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25 Greatest Science Books of All Time

Discover staff present the essential reading list for anyone interested in science..

1. and 2. The Voyage of the Beagle (1845) and The Origin of Species (1859) by Charles Darwin [tie]

One of the most delightful, witty, and beautifully written of all natural histories, The Voyage of the Beagle recounts the young Darwin's 1831 to 1836 trip to South America, the Galápagos Islands, Australia, and back again to England, a journey that transformed his understanding of biology and fed the development of his ideas about evolution. Fossils spring to life on the page as Darwin describes his adventures, which include encounters with "savages" in Tierra del Fuego, an accidental meal of a rare bird in Patagonia (which was then named in Darwin's honor), and wobbly attempts to ride Galápagos tortoises.

Yet Darwin's masterwork is, undeniably, The Origin of Species, in which he introduced his theory of evolution by natural selection. Prior to its publication, the prevailing view was that each species had existed in its current form since the moment of divine creation and that humans were a privileged form of life, above and apart from nature. Darwin's theory knocked us from that pedestal. Wary of a religious backlash, he kept his ideas secret for almost two decades while bolstering them with additional observations and experiments. The result is an avalanche of detail — there seems to be no species he did not contemplate — thankfully delivered in accessible, conversational prose. A century and a half later, Darwin's paean to evolution still begs to be heard: "There is grandeur in this view of life," he wrote, that "from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved."

"The most important science book of all time. Darwin revolutionized our understanding of life, the relationship of humanity to all creatures in the world, and the mythological foundation of all religions." — geneticist Lee M. Silver, Princeton University

3. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica ( Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy ) by Isaac Newton (1687)

Dramatic is an unlikely word for a book that devotes half its pages to deconstructions of ellipses, parabolas, and tangents. Yet the cognitive power on display here can trigger chills. Principia marks the dawn of modern physics, beginning with the familiar three laws of motion ("To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction" is the third). Later Newton explains the eccentric paths of comets, notes the similarity between sound waves and ripples on a pond, and makes his famous case that gravity guides the orbit of the moon as surely as it defines the arc of a tossed pebble. The text is dry but accessible to anyone with a high school education — an opportunity to commune with perhaps the top genius in the history of science.

"You don't have to be a Newton junkie like me to really find it gripping. I mean how amazing is it that this guy was able to figure out that the same force that lets a bird poop on your head governs the motions of planets in the heavens? That is towering genius, no?" — psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman, Cornell University

4. Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems by Galileo Galilei (1632)

Pope Urban VIII sanctioned Galileo to write a neutral treatise on Copernicus's new, sun-centered view of the solar system. Galileo responded with this cheeky conversation between three characters: a supporter of Copernicus, an educated layman, and an old-fashioned follower of Aristotle. This last one — a dull thinker named Simplicio — represented the church position, and Galileo was soon standing before the Inquisition. Galileo comes across as a masterful raconteur; his discussions of recent astronomical findings in particular evoke an electrifying sense of discovery. The last section, in which he erroneously argues that ocean tides prove Earth is in motion, is fascinatingly shoddy by comparison. Galileo, trying to deliver a fatal blow to the church's Aristotelian thinking, got tripped up by his own faith in an idea he was sure was true but couldn't prove.

"It's not only one of the most influential books in the history of the world but a wonderful read. Clear, entertaining, moving, and often hilarious, it showed early on how science writing needn't be stuffy." — cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, Harvard University

5. De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium ( On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres ) by Nicolaus Copernicus (1543)

Copernicus waited until he was on his deathbed to publish this volume, then prefaced it with a ring-kissing letter to Pope Paul III explaining why the work wasn't really heresy. No furor actually ensued until long after Copernicus's death, when Galileo's run-in with the church landed De Revolutionibus on the Inquisition's index of forbidden books (see #4, above).

Copernicus, by arguing that Earth and the other planets move around the sun (rather than everything revolving around Earth), sparked a revolution in which scientific thought first dared to depart from religious dogma. While no longer forbidden, De Revolutionibus is hardly user-friendly. The book's title page gives fair warning: "Let no one untrained in geometry enter here."

6. Physica ( Physics ) by Aristotle (circa 330 B.C. )

By contrast, Aristotle placed Earth firmly at the center of the cosmos, and viewed the universe as a neat set of nested spheres. He also mistakenly concluded that things move differently on Earth and in the heavens. Nevertheless, Physica, Aristotle's treatise on the nature of motion, change, and time, stands out because in it he presented a systematic way of studying the natural world — one that held sway for two millennia and led to modern scientific method.

"Aristotle opened the door to the empirical sciences, in contrast to Platonism's love of pure reason. You cannot overestimate his influence on the West and the world." —bioethicist Arthur Caplan, University of Pennsylvania

7. De Humani Corporis Fabrica ( On the Fabric of the Human Body ) by Andreas Vesalius (1543)

In 1543, the same year that Copernicus's De Revolutionibus appeared, anatomist Andreas Vesalius published the world's first comprehensive illustrated anatomy textbook. For centuries, anatomists had dissected the human body according to instructions spelled out by ancient Greek texts. Vesalius dispensed with that dusty methodology and conducted his own dissections, reporting findings that departed from the ancients' on numerous points of anatomy. The hundreds of illustrations, many rendered in meticulous detail by students of Titian's studio, are ravishing.

8. Relativity: The Special and General Theory by Albert Einstein (1916)

Albert Einstein's theories overturned long-held notions about bodies in motion. Time and space, he showed, are not absolutes. A moving yardstick shrinks in flight; a clock mounted on that yardstick runs slow. Relativity, written for those not acquainted with the underlying math, reveals Einstein as a skillful popularizer of his ideas.

To explain the special theory of relativity, Einstein invites us on board a train filled with rulers and clocks; for the more complex general theory, we career in a cosmic elevator through empty space. As Einstein warns in his preface, however, the book does demand "a fair amount of patience and force of will on the part of the reader."

9. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976)

In this enduring popularization of evolutionary biology, Dawkins argues that our genes do not exist to perpetuate us; instead, we are useful machines that serve to perpetuate them. This unexpected shift in perspective, a "gene's-eye view of nature," is an enjoyable ­­brainteaser for the uninitiated. So is a related notion: that altruistic behavior in animals does not evolve for "the good of the species" but is really selfishness in disguise. "Like successful Chicago gangsters," Dawkins writes, "our genes have survived, in some cases for millions of years, in a highly competitive world."

10. One Two Three ... Infinity by George Gamow (1947)

Illustrating these tales with his own charming sketches, renowned Russian-born physicist Gamow covers the gamut of science from the Big Bang to the curvature of space and the amount of mysterious genetic material in our bodies (DNA had not yet been described). No one can read this book and conclude that science is dull. Who but a physicist would analyze the atomic constituents of genetic material and calculate how much all that material, if extracted from every cell in your body, would weigh? (The answer is less than two ounces.)

"Influenced my decision to become a physicist and is part of the reason I write books for the public today." — theoretical physicist Lawrence M. Krauss, Case Western Reserve University

11. The Double Helix by James D. Watson (1968)

James Watson's frank, and often frankly rude, account of his role in discovering the structure of DNA infuriated nearly everyone whose name appeared in it, but it nonetheless ranks as a first-rate piece of science writing. The Double Helix takes us inside a pell-mell race whose winners were almost guaranteed fame and a Nobel Prize.

Most poignant are Watson's disparaging descriptions of his encounters with DNA researcher Rosalind Franklin. Her X-ray crystallography images showed the molecule to be a helix, crucial data that Watson and his collaborator Francis Crick "borrowed" to construct their DNA model. Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958, losing out on the 1962 Nobel Prize for the discovery. Perhaps to atone, Watson noted her key contribution in the epilogue to his book.

"The telenovela of my generation of geneticists." — geneticist Mary-Claire King, University of Washington

12. What Is Life? by Erwin Schrödinger (1944)

Long a classic among biologists, this volume describes, from the perspective of a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, how living organisms differ from inanimate objects like crystals. Schrödinger carefully outlines how the two groups obey different laws and puzzles over what the "paragon of orderliness" of living things may signify. Some editions include an autobiographical sketch, in which Schrödinger describes the conflict over teaching Darwin that raged when he was in school, as well as his own fascination with evolution.

" What Is Life? is what got Francis Crick and the other pioneers of molecular biology in the 1950s interested in the problem in the first place." — cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, Harvard University

13. The Cosmic Connection by Carl Sagan (1973)

At a time when NASA was reeling from the end of the Apollo program, Sagan reacquainted both the public and his colleagues with the majesty of the universe, starting with the oft-overlooked worlds of our own solar system.

He also championed the search for extraterrestrial life and argued for the likelihood of planets around other stars two decades before they were discovered. The TV series Cosmos brought Sagan to the masses, but the adventure began here.

14. The Insect Societies by Edward O. Wilson (1971)

The patriarch of modern evolutionary biology explores the lives of everyone's favorite creepy crawlies — ants, termites, bees, and wasps — in this 500-page treatise unmatched in scope and detail by any other work on the topic (with the possible exception of his own 1990 volume, The Ants ).

It also lays the groundwork for his 1975 classic, Sociobiology: The New Synthesis, which explores the then-controversial idea that the social behavior of animals, including humans, has a deep biological basis. The book is a labor of love, infused with the author's boundless fascination for his tiny subjects. Wilson openly acknowledges the quirkiness of his obsession; the dedication reads, "For my wife Irene, who understands."

15. The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg (1977)

When Weinberg was a student, "the study of the early universe was widely regarded as not the sort of thing to which a respectable scientist would devote his time." But after World War II, radar researchers turned their instruments to the sky and helped bring creation stories out of the realm of myth and into the realm of science.

Weinberg, winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize in Physics, offered the first authoritative, popular account of the resulting Big Bang scenario in The First Three Minutes. A 1993 afterword discusses more recent advances. Amazingly, only the description of the first fraction of a second of cosmic history has changed significantly.

16. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)

When Silent Spring was first published, a chorus of critics called Carson "hysterical" and "extremist." Yet the marine biologist's meticulously documented indictment of DDT led both to a U.S. ban on the insecticide and to the birth of the modern environmental movement. Carson argues that DDT not only indiscriminately kills insects, including beneficial species like bees, but also accumulates in the fat of birds and mammals high on the food chain, thinning eggshells and causing reproductive problems.

Her chilling vision of a birdless America is still haunting. "Over increasingly large areas of the United States," she writes, "spring now comes unheralded by the return of the birds, and the early mornings are strangely silent where once they were filled with the beauty of birdsong."

17. The Mismeasure of Man by Stephen Jay Gould (1981)

In this witty critique of bad science, Harvard scholar Stephen Jay Gould sets out to eviscerate the notion of biological determinism. For hundreds of years, Gould argues, questionable measurements of human intelligence, like skull size or IQ, have been used to justify racism, sexism, and class stratification.

According to Gould, even respected sociologists and psychologists have used falsified or shaky data to support the belief that Westerners are genetically predisposed to rule the world. The book drew political and scientific criticism, especially from social scientists furious that Gould had oversimplified or demonized their work.

18. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks (1985)

In these profiles of patients with unusual neurological disorders, Sacks revolutionizes the centuries-old literary tradition of presenting clinical case studies. Far from dryly reporting each case, the eminent British-born New York City neurologist writes in lively prose with the gentle affection of a country doctor on house call and a contagious sense of wonder.

To him, the man with Tourette's syndrome and the woman who cannot sense her own body position are the heroes of the stories. Legions of neuroscientists now probing the mysteries of the human brain cite this book as their greatest inspiration.

19. The Journals of Lewis and Clark by Meriwether Lewis and William Clark (1814)

One of history's most famous tales of exploration began on May 14, 1804, when William Clark and his Corps of Discovery set off from the mouth of the Missouri River, beginning an epic 28-month journey west to the shores of the Pacific Ocean. (Meriwether Lewis joined the group two days later.) The Journals , a meticulous chronicle of their expedition, offer an unprecedented glimpse at unexplored, undeveloped America west of the Mississippi.

Lewis, the group's naturalist and astronomer, and Clark, the surveyor, documented new species of wildlife (coyotes, jackrabbits, mule deer, and others), unfamiliar geology, and interactions with native peoples. A complete copy of the Journals and their companion material is heavy reading (the definitive Nebraska edition has 13 volumes), but an abridged version captures all the adventure in a palatably sized package.

20. The Feynman Lectures on Physics by Richard P. Feynman, Robert B. Leighton, and Matthew Sands (1963)

Not only did physicist Richard Feynman win the 1965 Nobel Prize for his work on quantum electrodynamics, he once played bongos for a San Francisco ballet. The beloved book Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! recounts his raucous adventures, but these undergraduate physics lectures, presented over two years at Caltech in the 1960s, are Feynman's true gift to students at all levels.

The first 94 lectures cover a wide swath of basic physics, from Newtonian mechanics to electromagnetism, while the final 21 venture into quantum mechanics. Feynman's characteristic humor and peerless explanations elevate these classroom lessons to enduring classics.

"Feynman, the prankster-genius, appeals no matter what field you're in. It helps to know some basic physics to approach his lectures, but he has such a luminous mind and is so good with metaphor that you can grasp a fair amount about what's going on in modern physics without formal understanding of complex math, up to a point." — psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman, Cornell University

21. Sexual Behavior in the Human Male by Alfred C. Kinsey et al. (1948)

The first of two books known collectively as the Kinsey Report, this treatise became an improbable best seller. With raw, technical descriptions of sexual acts, distilled from thousands of interviews, it documented for the first time what people really do behind closed doors.

Many researchers consider the book flawed because of its sampling bias: Most of the men interviewed were young, white, and eager to participate. Nevertheless, the work remains an outstanding model of scientific bravery in the 20th century, with its insistence that sexual acts be described as healthy functions of the human body and that cultural taboos not stand in the way of science.

22. Gorillas in the Mist by Dian Fossey (1983)

In a richly hued portrait of the lives and behavior of African mountain gorillas, Fossey documents her 13 years dwelling in a remote rain forest amid these enigmatic animals. One of a trio of protégés picked by famed anthropologist Louis Leakey to conduct field studies of great apes, Fossey was determined, devoted, and often angry — over the apes' diminishing habitat and especially over the danger they faced from poachers (who may have been responsible for Fossey's 1985 murder). In Gorillas she leaves behind a scientific treasure, one rendered more poignant by her death in the service of these peaceful, intelligent beasts.

23. Under a Lucky Star by Roy Chapman Andrews (1943)

Roy Chapman Andrews made scientific history during the 1920s by leading five motorized expeditions into unexplored reaches of the Gobi desert. He emerged with the equivalent of paleontological gold: more than 350 new species (including the dinosaurs Protoceratops and Velociraptor ), the first fossils of Cretaceous mammals, and the first nests of dinosaur eggs.

He packed out plenty of wild tales, too, which are woven into this engaging autobiography. Rumors persist that the fedora-wearing, snake-hating, death-defying explorer may have served as the inspiration for Hollywood's Indiana Jones.

24. Micrographia by Robert Hooke (1665)

A revelation in its time, Micrographia exposed the previously hidden microscopic world. Hooke, an early developer of the compound microscope, used his device to peer at the eyes of flies, the stinger on a bee, hairs, bristles, sand particles, seeds, and more, noting every detail with both words and masterful illustrations.

The original book is a hefty three pounds, so the digital versions now available are more convenient, but there is something to be said for flipping through a printed copy and discovering, like a hidden treasure, each drawing in its beautiful intricacy.

25. Gaia by James Lovelock (1979)

As an inventor of scientific instruments, James Lovelock may seem an unlikely figure to have launched a New Age, earth-mother environmental movement. Yet that's exactly what he accomplished with Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth. In it Lovelock laid out his daring idea that our planet is a single, self-regulating system, dubbed Gaia, wherein "the entire range of living matter on Earth, from whales to viruses, and from oaks to algae, could be regarded as constituting a single living entity, capable of manipulating the Earth's atmosphere to suit its overall needs."

Lovelock has since refined the hypothesis, which many scientists criticized as quasi mystical, and notes that he never implied that Gaia was a sentient being.

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The Best Books of 2023

A Smithsonian magazine special report

The Ten Best Science Books of 2023

From stories on the depths of the ocean to the stars in the sky, these are the works that moved us the most this year

Bridget Alex , Riley Black , Dan Falk , Shi En Kim , Carlyn Kranking and Joe Spring

In the past 12 months, record-breaking wildfires burned across Canada, and a tragic blaze swept through Maui . A piece of an asteroid landed on Earth after an epic space mission, and artificial intelligence advanced in leaps and bounds. In our oceans, a sub imploded on a fatal dive to the Titanic , and orcas gained our attention as they broke rudders off boats.

In between writing and editing articles about all of those stories, we read longer, more involved works of nonfiction. From these, we picked our ten favorites published between December of last year and this November. They range from a book about a group dedicated to rehabilitating injured turtles, to the story of a damaging wildfire that burned through a city in Canada, to a work on the amazing discoveries that have been made by scientists exploring the ocean’s depths. Check out these top science titles from the past year, selected by Smithsonian magazine’s editors and frequent contributors.

Fire Weather: A True Story From a Hotter World by John Vaillant

In a year when record-setting forest fires raged across Canada and their smoke clouded the skies across North America , and a Maui forest fire incinerated the town of Lahaina in a deadly blaze, the most harrowing book we read about climate change featured a devastating forest fire. In Fire Weather , author John Vaillant crafts a thriller about a cataclysmic inferno that burned through the town of Fort McMurray, Alberta, in May 2016. (We ran an excerpt of the book here .) The blaze generated hurricane-force winds and lightning, and entire neighborhoods burned to the ground under a type of pyrocumulus cloud usually associated with volcanoes. Roughly 100,000 people evacuated what would become the costliest disaster in Canadian history.

Vaillant’s story of Fort McMurray’s destruction illustrates a perfect storm of sorts. Fort McMurray is in the middle of Alberta’s tar sands, or bituminous sands. As Vaillant colorfully writes, “Bituminous sand is to a barrel of oil what a sandbox soaked in molasses is to a bottle of rum.” Its deposits in Canada are one of the biggest known petroleum reserves in the world, and Fort McMurray is in the energy-intensive business of recovering it, upgrading it and transporting it. The fossil fuel that comes from Fort McMurray, when burned, releases the greenhouse gases that cause climate change—and the conditions in which fires can flourish. Vaillant weaves together the story of the tar sands industry, the impacts of climate change and the white-knuckle evacuation of the town into a frightening wake-up call of our new reality concerning wildfires. — Joe Spring

Fire Weather: A True Story from a Hotter World

With masterly prose and a cinematic eye, Vaillant takes us on a riveting journey through the intertwined histories of North America’s oil industry and the birth of climate science, to the unprecedented devastation wrought by modern forest fires, and into lives forever changed by these disasters.

Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell by Sy Montgomery

Scuttling Earth for at least 220 million years, turtles have survived more than one mass extinction, including the one that offed dinosaurs. But in a geologic instant, humans have pushed more than half their 360 known species to near-extinction. And in an actual instant, animals slated to live a century or more can be killed—after their shells are crushed by cars, their mouths are snagged by fishhooks or their ponds are drained by developers.

Yet there is hope for some turtles. The Turtle Rescue League in Southbridge, Massachusetts, rehabilitates hundreds of ailing turtles each year. In Of Time and Turtles , author Sy Montgomery joins the small squad in spring of 2020, just as routine life freezes for Covid-19. The book recounts her year with the league, as they incubated eggs, injected antibiotics, mended shattered shells and returned healed patients to nature. Montgomery’s sensory-rich writing brings readers into the action: You’ll watch a cold-stunned sea turtle move “in ultra slow-mo, a toy whose batteries are almost run out”; smell a wetland “scented like pencil shavings”; and walk across “moss that cushions and squelches with every step.” You’ll bond with favorite patients like Fire Chief, a 42-pound snapper with a custom-built wheelchair, and Lucy, a tropical tortoise rejuvenated with watermelon slices. Between scenes of reptile rescue, Montgomery draws from research papers, news stories, novels and poetry to muse on turtles and the passage of time. Ultimately though, the shell-armored reptiles, “ancient, unhurried, long-lived beings,” are what help her make peace with mortality and growing old. — Bridget Alex

Of Time and Turtles: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell

National Book Award finalist for The Soul of an Octopus and New York Times bestseller Sy Montgomery turns her journalistic curiosity to the wonder and wisdom of our long-lived cohabitants—turtles—and through their stories of hope and rescue, reveals to us astonishing new perspectives on time and healing.

Crossings: How Road Ecology is Shaping the Future of Our Planet by Ben Goldfarb

From the start of Ben Goldfarb’s fascinating book on road ecology, Crossings , the reader is peppered with jaw-dropping facts. Some 40 million miles of roadways encircle the Earth. While a half-century ago 3 percent of land-dwelling mammals died on a road, in 2017 that percentage had quadrupled. In 1995, researchers estimated that, in the United States, deer factor into more than a million vehicle crashes annually, injure 29,000 drivers and passengers, and kill more than 200. (We ran an excerpt of the book, with many more surprising facts, here .) And the book is engrossing for other reasons. In it, Goldfarb chronicles roads from California to Canada to Tasmania to show how they have impacted the natural world—and that includes us. He explores how roads have affected everything from butterflies to mountain lions to frogs.

His journey is not just a recounting of dismal experiences. He looks to those places where engineers have built overpasses and underpasses—and animals and humans have benefited as a result. Some of those creations are expensive, but animal crashes cost the U.S. more than $8 billion dollars a year, so fixes are in order. The Nugget Canyon underpasses, built in Wyoming, for example, prevented 95 crashes with animals annually, and so paid for themselves within five years. By citing so many interesting examples of things done right, Goldfarb invites us to contemplate a future of roads that could be much brighter, if we would just adopt an ethic, he says, in which roads embrace the land instead of conquer it. — J.S.

Crossings: How Road Ecology Is Shaping the Future of Our Planet

An eye-opening account of the global ecological transformations wrought by roads, from the award-winning author of Eager .

