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Some Science Reading

museum of science

Ok, this is a bit off-topic, but I was just presenting about ebook accommodations at a science teacher convention and they wanted to know about some good "science books" that would work well for the classroom collection. I'm a strong believer of having classroom collections (real or virtual). There are lots of great books out there that people just don't realize. Too many people think of science books and then immediately go to the science textbook or some kind of field book (although those are great to have in the classroom too. If you are building a classroom collection for your high or middle school science classroom make sure to include a variety of books, not just non-fiction, but also picture books (think coffee table books), and fiction (that would include science fiction too). So here are some non-fiction books that I think are great to have in a collection. 

Some great books on science that are not textbooks:
  • The Science of Sci-Fi: From Warp Speed to Interstellar Travel (MacDonald)
  • Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World (Miodownik)
  • Caffeine: How caffeine created the modern wold (Pollan)
  • Physics of Everyday Things: The Extraordinary Science Behind an Ordinary Day (Kakalios)
  • The Ghost Map: The story of London's most terrifying epidemic and how it changed science, cities, and the modern world (Johnson)
  • Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York (Blum)
  • The Poison Squad: One chemist's single-minded crusade for food safety at the turn of the twentieth century (Blum)
  • Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements (Kean)
  • Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease (Moalem)
  • Future Magic and Indistinguishable from Magic (Robert L Forward)
Really interesting (and often funny) books are the works of Mary Roach:
  • Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers
  • Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
  • Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife
  • Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
  • Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War (not about fighting, but about how the mil is working to save lives)
Some good books on Math:
  • The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time (Haddon) - yes this is fiction but has some great math in it.
  • The Mathematics of Love: Patterns, Proofs, and the search for the Ultimate Equation (Fry)
  • The Improbability Principle: Why coincidences, miracles, and rare events happen every day (Hand)
Science Fiction (for the most part) books for good science reading
  • Steve Alten 
    • MEG oceanography, sharks 
    • The Loch geology, oceanography 
  • Isaac Asimov: 
    • Asimov's Mysteries  short stories, various science topics 
    • Caves of Steel  mystery, robotics 
    • A Whiff of Death mystery, chemistry
  • Gregory Benford: 
    • The Jupiter Project  Jupiter  
    • Against Infinity 
  • Ben Bova 
    • Prometheans  genetics 
    •  Mars  Mars conditions  
    • Moonrise  Moon conditions 
  • Lois McMaster Bujold: 
    • Falling Free  gravity, genetics 
  • Grant Callin: 
    • Saturn Alia  Saturn 
  • Arthur C. Clarke: 
    • The Deep Range  whales, ecology  
    • A Fall of Moondust  moon conditions, rescue  
    • The Nine Billion Names of God  short stories, various topics  
    • Fountains of Paradise  orbits, space elevator  
    • Wind from the Sun  solar wind  
    • Islands in the Sky  space habitats 
  • Hal Clement: 
    • Mission of Gravity  effects of high gravity 
  • Michael Crichton 
    • Jurassic Park  genetics, dinosaurs  
    • Prey nanotechnology 
    • Micro  nanoscale differences
  • Clive Cussler 
    • Pacific Vortex  oceans, currents volcanism (any of the NUMA series) 
  • Lester Del Rey: 
    • Rocket Jockey  orbital dynamics 
  • Daniel da Cruz:  
    • Texas on the Rocks  ice/water conservation 
  • Jack DuBrul 
    • Havoc geology, radiation  
    • River of Ruin geology, archeology 
  • Pat Frank: 
    • Alas, Babylon  FL, nuclear war 
  • Joe Haldeman: 
    • The Forever War  Einstein time dilatation effects  
    • There is no Darkness  school, long term gravity effects, genetics  
    • Worlds  space habitats 
  • Robert A. Heinlein: 
    • The Man Who Sold the Moon  space, legal, moon  
    • Time for the Stars  time dilatation, twins  
    • The Moon is a Harsh Mistress self-aware machines, moon conditions, gravity, dynamics  
    • Space Cadet  space training, rockets, orbits  
    • Rocket Ship Galileo  nuclear rockets, moon 
  • Frank  Herbert: 
    • Dune  ecology, water, religions 
  • Eric Kotani & John Maddox Roberts: 
    • Between the Stars  space habitats, asteroids 
  • Murray Linster 
    • The Forgotten Planet  insects 
  • Rob MacGregor: 
    • The Crystal Skull  South/Central Amer. cultures 
  • Anne McCaffrey: 
    • Dragonsdawn  genetics, chemistry 
  • Michael McCollum: 
    • Antares Dawn  star structures, star formations  
    • Thunder Strike  asteroids, comets  
    • The Clouds of Saturn  Saturn, density dynamics 
  • Walter Miller: 
    • Canticle for Leibowitz  post-nuclear war 
  • Larry Niven: 
    • Ringworld  space habitats, engineering  
    • The Integral Trees  free fall habitats, biology  
    • The Smoke Ring  free fall habitats, biology 
  • Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle:  
    • Lucifer's Hammer  asteroid/meteor strikes on the Earth 
  • Jody Lynn Nye 
    • Taylor’s Ark  medicine, disease  
    • Medicine Show  medicine, disease 
  • Nick O’Donohoe 
    • The Magic and the Healing  veterinary science 
  • Douglas Preston 
    • Tyrannosaur Canyon  Earth history, viruses, genetics, geology 
  • Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child  
    • the Ice Limit construction physics, meteorites, seeding theory 
  • Ridley Scott
    • The Martian
  • Charles Sheffield: 
    • The McAndrew Chronicles  genetics  
    • Higher Education physics, space construction 
  • Dana Stabenow: 
    • Second Star  space habitats 
  • Allen Steele: 
    • Orbital Decay  space habitat construction  
    • Labyrinth of Night  Mars  
    • Clarke County, Space  space habitats 
  • Neal Stephenson: 
    • Zodiac  environment, pollution, oceans 
  • Bruce Sterling 
    • Heavy Weather  weather, atmosphere 
  • John Varley 
    • Red Thunder rocket physics, Mars  
    • Mammoth Earth history, genetics 
  • Wynne Whiteford: 
    • Thor's Hammer  asteroid strike on the Earth
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