time warps by Kip Thorne, Road to Reality (Penrose), The Flying Circus of Physics (Jearl Walker? Sp?), A Short History of Nearly Everything (Bill Bryson), Isaac Newton (James Gleick), The Trouble With Physics (Lee Snolin? Forgot the spelling)......

I also actually liked Universe in a Nutshell. Hawking is a fantastic physicist but perhaps not the greatest science educator. Brief/Briefer History of Time was fantastic but there's lots of disagreement when it comes to Universe in a Nutshell. I thought it was a great, though somewhat misunderstood and/or underappreciated book. I can see where he was going with it but I also admit it was poorly executed.

[MLJames]

I recommend 13 Things That Don't Make Sense by Michael Brooks. It's a nice little book that looks at several subjects where the experimental data is at odds with what we know (or think we know) about how things work. For example, the flight paths of the two Pioneer spacecraft launched in the early 70s are deviating from what the laws of gravitation say they should be, and no one knows why.

[Shaw]

There are four books which I'm pretty sure I'll never be without...

Geometry: A Comprehensive Course by Dan Pedoe
An Introduction to Differential Geometry by T. J. Willmore
Riemannian Geometry by Manfredo P. do Carmo
Topics in Algebra by I. N. Herstein

When I lost my original collection of math books, these were the first books I set out to re-acquire (except Topics in Algebra, which I had with me when I lost the rest) because they cover the aspects of mathematics I find most important.

While I know most of what is covered in them (specially An Introduction to Differential Geometry and Riemannian Geometry), I always feel better having them within reach. And in the cases of Geometry and Topics in Algebra, they hold a lot of knowledge I'd really like to have a better mastery of than I currently possess.