Starborn: How the Stars Made Us (and Who We Would Be Without Them) by Roberto Trotta

Without the stars, the history of our species would have been very different. That’s the central argument in Roberto Trotta’s engaging homage to the star-studded night sky, Starborn . The stars are more than just pretty: As Trotta shows, our efforts to understand the movements of the stars and planets (and the sun and the moon) played a crucial role in the development of navigation and precision timekeeping. In ancient Egypt, for example, the bright star Sirius was worshipped as a deity, and the start of the new year was signaled when Sirius first became visible in the pre-dawn sky. Seafaring Polynesians, meanwhile, traveled from island to island in the Pacific Ocean by memorizing the positions and movements of some 200 stars—aided by their knowledge of ocean currents, fish, birds and seaweed. Today’s most accurate timekeepers are atomic clocks , which count vibrations of a cesium atom—but even these need to be tweaked based on the sun and stars, because the Earth’s spin is gradually slowing.

But the night sky is no longer as visible as it once was. The author shows just how much we’re losing as light pollution—first from cities and industrialization and now from so-called constellation satellites like those launched by SpaceX—obliterates all but the very brightest stars and planets for millions of Earthlings. Though Trotta is a theoretical physicist, this is nothing like a textbook; rather, the author uses his own insightful observations and personal anecdotes to pay tribute to our evolving relationship with the universe. Perhaps above all, the book is a reminder to look up—and not to take that vista for granted. — Dan Falk

Starborn: How the Stars Made Us (and Who We Would Be Without Them)

A sweeping inquiry into how the night sky has shaped human history

Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O’Connell’s Urgent Mission to Bring Healing to Homeless People by Tracy Kidder

In Rough Sleepers , author Tracy Kidder profiles a dedicated doctor who treats Boston’s homeless. Harvard-educated physician Jim O’Connell is the founder and president of the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program . “The Program,” as O’Connell calls it, employs roughly 400 workers to treat more than 11,000 homeless people annually. O’Connell, who refers to the unhoused as “rough sleepers,” a 19th-century British term, is called Dr. Jim by his patients. He treats them in a clinic and drives a van to meet them on the streets. He addresses everything from lice and scabies to more advanced problems that patients have following years of neglect, including large tumors and, in one case, a hernia that dropped below a man’s knees. Aside from care, O’Connell sometimes hands out his own money and gift cards.

Homelessness is an overwhelming problem with lots of causes, from poverty to drug addiction to mental illness, and battling it is difficult. O’Connell is just the last line of defense, a committed pro who, by one account, is a man at a bottom of a cliff trying to catch people after they fall off. Although Kidder briefly delves into the increasing urban homelessness problem and organizations’ attempts to fight it, this book makes our list because of the author’s flowing narrative showing the bond among Dr. Jim, his co-workers and his unhoused patients. That often-overlooked sector of society is perhaps best illustrated in the book after one homeless person dies, and people in the clinic and on the street share stories and mourn his passing. “The community of rough sleepers, usually so loose and informal,” Kidder writes, “could sometimes seem as intimately connected as mycelium under a forest floor.” — J.S.

Rough Sleepers: Dr. Jim O'Connell's urgent mission to bring healing to homeless people

Tracy Kidder has been described by The Baltimore Sun as “a master of the nonfiction narrative.” In Rough Sleepers , Kidder tells the story of Dr. Jim O’Connell, a gifted man who invented a community of care for a city’s unhoused population, including those who sleep on the streets—the “rough sleepers.”

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler

Nature is unabashedly queer. We are surrounded by species that live outside our human experience, points of reflective contrast to our terrestrial lives. Sabrina Imbler’s scientifically steeped memoir How Far the Light Reaches revels in these differences, using an aquarium of undersea creatures as foils for significant moments in the author’s life. The preserved remains of a whale are a foil for dissecting a breakup, and our sometimes leering fascination with a marine worm called the sand striker gives form to a meditation on consent. Imbler’s essay “We Swarm,” especially, is a treasure. Squishy marine organisms called salps, which spend part of their lives in aggregations of hundreds of individuals, open a warm recollection of Pride celebrations along the New York shoreline.

Each of Imbler’s chapters is rife with scientific information about the species they’ve chosen, but the book shines as an exercise in undersea empathy. “I want to know what kinds of transformation the cuttlefish is capable of when it is motivated not by fear but by community and sex,” Imbler writes, “and I am not interested in calling it a disguise.” A creature like a cuttlefish may seem so far removed from what we know, separated by over 500 million years of history, but Imbler beautifully demonstrates that we can catch glimmers of ourselves in lives that thrive from the photic zone to the deepest depths. — Riley Black

How Far the Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures

A queer, mixed race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments. Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature.

The Devil’s Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance by Dan Egan

As chemicals go, phosphorus—number 15 on the periodic table—is something of a paradox. In The Devil’s Element , journalist Dan Egan explains how phosphorus is essential for all life; it can be found in every cell in your body. But it is also combustible and explosive. So-called white phosphorus is a waxy substance that spontaneously combusts when exposed to oxygen—and can cause temperatures to hit 2,370 degrees Fahrenheit. White phosphorus was the key ingredient in the bombs dropped by the Allies on Hamburg, Germany, during World War II, unleashing a firestorm that leveled the city and killed some 37,000 people.

First isolated by a German alchemist in the 1600s, phosphorus today is an essential ingredient in fertilizers; without it, millions would go hungry. But the United States may run out of phosphorus in just a few decades—a looming crisis that Egan says may rival the more talked-about shortages we may soon face with oil and water. Meanwhile, runoff from agricultural use is sending phosphorus into our lakes and rivers, leading to toxic algae blooms and rendering large swaths of water unsafe. A case in point is Florida, which holds more phosphorus deposits than any other state, but is also now plagued with smelly and even dangerous waterways, thanks to the over-use of the chemical. With a compelling mix of science, history and geopolitics, Egan illuminates our complex relationship with this enigmatic element. — D.F.

The Devil's Element: Phosphorus and a World Out of Balance

Phosphorus has played a critical role in some of the most lethal substances on earth: firebombs, rat poison, nerve gas. But it’s also the key component of one of the most vital: fertilizer, which has sustained life for billions of people. In this major work of explanatory science and environmental journalism, Pulitzer Prize finalist Dan Egan investigates the past, present, and future of what has been called “the oil of our time.”

My Father’s Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer’s by Sandeep Jauhar

Alzheimer’s disease robs a person’s memory, yes, but it also causes sweeping behavioral transformations that can include agitation and stubbornness. Those with the condition can become difficult patients, unrecognizable to their loved ones. The slow-acting and irreversible disease “is more feared than death itself,” writes Sandeep Jauhar in My Father’s Brain . After his father starts to show signs of dementia in 2014, Jauhar’s parents move states to be closer to their sons. But the close proximity does little to prevent his father’s Alzheimer’s from upending the lives of family members. Jauhar doesn’t shy away from narrating the ugly and difficult experiences of his father’s irrational behavior, which often leads to sibling fights and frustration for the author.

The book is an excellent introduction to the impacts of Alzheimer’s—on the patient and caregivers. It shines the brightest when detailing the factors that add financial and logistical challenges to families caring for the chronically ill. Millions of people care for a family member with Alzheimer’s, but Jauhar’s voice is unique; he taps into his dual identity as a doctor and son of immigrants to explore the ethics and cultural expectations of long-term care. Although the book doesn’t offer hope for a preventative or cure, readers will find comfort in Jauhar’s honesty—and, for those going through the same journey of caring for someone with Alzheimer’s, solidarity. — Shi En Kim

My Father's Brain: Life in the Shadow of Alzheimer's

A deeply affecting memoir of a father’s descent into dementia, and a revelatory inquiry into why the human brain degenerates with age and what we can do about it

The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean by Susan Casey

In June, the world paid more attention than usual to deep-sea exploration when OceanGate’s Titan submersible went quiet while exploring the Titanic . Later, the public learned the craft imploded . That was the rare tragic episode of deep-ocean adventures, one years in the making due to the company’s failure to test and heed warnings. But a much more awe-inspiring exploration of the deep has been taking place for decades, and Susan Casey’s enthralling book, The Underworld , documents it in stunning detail. (We ran an excerpt of the book here .) As Casey points out, though you can view maps of Mars on your iPhone, 80 percent of Earth’s seafloor hasn’t been charted in sharp detail. So much remains to be discovered, and Casey makes it a point to see what is out there by interviewing deep-sea pioneers and even heading down thousands of feet in submersibles herself. As she goes, she shares the amazing sights around her—fish that light up like a meteor shower, shrimp doing wheelies and orange microbial mats. She also chronicles the history of deep-sea exploration and details the current efforts to discover more about a world that deserves our attention now more than ever. Many companies are considering mining the seafloor for precious metals, and Casey’s book is a testament to the fact that so many beautiful and important things live down there that we should learn about before doing damage. — J.S.

The Underworld: Journeys to the Depths of the Ocean

Susan Casey is our premiere chronicler of the aquatic world. For The Underworld , she traversed the globe, joining scientists and explorers on dives to the deepest places on the planet, interviewing the marine geologists, marine biologists, and oceanographers who are searching for knowledge in this vast unseen realm.

Better Living Through Birding: Notes From a Black Man in the Natural World by Christian Cooper

In little more than two minutes captured on video in May 2020, the life of New York City birder Christian Cooper drastically changed. He saw a dog run through a forested section of Central Park and asked its owner, a white woman, to leash her pet in accordance with the law. When she refused, he began to film her with his smartphone, and as he did, she said she would call the police on him and tell them “an African American man is threatening my life.” As the racist incident came to national attention, Cooper quickly became the best-known birder in America. And, amid a hobby that is largely older and white, “the fact that that birder is Black turned heads,” Cooper writes.

With his memoir, Better Living Through Birding , the self-described “Black, gay nerd” pulls back the curtain on the rest of his life outside those two minutes. He begins with an inside glimpse into the world of Central Park birders that he entered as a child. Alongside other binocular-toting enthusiasts, he wakes up at the crack of dawn to chase rarities, like the gray-and-yellow Kirtland’s warbler, and finds beauty in the more mundane, like the iridescent sheen of a common grackle. But Cooper’s story takes readers beyond Central Park, to awe-inspiring destinations around the world, from Australia’s Uluru rock to the Everest Base Camp. He also shares experiences from inside the walls of the Marvel Comics offices, where he worked as a writer and editor, and from the streets of New York, where he protests following an incident of violence against a gay couple in upper Manhattan. Every bit of Cooper’s experience is intertwined with his appreciation for nature, and his memoir is punctuated with descriptions of birding so imbued with passion—from watching a fiery-orange Blackburnian warbler in Central Park to sprinting after chimney swifts in Selma, Alabama—that they could make even a non-birder’s veins pulse with excitement. — Carlyn Kranking

Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World

Better Living Through Birding recounts Christian Cooper’s journey through the wonderful world of birds and what they can teach us about life, if only we would look and listen.

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Bridget Alex | | READ MORE

Bridget Alex is an anthropologist and science writer based in Pasadena, California. Her stories can be found in outlets including Discover , Science , and Atlas Obscura . She tweets @bannelia .

Riley Black | | READ MORE

Riley Black is the author of The Last Days of the Dinosaurs and many other books. She is a science correspondent for Smithsonian  magazine covering fossils and natural history, and she writes about the prehistoric past for a variety of publications. 

Dan Falk | | READ MORE

Dan Falk is a science journalist based in Toronto. His books include The Science of Shakespeare and In Search of Time .

Shi En Kim | | READ MORE

Shi En Kim is a Washington, D.C.-based freelance science journalist. Her work has appeared in  National Geographic ,  Scientific American , the  Atlantic ,  Popular Science  and others. In 2021, she interned at  Smithsonian  magazine as an AAAS Mass Media Fellow.

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Carlyn Kranking is the assistant web editor for science and innovation.

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Joe Spring is the associate digital science editor for Smithsonian magazine.

December 8, 2023

18 min read

55 Books Scientific American Recommends in 2023

The best fiction, nonfiction, history and sci-fi books  Scientific American  staff read in 2023

By Brianne Kane

Tara Moore/Getty Images

The Scientific American editorial team learned a lot this year. We debated why we’ll never live in space , explored the deep ocean (sort of), and asked how dinosaurs got so big . We also read a ton of books. While of course there were quite a few science fiction books (we can't help ourselves), we also learned how to cook, fell in and out of love with intriguing fictional characters, and got the scoop on how many bears really exist, what our universe actually looks like and why we’re even here. 

Below is a collection of what SciAm staff read this year, including recent fiction and nonfiction, selections from our Reviews section , titles from some familiar faces and a bountiful backlist to keep your TBR list on its toes. 

Happy reading!

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1. A City on Mars by Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith Penguin Random House, 2023 (Tags: Space, Graphic Novel)

“Critically acclaimed, bestselling authors Kelly and Zach Weinersmith set out to write the essential guide to a glorious future of space settlements , but after years of research, they aren’t so sure it’s a good idea,” Penguin Random House says. “In a world hurtling toward human expansion into space, A City on Mars investigates whether the dream of new worlds won’t create nightmares, both for settlers and the people they leave behind. In the process, the Weinersmiths answer every question about space you’ve ever wondered about, and many you’ve never considered.”

“Hilarious, unputdownable book; though you may feel worse about possible space settlements, you’ll value living here on Earth all the more.” — Clara Moskowitz, Senior Editor, space and physics

2. Eight Bears by Gloria Dickie W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: History, Nature)

“In Eight Bears, ” notes W.W. Norton, “journalist Gloria Dickie embarks on a globe-trotting journey to explore each bear’s story, whisking readers from the cloud forests of the Andes to the ice floes of the Arctic; from the jungles of India to the backwoods of the Rocky Mountain West.” 

“There are only eight true bears in the world?!” — Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

3. Perfectly Good Food by Irene and Margaret Li W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: Cooking, Reference) 

“Written by the chef-sisters behind Boston’s acclaimed Mei Mei Dumplings, this cookbook/field guide is a crucial resource for the thrifty chef, the environmentally mindful cook, and anyone looking to make the most of their ingredients,” the publisher says.

“I don’t have a lot of cookbooks, but this book is right next to The Joy of Cooking for me, it's so helpful.” — Brianne Kane, Senior Editorial Coordinator  

4. The Man from the Future by Ananyo Bhattacharya W.W. Norton, 2022 (Tags: Biography, History, Mathematics)

“An electrifying biography of one of the most extraordinary scientists of the twentieth century and the world he made. The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Nuclear weapons and self-replicating spacecrafts. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable, yet largely overlooked, man: John von Neumann,” states W.W. Norton. 

“Incredible look at the mind and times of maybe the smartest person who ever lived.” — Gary Stix, Senior Editor, mind and brain

5. Period by Kate Clancy Princeton University Press, 2023 (Tags: Biology, Medicine, History)

“ Period counters the false theories that have long defined the study of the uterus, exposing the eugenic history of gynecology while providing an intersectional feminist perspective on menstruation science,” according to Princeton University Press.

“Worth reading if only for the demolition of the idea of a ‘normal’ 28-day cycle! She's also great at considering the social implications of science.” — Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

6. Our Fragile Moment by Michael Mann Hachette, 2023 (Tags: Climate Change, Nature) 

“For the vast majority of its 4.54 billion years,” says the publisher, “Earth has proven it can manage just fine without human beings . Then came the first proto-humans, who emerged just a little more than 2 million years ago—a fleeting moment in geological time. What is it that made this benevolent moment of ours possible? Ironically, it’s the very same thing that now threatens us—climate change.”

“Really smart, clever and eye-opening look at the five most extreme shifts in Earth's climate over 4.5 billion years, and the lessons those episodes have for our dramatic climate shift today.” — Mark Fischetti, Senior Editor, sustainability

7. The Patriarchs by Angela Saini Penguin Random House (Tags: History, Sociology) 

“In this bold and radical book, award-winning science journalist Angela Saini explores the roots of what we call patriarchy, uncovering a complex history of how it first became embedded in societies and spread across the globe from prehistory into the present,” the publisher says.

“A powerful show of how the patriarchy is made and remade, over and over again.” — Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

8. The Warped Side of Our Universe by Kip Thorne, Lia Halloran Liveright, 2023 (Tags: Space/Physics, Art) 

“Epic verse and pulsating paintings merge to shed light on time travel, black holes, gravitational waves and the birth of the universe. Nearly two decades in the making, The Warped Side of Our Universe marks the historic collaboration of Nobel Laureate Kip Thorne and award-winning artist Lia Halloran. It brings to vivid life the wonders and wildness of our universe ’s ‘Warped Side,’” according to Liveright, an imprint of W.W. Norton.

“I thought I was getting another book on black holes; instead I discovered a delightful explosion of illustrations, science and verse.” — Dan Vergano, Senior Opinion Editor

9. The Possibility of Life by Jaime Green HarperCollins, 2023 (Tags: Astronomy, Philosophy)

From the publisher: “In The Possibility of Life, acclaimed science journalist Jaime Green traces the history of our understanding, from the days of Galileo and Copernicus to our contemporary quest for exoplanets. Along the way, she interweaves insights from science fiction writers who construct worlds that in turn inspire scientists.… The Possibility of Life explores our evolving conception of the cosmos to ask an even deeper question: What does it mean to be human?”

“I know Jaime, so I've been waiting for this book for a long time, and it was worth the wait!” — Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

10. Grace in All Simplicity by Chris Quigg and Robert Cahn Pegasus Books, 2023 (Tags: Physics, History)

“ Grace in All Simplicity narrates the saga of how we have prospected for some of Nature’s most tightly held secrets, the basic constituents of matter and the fundamental forces that rule them. In these pages we will meet scientists of both past and present. These men and women are professional scientists and amateurs, the eccentric and the conventional, performers and introverts. Scientists themselves, Cahn and Quigg convey their infectious joy as they search for new laws of nature,” states Pegasus Books.

“A fascinating and accessible description of the incredible revolution physicists have made in understanding the world's smallest pieces.” — Clara Moskowitz, Senior Editor, space and physics

1. Girlfriend on Mars by Deborah Willis W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: Space, Romance) 

“ Girlfriend on Mars is at once a satirical indictment of our pursuit of fame and wealth amidst environmental crisis, and an exploration of humanity’s deepest longing, greatest quest, and most enduring cliché: love,” the publisher says.

“I loved this book, and hated how I related to both main characters Amber and Adam.” — Brianne Kane, Senior Editorial Coordinator  

2. Harold by Steven Wright Simon & Schuster, 2023 (Tags: Humor, Historical Fiction) 

“Harold documents the meandering, surreal, often hilarious, and always thought-provoking stream-of-consciousness ruminations of the title character during a single day in class,” notes the publisher. “This novel will change the way you perceive your daily existence.”

“It's definitely a fun read but fans of his comedy might enjoy it more. Takes place in the mind of a young boy in just one day in school, oddly enough, bird lovers might enjoy it. You'll have to find out why!” —Silvia De Santis, Prepress and Quality Manager  

3. I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home by Lorrie Moore Knopf, 2023 (Tags: Historical Fiction, Magical Realism)

 “Bold, meditative, theatrical, this new novel is an inventive, poetic portrait of lovers and siblings as it questions the stories we have been told which may or may not be true. I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home takes us through a trap door, into a windswept, imagined journey to the tragic-comic landscape that is, unmistakably, the world of Lorrie Moore,” according to publisher Knopf, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

“A road-trip novel about the inevitability of entropy—in our shared physical world and in our private emotional ones” —Angelique Rondeau, Senior Copy Editor  

4. Other People's Clothes by Calla Henkel Penguin Random House, 2022 (Tags: Mystery, LGBTQ+, Historical Fiction) 

“Hoping to escape the pain of the recent murder of her best friend, art student Zoe Beech finds herself studying abroad in the bohemian capital of Europe—Berlin. Rudderless, Zoe relies on the arrangements of fellow exchange student Hailey Mader, who idolizes Warhol and Britney Spears and wants nothing more than to be an art star,” the publisher says. “ Other People’s Clothes brilliantly illuminates the sometimes dangerous intensity of female friendships, as well as offering an unforgettable window into millennial life and the lengths people will go to in order to eradicate emotional pain.”

“This book could totally be turned into a series/movie!” —Isabella Bruni, Digital Producer  

5. Prophet   by Sin Blaché and Helen Macdonald Grove, 2023 (Tags: Mystery, LGBTQ+, Romance) 

From the publisher: “Adam Rubenstein and Sunil Rao have been reluctant partners since their Uzbekistan days. Adam is a seemingly unflappable American Intelligence officer and Rao is an ex-MI6 agent, an addict and rudderless pleasure hound, with the uncanny ability to discern the truth of things—about everyone and everything other than Adam. When an American diner turns up in a foggy field in the U.K. after a mysterious death, Adam and Rao are called in to investigate, setting into motion the most dangerous and otherworldly mission of their lives.”

“I could not put this book down and nearly threw it across the room when I finished it!” — Brianne Kane, Senior Editorial Coordinator  

6. The Road to Roswell by Connie Willis Penguin Random House, 2023 (Tags: Humor, Romance, Fantasy) 

“ The Road to Roswell is packed full of Men in Black, Elvis impersonators, tourist traps, rattlesnakes, chemtrails, and Close Encounters of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth kind,” the publisher notes. “Can Francie, stuck in a neon green bridesmaid’s dress, save the world—and still make it back for the wedding?”

“Do you want to drive aimlessly around New Mexico under the dictatorship of a well-meaning alien and the friends he picks up along the way?” — Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

7. Archangel by Andrea Barrett W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: Short Stories, Historical Fiction) 

 “A young boy comes of age amid an explosion of homespun investigations. A widowed science writer tries to reconcile the influence of emotion on scientific theory. A famous biologist finds himself outpaced by his students, even as he seeks to teach them. Throughout these deftly plotted stories, Andrea Barrett weaves subtle connections among the tales within this collection and characters in her earlier works,” the publisher says.

