25 Greatest Science Books of All-Time November 23, 2006
Posted by Dr. Bertalan Meskó in Medicine, science.trackback
Discover Magazine presents the essential reading list for anyone interested in science. You can still cast your vote at the poll. And you can read an essay on the greatest science books by Nobel laureate Kary B. Mullis
Here is the most important list:
- The Voyage of the Beagle (1845) and The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin
- Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy) by Isaac Newton (1687)
- Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei (1632)
- De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres) by Nicolaus Copernicus (1543)
- Physica (Physics) by Aristotle (circa 330 B.C.)
- De Humani Corporis Fabrica (On the Fabric of the Human Body) by Andreas Vesalius (1543)
- Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein (1916)
- The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976)
I’m ashamed to say the only one I’ve read out of those 25 is Dawkins’ The Selfish Gene, which certainly changed the way I think about evolution and genes. Hawking’s A Brief History of Time (on the honorable mention list) is a must-read for anyone, I think, and I want to read Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel soon.
It’s a shame for me too because I haven’t read all of them so far. I’m over the Dialogo from Galilei, the De Humani Corporis Fabrica , the Relativity, The selfish gene and The double-helix… So many left to read.