From around 2010 to now. Any kind of science is good for me. Here is my recommendation.
The End of Everything — KATIE MACK, ASTROPHYSICIST
Author is a professor who studies cosmology. Just came out this week. About the universe and how it might end.
The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements
Caesar’s Last Breath: Decoding the Secrets of the Air Around Us
Both are by Sam Kean.
I also recommend The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life, by David Quammen.
I just bought a copy of Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs. Haven’t read it yet, but it came highly recommended.
I’m waiting for the updated versions of Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe to come out. He’s one of the world’s leading experts on Superstring Theory. There is a 2nd edition from 2010 currently available.
This was the first thing I thought of. Sam Keen has written several good popular science books, but this is the one that (a) I liked the most, and (b) I read the most recently. Its theme is the gases/chemicals that make up our atmostphere, but he uses that broad topic to dig into some compelling and fascinating stories and science.
If computer science counts, I’ve recently read and enjoyed Nine Algorithms That Changed the Future: The Ingenious Ideas That Drive Today’s Computers by John MacCormick. There have been several popular books published recently that are broadly about algorithms in some sense, but I really appreciated how this one explains in layman’s terms how some of the most important algorithms actually work.
Math isn’t really science, but if you’re open to math books, too, I can recommend some, like Ben Orlin’s Math with Bad Drawings and Change Is the Only Constant.
https://www.amazon.com/Ben-Orlin/dp/0316509035/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=ben+orlin&qid=1596748016&s=books&sr=1-2
A lot of fun and should appeal to any Doper:
Very big, but worth a read if the topic interests you:
An engaging gallop through anthropology and how we came to dominate the planet:
I enjoyed it
I read a lot of science and history of science books, these are few that come to mind at the moment:
Midnight in Chernobyl Adam Higginbottom A comprehensive and sometimes horrifying account of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, including the background and aftermath. Thoroughly researched and well explained.
The World in Grain The Story of Sand and How It Transformed Civilization
by Vince Beiser An entertaining look at how the humble grain of beach sand is the basis for modern civilization in ways both expected and unexpected.
The Plant Messiah: Adventures in Search of the World’s Rarest Species Carlos Magdalena A look at the efforts by the Kew Botanic Gardens in the U.K. to propagate rare plant species. Interesting to read and lots of nice pictures too.
The fascinating story of all the innovations to come out of Bell Labs in the last century. For me, the highlight is the development of the transistor, that invention that I daresay has had just about as much influence on civilization as any other. But all in all, a great and engrossing book.
I highly recommend the HBO miniseries Chernobyl, if you haven’t seen it yet. Powerful and spooky: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9APLXM9Ei8
The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe: How to Know What’s Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake
A great book that everyone should read.
I started reading it last night. Very interesting and informative. In some places, it’s obvious that Brusatte at some point read Roy Chapman Andrews’ classic All About Dinosaurs (1953), as I did back in elementary school.
Nick Lane, The Vital Question.
This perspective is critical to understanding evolution and the origin of life, and I think it should be a much more important part of the curriculum in biology and evolution. It attacks some quite technical issues, so it won’t be an easy read for anyone without a basic science background, but he’s an excellent writer.
David Deutsch’s second book The Beginning Of Infinity just falls into your post-2010 time window. One of the greatest minds of our generation.
reading Chernobyl book , it is very good. HBO show on Chernobyl also very good
So I got both of those, and I found it a bit odd that the book on just air was twice as thick as the book on the whole periodic table. And I’m reading Disappearing Spoon, and I’m finding it oddly… basic. A bit juvenile, even.
Then I get to the acknowledgements, and see “I’m grateful to be able to write for young readers.” And I look a bit closer and there, in small letters on the front, is Young Reader’s Edition. https://s.plurk.com/e8ed6c7eed76d2acd9dbf469f29fbec2.gif
Do you think it’s worth “rereading” the adult version at this point?
(also wtf is smacky the smiley not showing up?)
I would, because I think it’s that good.
Thanks for all the recommendations. Looking back over my past 2 years’ lists, I was disappointed to see I hadn’t read anything I would really recommend.
Just read Sibley’s What It’s Like to be a Bird.
Very accessible - tho not terribly deep - discussion of all aspects of bird development, anatomy, behavior, etc. Done largely within the context of 90-ish essays of some of the most common N. Am. birds. Learned a few new things, and enjoyed remembering many things I had forgotten.