“The stories in this collection explore how people react when new scientific theories sweep onto the scene: Some embrace the fresh ideas, others defend the more established orthodoxies at all costs. And in between such debates, life—work, children, war—keeps on happening.” — Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, technology  

8. The Terraformers by Annie Newitz Macmillan (Tags: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction) 

“Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her. But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano,” writes the publisher. “ The Terraformers will take you on a journey spanning thousands of years and exploring the triumphs, strife, and hope that find us wherever we make our home.”

“A delightful, world-building science-fiction book about—world-building, as in terraforming new worlds for future human habitation. I fell for the main characters right away, human and nonhuman.” — Laura Helmuth, Editor in Chief  

9. The Nature Book by Tom Comitta Coffee House Press, 2023 (Tags: Nature, Speculative Fiction)

“Part sweeping evocation of Earth’s rhythms, part literary archive, part post-human novel, The Nature Book collages descriptions of the natural world into a singular symphonic paean to the planet,”says Coffee House Press. “What does our nature writing say about us, and more urgently, what would it say without us?”

“Easily one of the most creative literary works I’ve ever read, this will be on my bedside table maybe forever.” — Brianne Kane, Senior Editorial Coordinator  

10. This Time Tomorrow by Emma Straub Penguin Random House, 2022 (Tags: Time Travel, History)

“On the eve of her fortieth birthday, Alice’s life isn’t terrible,” writes the publisher. “But her father is ailing, and it feels to her as if something is missing. When she wakes up the next morning, she finds herself back in 1996, reliving her sixteenth birthday. But it isn’t just her adolescent body that shocks her, or seeing her high school crush—it’s her dad, the vital, charming, forty-something version of her father with whom she is reunited. Now armed with a new perspective on her own life and his, some past events take on new meaning. Is there anything that she would change if she could?”

“I’ll read almost anything that involves a woman going back to the recent past, and everyone I know kept telling me not to miss this one” — Brianne Kane, Senior Editorial Coordinator  

Selections from Review Section

1. For Blood and Money by Nathan Vardi W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: Business, Medicine, Technology) 

“ For Blood and Money tells the little-known story of how an upstart biotechnology company created a one-in-a-million cancer drug, and how members of the core team—denied their share of the profits—went and did it again. In this epic saga of money and science, veteran financial journalist Nathan Vardi explains how the invention of two of the biggest cancer drugs in history became (for their backers) two of the greatest Wall Street bets of all time,” the publisher says. 

"One can already imagine the movie version" —Madana Chaffa, January issue

2. The Darkness Manifesto by Johan Eklöf and translated by Elizabeth DeNoma Scribner, 2023 (Tags: Philosophy, Nature)

“How much light is too much light? Satellite pictures show our planet as a brightly glowing orb, and in our era of constant illumination, light pollution has become a major issue. The world’s flora and fauna have evolved to operate in the natural cycle of day and night. But in the last 150 years, we have extended our day—and in doing so have forced out the inhabitants of the night and disrupted the circadian rhythms necessary to sustain all living things, including ourselves,” the publisher says. 

"Eklöf highlights the startling sprawl of these lesser-known consequences without evoking a hopeless or cynical tone. Instead the book is a reflective reminder that our control of the world is as delicate as the smallest of species affected by it." —Sam Miller, February issue

3. Your Brain on Art  by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross Penguin Random House, 2023 (Tags: Art, Neuroscience)

“Magsamen and Ross offer compelling research that shows how engaging in an art project for as little as forty-five minutes reduces the stress hormone cortisol, no matter your skill level, and just one art experience per month can extend your life by ten years. They expand our understanding of how playing music builds cognitive skills and enhances learning; the vibrations of a tuning fork create sound waves to counteract stress; virtual reality can provide cutting-edge therapeutic benefit; and interactive exhibits dissolve the boundaries between art and viewers, engaging all of our senses and strengthening memory,” states the publisher. 

"Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross walk a fine line between expounding the health benefits of participating in art and arguing that such therapeutic effects need not be perfectly understood by science to be useful." —Maddie Bender, March issue  

4. Elixir by Theresa Levitt Harvard University Press, 2023 (Tags: History, Chemistry, Philosophy) 

“For centuries, scientists believed that living matter possessed a special quality—a spirit or essence—that differentiated it from nonliving matter,” writes Harvard University press. “ Elixir tells the story of two young chemists who were not convinced, and how their work rewrote the boundary between life and nonlife.… Rich in sparks and smells, brimming with eccentric characters, experimental daring, and the romance of the Bohemian salon, Elixir is a fascinating cultural and scientific history.”

"Levitt traces how researchers’ pursuit of the true composition of these oils laid the foundation for modern organic chemistry." —Fionna M.D. Samuels, April issue

5. In The Herbarium by Maura C. Flannery Yale University Press, 2023 (Tags: Botany, History) 

“Maura C. Flannery tells the history of herbaria, from the earliest collections belonging to such advocates of the technique as sixteenth-century botanist Luca Ghini,” writes Yale University Press. “She charts the growth of herbaria during the Age of Exploration, the development of classification systems to organize the collections, and herbaria’s indispensable role in the tracking of climate change and molecular evolution.”

 “Maura C. Flannery makes a compelling case for reinvigorating the relevance of these ‘hidden gardens’ by exploring their significance as bellwethers of climate change, libraries for biodiversity research, sources of plant DNA, and opportunities to acknowledge and amend the erasure of Indigenous and enslaved people’s contributions to botany.” —Dana Dunham, May issue

6. On Earth as It Is on Television by Emily Jane Penguin Random House, 2023 (Tags: Humor, Fantasy)

“Since long before the spaceships’ fleeting presence, Blaine has been content to go along with the whims of his supermom wife and half-feral, television-addicted children. But when the kids blithely ponder skinning people to see if they’re aliens, and his wife drags them all on a surprise road trip to Disney World, even steady Blaine begins to crack. Embracing the strangeness that is life in the twenty-first century, On Earth as It Is on Television is a rollicking, heartfelt tale of first contact that practically leaps off the planet,” the publisher says.

“Unusually fun and absurd take on what might otherwise be just another imitation of Independence Day or The Day the Earth Stood Still. ” —Meg Elison , June Issue  

7. A Second Chance for Yesterday RA Sinn (pseudonym for siblings Rachel Hope Cleves and Aram Sinnreich) Simon & Schuster, 2023 (Tags: Romance, Time Travel) 

“Nev Bourne is a hotshot programmer for the latest and greatest tech invention out there: SavePoint, the brain implant that rewinds the seconds of all our most embarrassing moments,” writes Simon & Schuster. “But when she hits go on the test-run, she wakes up the next day only to discover it's yesterday…. Created by historian and futurist sibling authors, A Second Chance for Yesterday is a time-twisting story of family, redemption and queer love.”

“A perceptive, mesmerizing time-travel tale of self-revelation and redemption.” —Lorraine Savage, July/August double issue

8. Land of Milk and Honey by C Pam Zhang Penguin Random House, 2023 (Tags: Speculative Fiction, LGBTQ+)

“Sensuous and surprising, joyous and bitingly sharp, told in language as alluring as it is original, Land of Milk and Honey lays provocatively bare the ethics of seeking pleasure in a dying world,” says the publisher. “It is a daringly imaginative exploration of desire and deception, privilege and faith, and the roles we play to survive. Most of all, it is a love letter to food, to wild delight, and to the transformative power of a woman embracing her own appetite.”

"A thought-provoking fusion of the sensory and the speculative." —Dana Dunham, September issue  

9. Alfie & Me by Carl Safina W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: Biography, Nature, Memoir) 

“ Alfie & Me is the story of the remarkable impact this little owl would have on their lives. The continuing bond of trust following her freedom—and her raising of her own wild brood—coincided with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a year in which Carl and Patricia were forced to spend time at home without the normal obligations of work and travel. Witnessing all the fine details of their feathered friend’s life offered Carl and Patricia a view of existence from Alfie’s perspective,” according to W.W. Norton. 

"Don’t expect a dramatic, sensational plot; here the quiet message is that nature doesn’t need to serve us humans beyond existing for itself." —Sam Miller, October issue  

10. Eat, Poop, Die by Joe Roman Hachette, 2023 (Tags: Nature, History) 

“From the volcanoes of Iceland to the tropical waters of Hawaii, the great plains of the American heartland, and beyond, Eat, Poop, Die takes readers on an exhilarating and enlightening global adventure, revealing the remarkable ways in which the most basic biological activities of animals make and remake the world—and how a deeper understanding of these cycles provides us with opportunities to undo the environmental damage humanity has wrought on the planet we call home,” the publisher says. 

"One of those rare books that truly changes the way you look at the world." —Lucy Cooke, November issue

Some Familiar Faces

Here’s a look at some of the books published this past year by Scientific American staff and contributors.

1. The Mind of a Bee by Lars Chittka Princeton University Press, 2022 (Tags: Nature, Neuroscience)

“Most of us are aware of the hive mind—the power of bees as an amazing collective,” notes Princeton University Press. “But do we know how uniquely intelligent bees are as individuals? In  The Mind of a Bee , Lars Chittka draws from decades of research, including his own pioneering work, to argue that bees have remarkable cognitive abilities…. They may even possess consciousness.”

Check out Chittka’s July/August feature asking “ Do Insects Feel Joy and Pain? ” 

2. Ice by Amy Brady Penguin Random House, 2023 (Tags: History, Business)

“Ice is everywhere: in gas stations, in restaurants, in hospitals, in our homes. Americans think nothing of dropping a few ice cubes into tall glasses of tea to ward off the heat of a hot summer day…. Ice on-demand has so revolutionized modern life that it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t always this way—and to overlook what aspects of society might just melt away as the planet warms,” the publisher says. 

Not only is Brady a contributing editor, but she also contributed a feature article on climate-friendly cocktail recipes in our July/August issue.

3. Under Alien Skies by Philip Plait  W.W. Norton, 2023 (Tags: Space, Physics) 

“This lively, immersive adventure through the cosmos, Plait draws ingeniously on both the latest scientific research and his prodigious imagination to transport you to ten of the most spectacular sights outer space has to offer,” states W.W. Norton. “In vivid, inventive scenes informed by rigorous science—injected with a dose of Plait’s trademark humor— Under Alien Skies places you on the surface of alien worlds, from our own familiar Moon to the far reaches of our solar system and beyond.”

In a blurb about the book, Editor in Chief Laura Helmuth calls it “a funny, warm, and welcoming guide to the most marvelous places in the universe… You’ll experience what it would be like to actually be there, while learning some of the most mind-expanding science humans have ever figured out.” 

4. Building Science Graphics by Jen Christiansen CRC Press, 2022 (Tags: Art, Data Visualization) 

 “ Building Science Graphics: An illustrated guide to communicating science through diagrams and visualizations is a practical guide for anyone—regardless of previous design experience and preferred drawing tools—interested in creating science-centric illustrated explanatory diagrams…. The heart of the book is composed of two step-by-step graphical worksheets, designed to help jump-start any new project,” the publisher says.

