The Code Book by Simon Singh... hell, anything by Simon Singh... including that Fermat's Last Theorem book. 
Recommend your favorite Science or Technology book.
- Thread starter TerriO
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Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by Stephen Jay Gould
a great read! this is an exerpt from a review:
"Wonderful Life is a description of one of the biggest fossil finds ever — a collection of invertebrate remains dating from the early Cambrian (550 million years ago) dug out of the Burgess Shale in British Columbia. Gould presents an outline of the analysis of the remains and uses it to support his own ideas about evolution and history, in particular the theory of "punctuated equilibrium", which argues that the course of evolution, rather than being smooth, is more like some kind of fractal. Intertwined with the rest of the book is Gould's usual brilliant analysis of how the interpretation of scientific evidence is moulded by the beliefs and assumptions of scientists — the hero/ villain in this case being the American geologist and palaeontologist Walcott."
a great read! this is an exerpt from a review:
"Wonderful Life is a description of one of the biggest fossil finds ever — a collection of invertebrate remains dating from the early Cambrian (550 million years ago) dug out of the Burgess Shale in British Columbia. Gould presents an outline of the analysis of the remains and uses it to support his own ideas about evolution and history, in particular the theory of "punctuated equilibrium", which argues that the course of evolution, rather than being smooth, is more like some kind of fractal. Intertwined with the rest of the book is Gould's usual brilliant analysis of how the interpretation of scientific evidence is moulded by the beliefs and assumptions of scientists — the hero/ villain in this case being the American geologist and palaeontologist Walcott."
That was the first thing I thought of when I saw the title.
For those of us with kids or someone who is looking for a gift for a favorite child in their life, one book I'd highly recommend as a 'world of science' overview is the beautiful and highly enjoyable DK- Visual Encyclopedia of Science
Ohoh, Escher, Godel, Bach. A must read for any mathematician/computer scientist/philosopher.
Perhaps, but it's definitely a must read for anyone in those categories. 
Gentzen Calculus CAN be fun!
Gentzen Calculus CAN be fun!
Yep, that's a good one.
Another one I like, The Whole Shebang by Timothy Ferris, is a little older, so not completely up to date anymore. What I really like is that Ferris explains cosmology and the theories and mechanics behind it in such a way that doesn't require the reader to possess a heavy background in the field, and it's much more readable (and somewhat closer to current) than Hawking's Brief History, which can get a bit thick in places.
My vote goes to this as well, assuming we aren't restricted to popular science books by Hawwking and Greene...
When reading Feynman's books you really get a feeling that he's reading out loud to you. I've always found a lot of the pop science books painful to read in places, particularly Hawking's.
Not to specifically defend Hawking, but isn't there usually a reason "popular" science books become popular? Do you dislike it b/c it's bad writing or simply b/c it's popular? I thought BHOT was great, the rest of his stuff is pretty much the same thing rehashed (universe in a nutshell, blackholes and baby universes, etc) but I found it pretty easy to read. I can only take so much qualitative stuff though, I was reading Facts and Mysteries in Elementary Particle Physics by Martinus Veltman for awhile and then put it down for several months. I came back to it recently after studying more phys in college and it just seems so dry now. I have a QFT textbook at my rents' house I need to pickup though. I got it in a bookclub a few years back thinking it was just another layman book cuz that's all I understood at the time, then was disappointed to find it was an actual QFT textbook. I'm sure it will be much more challenging, I'll let you all know how it goes.
I can't believe I forgot this book:
The Invisible Universe by David Malin -- it's a big book: 34 x 41cm (13.5 x 16 inches), each page has a full page colour image of astronomical images (no borders) facing non-technical captions. It's absolutely gorgeous, and well worth the money for anybody who loves the night sky.
For those ppl who don't know the name David Malin, he is one of the best scientific photographer in the world, and spent 30 years in atronomical photography. He has two galaxy types named after him: Malin-Carter 'shell' galaxies, and Malin-1 galaxies both discovered by him through his unique techniques of astronomical photography. Considering there are only three types of galaxies being taught in schools: elliptical, spiral and irregular; and these two Malin galaxy types are not part of these is what makes the name Malin so special.
The Invisible Universe by David Malin -- it's a big book: 34 x 41cm (13.5 x 16 inches), each page has a full page colour image of astronomical images (no borders) facing non-technical captions. It's absolutely gorgeous, and well worth the money for anybody who loves the night sky.
For those ppl who don't know the name David Malin, he is one of the best scientific photographer in the world, and spent 30 years in atronomical photography. He has two galaxy types named after him: Malin-Carter 'shell' galaxies, and Malin-1 galaxies both discovered by him through his unique techniques of astronomical photography. Considering there are only three types of galaxies being taught in schools: elliptical, spiral and irregular; and these two Malin galaxy types are not part of these is what makes the name Malin so special.
I really like a lot of the science/engineering books published by Dover Publications. They seem to specialize in republishing books originally published prior to 1980. The books are well-bound paperbacks, and are really low-cost. There are books on astrodynamics, space dynamics, mechanics, electromagnetism, chemistry, etc.
The few downsides are that the paperback covers themselves tend to be a tad flimsy. Also, as the contents are somewhat old, it is possible that they contain out-of-date information, though for many of the more fundamental subjects (esp. mathematics) this is not a problem. Finally, some of the books simply have higher-quality content than others.
I'm currently reading Principles of Electrodynamics by Melvin Schwartz [1], which the author wrote in response to what he felt was a trend of textbooks writing about electricity and magnetism as if they were separate subjects (sadly, this is how I learned about electricity and magnetism). In this book, he uses special relativity to show how intimately the two subjects are tied together. I haven't gotten very far, but what I've read so far is quite interesting.
[1] Principles of Electrodynamics, by Melvin Schwartz
The few downsides are that the paperback covers themselves tend to be a tad flimsy. Also, as the contents are somewhat old, it is possible that they contain out-of-date information, though for many of the more fundamental subjects (esp. mathematics) this is not a problem. Finally, some of the books simply have higher-quality content than others.
I'm currently reading Principles of Electrodynamics by Melvin Schwartz [1], which the author wrote in response to what he felt was a trend of textbooks writing about electricity and magnetism as if they were separate subjects (sadly, this is how I learned about electricity and magnetism). In this book, he uses special relativity to show how intimately the two subjects are tied together. I haven't gotten very far, but what I've read so far is quite interesting.
[1] Principles of Electrodynamics, by Melvin Schwartz
A Brief History of Time was pretty good book.
A big yes to the Sagan books and Dinosaur Heresies. Now I'll throw out some more (some of these are leaning toward history, but with strong scientific elements):
Einstein's Universe by Nigel Calder. Very accessible.
The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker. Very interesting and multidisciplinary.
Mosquito: The Story of Man's Deadliest Foe by Andrew Spielman and Michael D'Antonio. Yikes! Is that a mosquito on me?!
Longitude by Dava Sobel. One of those things you don't think about, but someone had to be the first to get it to work.
Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It by Gina Kolata. Very timely. My grandmother and her family barely survived it. I grew up hearing stories about it.
Scott
Einstein's Universe by Nigel Calder. Very accessible.
The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker. Very interesting and multidisciplinary.
Mosquito: The Story of Man's Deadliest Foe by Andrew Spielman and Michael D'Antonio. Yikes! Is that a mosquito on me?!
Longitude by Dava Sobel. One of those things you don't think about, but someone had to be the first to get it to work.
Flu: The Story of the Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 and the Search for the Virus that Caused It by Gina Kolata. Very timely. My grandmother and her family barely survived it. I grew up hearing stories about it.
Scott
