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Every media outlet is doing a best-of-list of books of 2020. It's a shame that few of them include even a SINGLE popular-science book (and NY Times has only one on eels).
Out of the 100 or so nonfiction books I read this year, the best 15-20 covered aspects of science.
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Out of the 100 or so nonfiction books I read this year, the best 15-20 covered aspects of science.
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First I want to mention this exquisite book by @jimalkhalili- certainly one of the best this year. Al-Khalili joins the ranks of Hawking, Kaku, Rees, and Greene with this one. The BEST book on physics this year. Beautifully written and very accessible. https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1305150651345887232?s=20
Next, I'd include "Smellosophy" by @smellosopher, about the least understood and appreciated sense and how nearly everything we know about it has been learned in the past few decades. Also, it gives recognition to Dr. Linda Buck, a scientific hero of mine https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1317782440392429568?s=20
Every time someone says "when the dinosaurs went extinct" I cringe, because it's simply not true. Dinosaurs had feathers. We can predict their colors. And some are still alive. None of this was known when I was a child. These two books are a place to start https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1312088410945990658?s=20
We are in a pandemic, but also an infodemic, or gyandemic as I like to call it. @CT_Bergstrom has been tirelessly combatting misinformation, bad experimental design, and junk science these past few months. His book is a must-read for our times. https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1304773472242016256?s=20
Smil's "Growth" is a Big Book. And he's not in the business of making it easy for you. Every sentence is someone's thesis or postdoctoral work. But I don't know anyone else who can pull off climate change, pandemics, AI, and complex systems in one book. https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1230451606941990913?s=20
Can I pick an older one from the interface of psychology and the dismal science that I read in 2020?
If you like Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" and Thaler and Suntein's "Nudge" you will enjoy "Scarcity" by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir. https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1230300831565611008?s=20
If you like Kahneman's "Thinking, Fast and Slow" and Thaler and Suntein's "Nudge" you will enjoy "Scarcity" by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir. https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1230300831565611008?s=20
Introduce kids to science early. Give them factually-accurate books on evolution and natural history- books that you can read yourself. This is a book I highly recommend. https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1312386889245229058?s=20
There are a lot of books on space, so do we need a concise history of spaceflight? Yes! Especially, a breezy one written by the senior curator at the Air and Space Museum.
Taking a break. Will be back with many more books. https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1323600354643185665?s=20
Taking a break. Will be back with many more books. https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1323600354643185665?s=20
This is a very good book about de-extinction and engineering the environment (not quite terraforming on Mars, but we will get there). Better than anything Harari ever wrote. https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1300788697688952833
I highly recommend this engaging book by a former colleague that came out just before the discovery it describes won the Nobel Prize. This is one of the breakthroughs of the last decade and the technology behind the FELUDA rapid paper-strip test for SARS-CoV-2. https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1321172179334156295
Michael Benton is my favorite paleobiologist-writer and this book describes the time nearly all life died out.
I have around 10 more books to go... pacing myself now.
https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1318163677577682945
I have around 10 more books to go... pacing myself now.
https://twitter.com/bhalomanush/status/1318163677577682945
At a moment when trust in science is abysmally low and antiscience is rampant, these two books by @NaomiOreskes and @LeeCMcIntyre are essential reading.
Back when everyone was focusing solely on the R0, researchers demonstrated that we have to think beyond that numbet and consider overdispersion (20% of people are responsible for around 80% of spread of SARS-CoV-). One of them was @AdamJKucharski and his book is amazing.
Two books... one on the first few seconds of the universe and the other on how it all ends. Read both.
Even if you donât live in one of the most polluted cities in one of the most polluted nations on the planet, you need to read this book by @siddharth3. I missed it when it came out, but caught up earlier this year.
And this is the last one for now... it is mind-expanding, and written by the expert who made synesthesia research mainstream.
Iâm waiting for a few books to come out in November and December and will update again at the end of the year.
Iâm waiting for a few books to come out in November and December and will update again at the end of the year.