“An amazing resource for all levels of experience, and the best book launch party I’ve been to all year!” — Brianne Kane, Senior Editorial Coordinator  

5. I Feel Love by Rachel Nuwer Bloomsbury Publishing, 2023 (Tags: Psychology, Medicine) 

“The unlikely story of how the psychedelic drug MDMA emerged from the shadows to the forefront of a medical revolution—and the potential it may hold to help us thrive. Few drugs in history have generated as much controversy as MDMA—or held as much promise. Once vilified as a Schedule I substance that would supposedly eat holes in users’ brains, MDMA (also known as Molly or Ecstasy) is now being hailed as a therapeutic agent that could transform the field of mental health and outpace psilocybin and ketamine as the first psychedelic approved for widespread clinical use” the publisher says.

Nuwer discusses her work with us in this Science, Quickly podcast episode . 

Bountiful Backlist

1. The Same Dog by Robert Aickman (Tags: Short Story, Weird Fiction, Horror) 

“Nothing is like Aickman, which is both a blessing and a curse if you like his work. I still think about it once a week, even years after reading it.” —Ryan Reid, Art Director  

2. Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World by Haruki Murakami (Tags: Magical Realism, Science Fiction) 

“If you’re into fantasy-sci-fi storylines, you’ll likely get a kick out the character cast: a narrator, who is himself a human data-storage-encryption device, a DIY brain-hacker, an all-pink-clad teen whose sound is initially muted, the unicorn skulls where dreams are held, the creepy inklings and information pirates called semiotics.” —Jeanna Bryner, Managing Editor

3. Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (Tags: Biography, Nature) 

“Older memoir but not to be missed; riveting at its climax and devastating in its impact.” —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor  

4. Servants of the Map by Andrea Barrett (Tags: Short Stories, Historical Fiction) 

“Caught between science and human desire, characters try to make sense of their lives, going from the tops of the Himalayas to the suburbs of American cities.” —Josh Fischman, Senior Editor, medicine and science policy 

5. The Woman Who Thought She Was a Planet by Vandana Singh (Tags: Short Stories, Science Fiction) 

“Delightful collection of short stories.” —Madhusree Mukerjee, Senior Editor, science and society 

6. A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara (Tags: LGBTQ+, Literary Fiction) 

“This was recommended all over TikTok so I finally gave it a chance. Beautifully written but extremely depressing.” —Sunya Bhutta, Chief Engagement Editor  

7. H Is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald  (Tags: Memoir, Nature, Birds) 

“How has it taken me so long to read this book?” —Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, technology 

8. The Wonder by Emma Donoghue (Tags: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Religion) 

“One of the most memorable/haunting novels I've read in the past few years.” —Amanda Montañez, Associate Graphics Editor 

9. Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond  (Tags: Sociology, History, Social Justice) 

“Epic, eye-opening; the reporting is absolutely incredible, and you get so close to some of the characters that it sometimes feels like a novel.” — Amanda Montañez, Associate Graphics Editor 

10. Behave by Robert Sapolsky (Tags: Psychology, Neuroscience, Philosophy)

“Fascinating and witty account of what drives our good and bad behaviors.” — Madhusree Mukerjee, Senior Editor, science and society  

11. The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai (Tags: LGBTQ+, Historical Fiction) 

“Tremendous telling of the Chicago AIDS epidemic during the 1980s. Makkai's extensive research and reporting makes for a story that still resonates today.” — Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor

12. WordSlut by Amanda Montell (Tags: Linguistics, History, Social Justice) 

“Such an interesting look at the ways that patriarchy is ensconced in language.” —Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

13. Earthlings  by Sayaka Murata; translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori (Tags: Magical Realism, Horror, Literary Fiction) 

“A rollercoaster of emotions and very bizarre.” —Sunya Bhutta, Chief Engagement Editor  

14. The Sounds of Life by Karen Bakker (Tags: Nature, History) 

“A fascinating account of how acoustic technology is allowing us to eavesdrop on creatures' conversations.” —Madhusree Mukerjee, Senior Editor, science and society  

15. Fairy Tale by Stephen King (Tags: Fantasy, Horror, Science Fiction) 

“Just pure escapism and fun. If you need to get absorbed in a good story, this one's it.” — Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor 

16. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (Tags: Historical Fiction, Literary Fiction) 

“Beautiful characters, heart wrenching story. Mind-opening perspective on an area of the country that often gets looked down upon.” —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor 

17. The Myth of Normal by Daniel Maté and Gabor Maté (Tags: Psychology, Sociology)

“This absorbing book argues that trauma is built into Western society and is responsible for many ills, including the autoimmune disease ALS.” —Madhusree Mukerjee, Senior Editor, science and society  

18. A Half-Built Garden by Ruthanna Emrys (Tags: Science Fiction, Speculative Fiction, LGBTQ+) 

“A wholly original, thoughtful take on extraterrestrial first contact has Earth's citizens wondering if they should go all-in on saving Earth or escape to another planet for a fresh start.” —Clara Moskowitz, Senior Editor, space and physics 

19. Heaven by Mieko Kawakami; translated by Sam Bett and David Boyd (Tags: Literary Fiction, Young Adult) 

“The book explores trauma bonds and the long-term pain—both mental and physical—that bullying causes.” —Sunya Bhutta, Chief Engagement Editor  

20. Astrotopia by Mary-Jane Rubenstein (Tags: Space, Religion) 

“A version of spaceflight's story that isn't told often enough.” —Meghan Bartels, News Reporter

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29 of the Best Science Fiction Books Everyone Should Read

Looking for your next sci-fi must-read? Cyberpunk, space operas, dystopias – we've pulled together some of the WIRED team's favourite science fiction novels. Some are eerily plausible, others are wild trips of the imagination, but all present compelling visions of our possible future. Listed here in chronological order for completists.

You may also enjoy our guides to best sci-fi movies and the best space movies , too. If you're after more reading inspiration, try our selection of the best fantasy books and we have a guide to the best audiobooks if you're feeling lazy.

It's Prime Day 2023, so we've uncovered the top discounts. Check out the best Prime Day deals in the UK here.​​

The Blazing World, by Margaret Cavendish (1666)

This book is arguably the first science fiction book ever written. The Blazing World's language may be dated, but this fearless feminist text from Margaret Cavendish is packed full of imagination is not just incredibly brave for its time. It's also still incredibly relevant; cited as inspiration by writers including China Miéville and Alan Moore.

Cavendish's utopian tale follows the adventures of a kidnapped woman, who travels to another world run by part-humans, part animals - fox men, fish men, geese men, the list goes on. As she is a very beautiful woman, she becomes their Empress, and organises an an almighty invasion of her own world, complete with literal fire(stones) raining from the sky.

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Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (1818)

Mary Shelley started writing classic gothic thriller Frankenstein when she was 18 years old. Two centuries later, it is a major ancestor of both the science fiction and horror genres, tackling huge themes like the nature of life and death, immortality and genetic engineering. It is a pro-science novel that at its heart shows Dr Frankenstein as the callous fiend of the story, who created a being and was not willing to accept responsibility for his actions. In an age where the space between technical life and death is narrower than ever, and scientists are playing with the makeup of what makes us humans, Frankenstein can still teach an important lesson: just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

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Foundation, by Isaac Asimov (1951)

Asimov was a prolific writer, but many of his best works are classic short stories such as Nightfall , or The Last Question , which play out like long jokes with a punchline twist at the end. In the Foundation series, he’s in another mode entirely, charting the rise and fall of empires in sweeping brush strokes. Asimov’s prose can be stilted, and betrays the attitudes of its time in the portrayal of female characters, but it has left a lasting legacy.

The Foundation series follows Hari Seldon, who is the architect of psychohistory – a branch of mathematics that can make accurate predictions thousands of years in advance, and which Seldon believes is necessary to save the human race from the dark ages. You can see why it’s one of Elon Musk’s favourite books (along with The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy , and The Moon is A Harsh Mistress by Robert Heinlein – also recommended). A long-awaited screen adaptation is one of the flagship shows of Apple TV+.

Price: £8 | Amazon | Waterstones | Wordery | Audible trial

The Stars My Destination, by Alfred Bester (1957)

This landmark novel begins with a simple proposition – what if humans could teleport? – and sprawls into a tale of rebirth and vengeance that winds across the Solar System: The Count of Monte Cristo for the interstellar age. First published as Tiger! Tiger! in the UK, named after the William Blake poem, it follows Gully Foyle – a violent, uneducated brute who spends six months marooned in deep space, and the rest of the book seeking retribution for it.

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Solaris, by Stanislaw Lem (1961)

If you think you know Solaris from the 2002 Steven Soderbergh film, the original book may come as a bit of a surprise. Written by Polish writer Stanislaw Lem in 1961, this short novel is heavier on philosophy than plot. It follows a team of humans on a space station who are trying to understand the mysterious living ocean on the planet Solaris, with little success – their research is limited to lengthy descriptions that paint a vibrant picture of the alien planet but fail to elucidate how it works. As they poke and prod, Solaris ends up exposing more about them than it does about itself, with the book demonstrating the futility of humans trying to comprehend something not of their world.

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Dune, by Frank Herbert (1965)

In 2012, WIRED US readers voted Dune the best science-fiction novel of all time. It’s also the best-selling of all time, and has inspired a mammoth universe, including 18 books set over 34,000 years and a terrible 1984 movie adaptation by David Lynch, his worst film by far. A very different effort was released in 2021, directed by Denis Villeneuve. The series is set 20,000 years in the future in galaxies stuck in the feudal ages, where computers are banned for religious reasons and noble families rule whole planets. We focus on the planet Arrakis, which holds a material used as a currency throughout the Universe for its rarity and mind-enhancing powers. Lots of giant sandworms, too.

Price: £10 | Amazon | Waterstones | Foyles | Audible trial

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, by Robert Heinlein (1966)

One of Elon Musk's favourite books, apparently, this gripping novel paints a plausible picture of life on Earth's satellite, three years before man set foot on the moon for the first time. Its depictions of the challenges of life in orbit, and the ingenuity of human solutions to the problem – even among the exiles and misfits who make up the lunar population – are memorable.

Ice, by Anna Kavan (1967)

Anna Kavan's last (and best) sci fi novel provides a haunting, claustrophobic vision of the end of the world, where an unstoppable monolithic ice shelf is slowly engulfing the earth and killing everything in its wake. The male protagonist and narrator of the story (who is nameless) is eternally chasing after an elusive and ethereal young woman, while contemplating feelings that become darker and more violent towards her as the ice closes in. He frequently crosses paths with the Warden, the sometimes-husband but also captor of the young woman, who is always one step ahead. And as the ice closes off almost all paths by land and sea, he is running out of time to catch them up.

The novel reads like a grown-up, nightmarish version of Alice in Wonderland : Kavan takes you on a journey that is hallucinogenic and unsettling, with no regard to whether the narrator is dreaming or awake. But the true genius of the book is its language - depicting a powerful allegory crushing pain of addiction, loneliness and mental illness will do little to cheer you up, but will capture your attention.

Price: £8 | Amazon | Waterstones | Foyles | Audible trial

The Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula K. Le Guin (1969)

Le Guin alternated between genres during her prolific career, and this intricate novel came out the year after the classic fantasy book A Wizard of Earthsea . The bulk of the action takes place on Winter, a remote Earth-like planet where it’s cold all year round, and everyone is the same gender. It was one of the first novels to touch on ideas of androgyny – which is viewed from the lens of protagonist Genly Ai, a visitor from Earth who struggles to understand this alien culture.

A Scanner Darkly, by Philip K Dick (1977)

A curious novel that reads less like sci-fi and more like a hallucinated autobiography detailing the author’s struggle with drug addiction. In a near-future California, vice cop Bob Arctor lives undercover with a community of drug addicts hooked on devastating psychoactive dope Substance D. Arctor, who needs to don a special “scramble suit” to hide his face and voice when meeting his fellow cops, has to grapple with gradually losing his sense of self.

Kindred, by Octavia E. Butler (1979)

Though Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred was published more than 40 years ago, it carries lessons and learnings that we can all still use today. When African-American writer, Dana finds herself transported from 1979 Los Angeles to the pre-Civil War Antebellum south to repeatedly save her white slave-owning ancestor, she must confront the horrendous reality of surviving slavery while not losing her modern day identity. This is only more complicated when she accidentally transports back with her white husband.

The novel explores major themes of power, race and inequality. Butler’s contextualising of this era is devastating; the way in which she contrasts modern day 1979 with the pre-Civil War age offers a different perspective on the complicated and degrading reality of slavery. Kindred allows you, the reader, to engage with the emotional impacts of slavery, something unfortunately often lost in too many of today’s teachings of the subject.

Neuromancer, by William Gibson (1984)

The definitive cyberpunk novel, William Gibson’s Neuromancer follows hacker-turned-junkie Henry Case as he tries to pull off one last, rather dodgy sounding job in the hope of reversing a toxin that prevents him from accessing cyberspace. Set in a dystopian Japanese underworld, the novel touches on all manner of futuristic technology, from AI to cryonics, and features a cast of creative characters that will stick with you long after you turn the last page.

Consider Phlebas, by Iain Banks (1987)

Back in 1987, after four acclaimed fiction novels, Iain Banks published his first sci-fi book, Consider Phlebas , a true space opera and his first book of many to feature the Culture, an interstellar utopian society of humanoids, aliens and sentient machines ostensibly run by hyper-intelligent AI "Minds". A war rages across the galaxy with one side fighting for faith, the other a moral right to exist. Banks melds this conflict with something approaching a traditional fantasy quest: the search for a rogue Mind that has hidden itself on a forbidden world in an attempt to evade destruction.

Hyperion, by Dan Simmons (1989)

Winner of the 1990 Hugo Award for Best Novel and part of a two-book series, Hyperion is a richly woven sci-fi epic told in the style of The Canterbury Tales . In the world of Hyperion , humanity has spread to thousands of worlds, none more intriguing or dangerous as Hyperion. It's home to the Time Tombs, ageless structures which are mysteriously travelling backward through time, and guarding them is the terrifying creature known as the Shrike. It kills anyone who dares encroach on the Time Tombs and has inspired a fanatical religious group who control pilgrimages to the tombs. On the eve of an invasion, a group of travellers convene what's likely to be the last Shrike pilgrimage and share their tales of what brought them there.

Jurassic Park, by Michael Crichton (1990)

Before it mutated into the mega media franchise “Jurassic World”, Jurassic Park was a smart, thoughtful and gripping sci-fi classic written by Michael Crichton, author of the equally brilliant Andromeda Strain. Crichton's tale remains a great parable about the dangers of genetic engineering, (as well as a slightly heady exploration of chaos theory). His descriptions of dinosaurs are also brilliant, like the T-Rex: "Tim felt a chill, but then, as he looked down the animal's body, moving down from the massive head and jaws, he saw the smaller, muscular forelimb. It waved in the air and then it gripped the fence."

Snow Crash, by Neal Stephenson (1992)

Frantic, fun and almost suspiciously prescient, Snow Crash grabs you from its opening sequence – a high-speed race through an anarchic Los Angeles that has been carved up into corporate-owned ‘burbclaves’ – and barely lets up. The book follows main character Hiro Protagonist (yes, really), an elite hacker and swordsman, as he tries to stop the spread of a dangerous virus being propagated by a religious cult. It combines neurolinguistics, ancient mythology and computer science, and eerily predicts social networks, cryptocurrency and Google Earth.

Price: £9 | Amazon | Waterstones | Wondery | Audible trial

Vurt, by Jeff Noon (1993)

“Vurt is a feather - a drug, a dimension, a dream state, a virtual reality.” That’s what the back of this 1993 cyberpunk novel reads, and it’s a perfect way into the chaotic and surreal world of Vurt . Set in a gritty future Manchester, Vurt follows the story of Scribble, who’s on a mission to find his sister Desdemona who he believes is trapped inside a feather called Curious Yellow. That’s right, a feather. Vurt is about virtual reality, but not the strapping on a headset kind. Instead, people put feathers into their mouths to visit different dimensions and states of consciousness. Written in a frantic, dark and funny way that makes the action feel like it’s bouncing along beside you, Vurt won the Arthur C. Clarke award in 1994 and has since become a cult classic – although it’s not always easy to find a copy.

Price: £17 | Amazon | Audible trial

Under The Skin, by Michel Faber (2000)

Set in Scotland, Under The Skin is about an alien who’s sent to Earth to drug hitchhikers that she then delivers to her home planet. Despite being here to lead people to their deaths, she’s contemplative about Earth and nature. We’re used to considering what an alien visiting Earth for the first time might think about certain things, but the way Faber writes about Isserley’s experiences feels fresh, strange and, at times, oddly beautiful.

At times, Under The Skin is profoundly unnerving and difficult to read. But it’s not gratuitous. Elements of the novel are meant to be satirical, touching on present-day themes of our treatment of each other, animals and the Earth. We also highly recommend Jonathan Glazer’s 2013 movie adaptation, which is loosely based on the book but is a brilliant and intensely dark movie full of haunting imagery and a breath-taking score.

Price: £8 | Amazon | Waterstones | Audible trial

Metro 2033, by Dmitry Glukhovsky (2002)

It’s 2033, and a nuclear apocalypse has forced the rag-tag remains of the human population of Moscow to flee to the underground maze of tunnels below the city. Here they develop independent tribes in each metro station, trade goods and fight against each other. But hidden in the tunnels between the stations hide terrifying flesh-eating mutants and a voice that is driving people mad… This is the premise of Dmitry Glukhovsky’s wildly successful novel, which was later made into a series of video games. Part epic tale, part thriller, the translated story follows a teenager called Artyom, who has to travel to the heart of the Metro through unpredictable dangers to save the remains of humankind. Expect to be shocked.

Price: £9 | Amazon | Waterstones | Foyles | Audible trial

Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood (2003)

While The Handmaid’s Tale describes a world that seems more plausible by the day, in Oryx and Crake Atwood spins a genetically-modified circus of current trends taken to their absolute extreme – a “bio-engineered apocalypse,” is how one reviewer put it. A number of television adaptations have been mooted, including a now-defunct HBO project with Darren Aronofsky, but this might be one to place alongside The Stars My Destination in the impossible-to-adapt file. The world of the book is vibrant, surreal and disturbing enough.

Read more: The best sci-fi movies everyone should watch once

The Three-Body Problem, Liu Cixin (2008)

Liu Cixin was already one of China’s most revered science fiction writers when, in 2008, he decided to turn his hand to a full-length novel. The Three-Body Problem is the result – an era-spanning novel that jumps between the Cultural Revolution, the present day, and a mysterious video game. The first part of a trilogy, it’s a fascinating departure from the tropes of Western science fiction, and loaded with enough actual science that you might learn something as well as being entertained.

Children of Time, by Adrian Tchaikovsky (2015)

Children of Time is an epic book about a dying Earth. People are leaving, and there’s a plan to keep some of them safe and the human race flourishing elsewhere. However, things don’t quite pan out how they should. This is a saga of a story spanning many, many generations. That’s a tricky thing to pull off and ensure readers still follow with care and attention. But Adrian Tchaikovsky infuses interest, humanity and authenticity into every character and storyline so well. You’ll find yourself rooting for every new character that comes next – even when they’re only distantly related to the one you met a few chapters ago. The book deals with small interactions and feuds through to huge themes about belief, artificial intelligence, legacy, discovery, alienness and much more. It’s no surprise it won the 2016 Arthur C. Clarke Award. There’s a follow-up called Children of Ruin and (fingers crossed) a possible movie adaptation in the works.

The Martian, by Andy Weir (2015)

Andy Weir's debut novel literally puts the science into science fiction, packing in tonnes of well-researched detail about life on Mars. There's descriptions of how to fertilise potatoes with your own excrement, and hack a life-support system for a Martian rover – in levels of detail that the movie adaptation starring Matt Damon came nowhere near to reaching. The sassy, pop-culture laden writing style won't be to everyone's taste – this book probably won't get taught in English Literature lessons – but the first-person perspective makes sense for this story of an astronaut stranded on the Red Planet with no way to get home.

Price: £7.50 | Amazon | Waterstones | Foyles | Audible trial

The Heart Goes Last, by Margaret Atwood (2015)

An odd cocktail of a novel: part techno dystopia, part satire, part sex comedy, part classic Atwood. In a bleak, postlapsarian version of the US, young lovebirds Charmaine and Stan endure a miserable existence sleeping in their car and dodging criminals’ knives. Salvation arrives under the guise of an offer to move to the Positron Project – a gated community modelled after an American 1950s suburb. The rub? All Positron’s couples must spend every other month working in a prison, temporarily swapping homes with another couple, called “alternates”. When both Charmaine and Stan start developing oddball sexual relations with their alternates, things move rapidly south.

The Power, by Naomi Alderman (2016)

Margaret Atwood also had a hand in this gripping novel, which inverts the premise of The Handmaid’s Tale , and puts women in the ascendancy. Atwood mentored the author, Naomi Alderman, as she wrote this inventive thriller about women and girls discovering a powerful new ability to emit electricity from their hands, up-ending civilisation in different ways across the world. The Power is paced like a television series, and it is, in fact, coming to screens soon via Amazon Studios.

Borne, by Jeff VanderMeer (2017)

The Annihilation series showcased Jeff VanderMeer's gift for the surreal, and he turns it up a notch in Borne – which starts with an unknown scavenger plucking an object from the fur of a giant flying bear in a post-apocalyptic city, and only gets weirder from there as the main character strikes up a friendship with an intelligent sea anemone-like creature called Borne. The story is, it eventually transpires, one of biotechnology run amok – which makes for the most colourful dystopia you're likely to come across.

Moonrise: The Golden Age of Lunar Adventures, by Mike Ashley (2018)

Moonrise , from the British Library's Science Fiction Classics series, could just have easily appeared in the 1950s or even the 1900s in this list. It's a brilliantly curated anthology of twelve SF short stories about the moon – getting to it, exploring it, contemplating it – with lunar-inclined fiction from H.G. Wells and Arthur C. Clarke present and correct but also the likes of Judith Merril's 1954 Dead Centre , which distills all the potential tragedies of space programs into just a handful of haunting images. From author and science fiction historian Mike Ashley.

Exhalation, by Ted Chiang (2019)

Exhalation is a book of short stories rather than a novel, but hear us out. Ted Chiang is a fantastic science-fiction writer who weaves real science and theory into his tales. This makes them feel somehow part of this world despite dealing with a range of classic sci-fi themes, including parallel realities, robot pets and time travel.

