Curious Wavefunction has been thinking about what might constitute the science version of the BBC booklist you may have seen popping around places like Facebook, in particular.
It is a great start to a list in need of expansion (great blog, too). I’ve read most of these, but the list suggests a few I hadn’t heard of or gotten around to.
My favorite book is on the list, De Kruif’s Microbe Hunters, which is still very readable.
Both Popper and Kuhn are there, although neither are very fun reading. (I favor Kuhn, but I’ve always felt that he Kuhn missed the mark in some ways. Paradigm shifts happen rarely — and entire fields will only ever get one or two — but most progress in science is through relentless incrementalism. It seems to me the whole observation is in some ways reflective of a particular moment in time, as the various disciplines matured. Also, it is a fairly Western-oriented look at science. Also, also, I hold a grudge against Kuhn for popularizing the term “paradigm shift,” damn him.)
As I said, the list needs to grow some. Off the top of my head, here are a few that I’d consider candidates:
The Lives of a Cell by Lewis Thomas
Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman (or maybe Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman…tough call…)
Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences by John Allen Paulos
Consciousness Explained by Daniel Dennett (It marks a particular moment in time when scientists really began to talk frankly and openly about consciousness. His Darwin’s Dangerous Idea is great as well.)
I’m sure there are more, but I’ll post them as I think of them.