Christmas Book Ideas: Popular Science

It’s day eight of book ideas to help you with suggestions for your own Christmas present list or as ideas for what to buy for someone else. On the eighth say of Christmas, it is… Popular Science.

Probably one of the most popular of popular scientists is Brian Cox. His recent TV series Human Universe has a book to complement it. If TV tie-ins are your thing then there is also a book to accompany David Attenborough’s series Life Story, which is filled with photos to accompany the commentary on the life of a range of animals. Fascinating.

If you are looking for an accessible and humorous way into science then It's Not Rocket Science might be the book for you and will help you to understand some of the foundations of science. Or if you like a bit of humour and a bit of a mental challenge then Professor Stewart's Casebook of Mathematical Mysteries might be the thing. I know Ian Stewart is really good at making maths both accessible and yet challenging, as he taught one of my former university housemates (many years ago). If you have a liking for all things mathematical then Alex's Adventures in Numberland is also another good maths related book.

The night sky is also an area of fascination for many people, although, if like me, you live in a city, we don’t get to see even a tiny amount of what it has to offer. Nonetheless, astronomy books such as The Practical Astronomer or Philip's Stargazing 2015 can help you to identify and understand what is all around us in the night sky. Of course, there is also much to appreciate about the sky during the daytime as well, so you could try a book such as The Cloud Book: How to Understand the Skies.

Finally, you could consider a fascinating and slightly shocking book called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks about a woman whose cancer cells helped to transform the medical industry. It is a really impressive book that is well worth a read.


Links to all of the books mentioned above, along with some more suggestions, are below: