Books in the Genre Science

List of recommended books of the genre science, with author and brief synopsis of each book.

(arranged alphabetically)

Featured books for the genre Science

A Devil

Book: A Devil's Chaplain

Author: Richard Dawkins

Description: Richard Dawkins's essays are an enthusiastic testament to the power of rigorous, scientific examination, and they span many different corners of his personal and professional life.

He revisits the meme, the unit of cultural information that he named and wrote about in his groundbreaking work The Selfish Gene. He makes moving tributes to friends and colleagues, including a eulogy for novelist Douglas Adams; he shares correspondence with the evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould; and he visits with the famed... (keep reading...)

Climbing Mount Improbable

Book: Climbing Mount Improbable

Author: Richard Dawkins

Description: The human eye is so complex and works so precisely that surely, one might believe, its current shape and function must be the product of design. How could such an intricate object have come about by chance? Tackling this subject—in writing that the New York Times called "a masterpiece"—Richard Dawkins builds a carefully reasoned and lovingly illustrated argument for evolutionary adaptation as the mechanism for life on earth.

The towering cliffs of Mount Improbable can never, it seems, be climbed. In Richard... (keep reading...)

Last Chance to See

Book: Last Chance to See

Author: Douglas Adams

Description: In 1990 the BBC asked bestselling author Douglas Adams and zooligist Mark Carwardine to go around the world in search of exotic, endangered creatures. Hilarious and poignant--as only Douglas Adams can be--LAST CHANCE TO SEE is an entertaining and arresting odyssey through the Earth's magnificent wildlife galaxy.

In "The Hitchhiker's Trilogy" and the bestselling "Dirk Gently" novels, Douglas Adams has taken his millions of fans on wild excursions through time and space. Last Chance to See continues the... (keep reading...)

River Out Of Eden

Book: River Out Of Eden

Author: Richard Dawkins

Description: River Out Of Eden: A Darwinian View Of Life

How did the replication bomb we call ”life” begin and where in the world, or rather, in the universe, is it heading?

Writing with characteristic wit and an ability to clarify complex phenomena (the New York Times described his style as ”the sort of science writing that makes the reader feel like a genius”), Richard Dawkins confronts this ancient mystery.

Chapters: - Preface
- The Digital River
- All Africa and Her Progenies
- Do... (keep reading...)

The Ancestor

Book: The Ancestor's Tale

Author: Richard Dawkins

Description: The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution

In The Ancestor's Tale, Dawkins offers a masterwork: an exhilarating reverse tour through evolution, from present-day humans back to the microbial beginnings of life four billion years ago.

Throughout the journey Dawkins spins entertaining, insightful stories and sheds light on topics such as speciation, sexual selection, and extinction. The Ancestor's Tale is at once an essential education in evolutionary theory and a riveting read.

The Ancestor's... (keep reading...)

The Blind Watchmaker

Book: The Blind Watchmaker

Author: Richard Dawkins

Description: The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design

Twenty years after its original publication, The Blind Watchmaker, framed with a new introduction by the author, is as prescient and timely a book as ever.

The watchmaker belongs to the eighteenth-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully... (keep reading...)

The Extended Phenotype

Book: The Extended Phenotype

Author: Richard Dawkins

Description: The Extended Phenotype: The Long Reach of the Gene

'The Extended Phenotype is a sequel to The Selfish Gene... he writes so clearly it could be understood by anyone prepared to make the effort' John Maynard Smith, LRB...

'This entertaining and thought-provoking book is an excellent illustration of why the study of evolution is in such an exciting ferment these days'. Science...

People commonly view evolution as a process of competition between individuals--known as "survival of the fittest"--with the... (keep reading...)

The God Delusion

Book: The God Delusion

Author: Richard Dawkins

Description: A preeminent scientist -- and the world's most prominent atheist -- asserts the irrationality of belief in God and the grievous harm religion has inflicted on society, from the Crusades to 9/11.

With rigor and wit, Dawkins examines God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers.

He eviscerates the major arguments for religion and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme... (keep reading...)

The Greatest Show on Earth

Book: The Greatest Show on Earth

Author: Richard Dawkins

Description: The Greatest Show on Earth; The Evidence for Evolution.

From the preface: 'The evidence for evolution grows by the day, and has never been stronger. At the same time, paradoxically, ill-informed opposition is also stronger than I can remember. This book is my personal summary of the evidence that the ‘theory’ of evolution is actually a fact – as incontrovertible a fact as any in science'...

Richard Dawkins transformed our view of God in his blockbuster, The God Delusion, which sold more than 2 million... (keep reading...)

The Magic of Reality: How We Know What

Book: The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True

Author: Richard Dawkins

Description: Richard Dawkins, bestselling author, the world’s most celebrated evolutionary biologist and one of science education's most passionate advocates, has spent his career elucidating the many wonders of science for adult readers. But now, in a dramatic departure, he has teamed up with acclaimed artist Dave McKean and used his unrivaled explanatory powers to share the magic of science with readers of all ages. This is a treasure trove for anyone who has ever wondered how the world works.

Packed with clever thought... (keep reading...)

The Selfish Gene

Book: The Selfish Gene

Author: Richard Dawkins

Description: 'Who should read this book? Everyone interested in the universe and their place in it.' Jeffrey R. Baylis, Animal Behaviour.

When it was first published in 1976, Richard Dawkins' brilliant reformulation of the theory of natural selection has the rare distinction of having caused as much excitement and interest outside the scientific community as within it.

His theories have helped change the whole nature of the study of social biology, and have forced thousands of readers to rethink their beliefs about life.... (keep reading...)

Unweaving The Rainbow

Book: Unweaving The Rainbow

Author: Richard Dawkins

Description: Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder.

Keats accused Newton of destroying the poetry of the rainbow by explaining the origin of its colours. In this book, Richard Dawkins argues that Keats could not have been more mistaken, and shows how an understanding of science enhances our wonder of the world. This is the book Richard Dawkins was meant to write: a brilliant assessment of what science is (and isn't), a tribute to science not because it is useful but because it is... (keep reading...)