From a circular time travelling portal in ancient Baghdad to a device that allows you to meet your parallel self that you can trade-in at a local store in the present day, it’s glorious science-fiction filled with wonder and mystery. There are stories and ideas nestled in Exhalation’s pages that stick with you long after you’ve finished reading. Chiang has breathed life into the science-fiction genre, creating stories that feel refreshing and human rather than concerning distant worlds and ideas that can lead to a disconnect. This is evident in his short story Story of Your Life , the source material for Denis Villeneuve's Arrival .

The Resisters, by Gish Jen (2020)

A speculative dystopia set in an 'Auto America', Gish Jen's The Resisters , which was published in early 2020, puts the sport of baseball – of all the things – at the centre of her world, which is divided into people who still get to have jobs, the Netted, as in 'Aunt Nettie', as in the internet, and the rest: the Surplus. The story centres on Gwen, who comes from a Surplus family but who has the chance to rise in status when her baseball skills get attention, with Jen taking on surveillance culture and the value of work and leisure.

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This article was originally published by WIRED UK

16 Of The Best Science Books of All Time

Ankita Devasia

Ankita is an incoming freshman at MIT who intends to pursue Math and Business Analytics. She's a Murakami enthusiast and loves sci-fi, manga, YA romance, and historical fiction. When she's not obsessively updating her Goodreads, she's either dancing, watching anime, or self-studying Mandarin. Find her on Goodreads, check out her Instagram @dankitad, or email her at [email protected]

View All posts by Ankita Devasia

Science nonfiction is a vast and diverse field with countless classics that have completely altered the way we perceive the world today. With much difficulty, I’ve chosen 16 of the best science books for nonfiction fans that are some of the best reads of all time. Hope you enjoy!

The Best Science Books of All Time

The gene: an intimate history  by siddhartha mukherjee.

In The Gene , Indian American oncologist and physician Siddhartha Mukherjee distills the infinitely complex fabric of our identity into a narrative that is as comprehensible as it is gripping. Although the story unfolds panoptically, transporting readers through time as it explores the hypotheses of figures from Pythagoras to Rosalind Franklin, it also offers a poignant glimpse of the author’s family history. Altogether, it is both a testament to human accomplishment and a warning that we pay heed to the ethical implications of genetics as we look to the future of human heredity.

Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End  by Atul Gawande

In Being Mortal , Gawande offers a sobering glimpse of the inevitable processes that shape the lives of ourselves and our loved ones. Through research and experiences gained during his career as a surgeon, he investigates the influence of medicine on longevity and explores our society’s conceptions of mortality, end-of-life care, and death.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks  by Rebecca Skloot

This book tells the story of Henrietta Lacks, an African American woman whose cell line has enabled many of the most important discoveries of the 21st century.  In this journey through her incredible life, Skloot explores the impact HeLa cells have had on modern medicine while illustrating the disturbing reality of becoming the basis of nationwide medical experimentation without one’s knowledge or consent.

A Brief History of Time  by Stephen Hawking

This essential book on cosmology explains complex concepts such as space, time, and black holes to the layman from a scientific point of view. Published in 1988, this is one of the best science books of all time. It has since sold ten million copies and been revised to represent advances in technology made in the past two decades. Through it, readers will be able to understand and appreciate the complexity of the universe.

Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind  by Yuvol Noah Harari

In this lengthy exposition on the entirety of human history, Harari investigates how our species—Homo Sapiens—has been able to come together, form religious beliefs, establish human rights, and create the systems that continue to bind us today. As he draws on a host of academic fields including economics, biology, and anthropology, Harari explores how human life has evolved since the days of our ancestors and challenges us to consider how it will change in the centuries to come.

Silent Spring  by Rachel Carson

This landmark work of advocacy sparked the modern environmentalist movement by examining the dangers of releasing toxins into the environment. Originally published as a series of articles in the New Yorker between 1958 and 1962, it brought to light the harmful effects of chemicals such as DDT on the world around us and inspired legislation that would keep such effects under control.

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We’re Wrong About the World—And Why Things Are Better Than You Think  by Hans Rosling

What percentage of the world’s population lives in poverty? How many girls in low-income countries will finish primary school this year? How has the number of deaths from natural disasters changed in the past century? The answers, surprisingly, are better than what we would expect. Indeed, our perceptions of the world are flawed—flawed to the extent that a chimpanzee randomly choosing answers to questions about global trends can score higher than the most accomplished individuals in a host of academic fields. Rosling explains this phenomenon by delving into the biases, tendencies, and instincts that hinder our ability to view the world from an objective standpoint.

A Short History of Nearly Everything  by Bill Bryson

This book uses interesting anecdotes and expositions to illustrate the complete stories of the scientific discoveries that have shaped our lives today. It’s witty, entertaining, and a must-read for those who are curious about why things are the way they are but disgruntled by memorization of dates and tedious summaries.

On The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin

Darwin laid the foundations of evolutionary biology by publishing this classic that sparked controversy in science, religion, and society as a whole. A groundbreaking illustration of how humankind has evolved via natural selection, it will change the way you understand your place in the world.  

Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything  by Stephen J. Dubner and Steven Levitt

What influence do parents actually have on children? How did Roe vs Wade influence violent crime? In this popular book, the authors analyze pertinent social issues from an economic perspective, tackling topics such as the American crack epidemic, campaign finance, and the KKK from a new lens. Its witty insights and explanations will shape the way you view the world.

The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer  by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Journey through time as Mukherjee documents the scoping history of the enigmatic disease that plays such a critical role in human health today. From the earliest origins of cancer to the battle in the 21st century to conquer the disease, this book comprehensively portrays humanity’s relationship with the disease and explores the question of whether it is possible to eradicate it from our society forever.  

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup  by John Carreyrou

Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes was hailed as the female Steve Jobs; her breakthrough means of expediting blood tests, which raised over $700 million in investment, was expected to revolutionize the medical industry. However, the technology was fake. This book documents the aftermath of this discovery and the entire thrilling story of the biggest corporate fraud since Enron.

Brief Answers to the Big Questions  by Stephen Hawking

Does God exist? Should humanity colonize space? Will technology advance society or destroy it? Hawking addresses such questions critical to the future in this short yet essential book. He discusses the challenges we face today—nuclear war, the potentially insidious propagation of artificial intelligence and similar technologies, and climate change—as well as what steps humanity should take to combat such difficulties.

Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow  by Yuval Noah Harari

In this book, Yuval Noah Harari analyses 70,000 years of human history to make predictions on our future…and the results are bleak. Compelling, insightful, and contentious, it considers topics essential for the future: if it is acceptable for humans to subjugate animals, which are considered intellectually inferior to us, is it not acceptable for us to be subjugated by intellectually superior artificial intelligence? This thought-provoking book will equip you with the mindset you need to make rational decisions in a potentially dystopian future.

Thinking, Fast and Slow  by Daniel Kahneman

This is one of the best science books that offers a glimpse into the way our minds work and how our intuitions influence our thoughts and behavior. By investigating the two contrasting systems that govern the way we think, Kahneman provides insight on how we can make better choices and prevent the instinctive judgments that hinder us from living happier lives.

Cosmos  by Carl Sagan

This iconic bestseller that kindled an entire generation’s love for science explains arcane concepts in a simple and accessible way. It puts human life into perspective, emphasizing the fact that our civilization has thrived for only a minuscule fraction of the time the universe has existed. Consisting of 13 illustrated chapters, it answers pertinent questions such as where humans come from, whether we are the sole life in the universe, and whether our legacy will endure in the centuries to come.

What do you think are the best science books—and which of them didn’t make it to this list? Let us know in the comments! Want even more recommendations for the best science books? Check our list of the Top 50 Nonfiction Books !

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Nonfiction Books » Science

The best science books of 2020: the royal society book prize, recommended by anne osbourn.

WINNER OF THE 2020 ROYAL SOCIETY INSIGHT INVESTMENT SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE

Explaining Humans: What Science Can Teach Us about Life, Love and Relationships by Camilla Pang

The Royal Society is the world's oldest independent scientific academy, dedicated to promoting excellence in science—and that includes an annual prize for the best popular science book . Here Professor Anne Osbourn , Fellow of the Royal Society and chair of this year's judging panel, talks us through the six books that made the 2020 shortlist—and what makes them intriguing, accessible and exciting.

Interview by Caspar Henderson

The Double X Economy: The Epic Potential of Empowering Women by Linda Scott

The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan

Transcendence: How Humans Evolved Through Fire, Language, Beauty, and Time by Gaia Vince

The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson

The World According to Physics by Jim Al-Khalili

1 The Double X Economy: The Epic Potential of Empowering Women by Linda Scott

2 the great pretender by susannah cahalan, 3 transcendence: how humans evolved through fire, language, beauty, and time by gaia vince, 4 the body: a guide for occupants by bill bryson, 5 the world according to physics by jim al-khalili, 6 explaining humans: what science can teach us about life, love and relationships by camilla pang.

B efore we get to the science books you’ve chosen for the Royal Society as the best of 2020, you’re a poet as well as a scientist: how do those two areas of work go together for you?

What were you and your fellow judges looking for in the books that were put forward for the 2020 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize?

It was interesting talking to the staff at the Royal Society right at the beginning of this, when I got 170 or so books delivered to my house at the beginning of lockdown! The Royal Society has certain guidelines: does the book communicate science in an exciting and interesting way? Will it appeal to a non-specialised adult audience? Is it well-written and clear?  Is there too much technical detail? Is there too little science?

Let’s turn to the six books that you selected for this year’s shortlist, starting with The Double X Economy by Linda Scott. This is a book about economics , politics and justice that has also been shortlisted for the Financial Times’s business book prize. Why is it a science book ?

We did discuss that among the judges and with the Royal Society staff, but it is clear that economics is entirely within the scope of the prize. Last year’s winner, Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez , was about the gender gap. The Double X Economy is a rigorous presentation and analysis of data to show that women are excluded at great cost to society as a whole. It’s an important, relevant and timely topic. Linda Scott has an enormous amount of hands-on experience working with communities in developing countries, researching women’s economic exclusion in various fora, and advising at the highest international levels.

The book contrasts the villages of Africa and the slums of Asia right through to boardrooms in the US and other rich countries. It’s a very thorough book with lots of graphs and charts to illustrate key points, but they’re presented in a very simplified, accessible way so the reader can take them or leave them depending on how much detail they want to go into.

“The Royal Society has certain guidelines: does the book communicate science in an exciting and interesting way? Will it appeal to a non-specialised adult audience?”

The argument is that there is a distinctive pattern of economic inequality that is relevant to the female population of every nation. The book highlights barriers such as property ownership, capital, credit and access to markets. It discusses constraints imposed on women including limited mobility, reproductive vulnerability and threats of violence.

Please tell us about the next book that made the 2020 Royal Society science book prize shortlist: The Great Pretender by Susannah Cahalan.

There is an interesting and important backstory here. The author previously wrote a book titled Brain on Fire , which is about her experience of being misdiagnosed with schizophrenia. She was about to be institutionalised but, fortunately, just before this was to happen it was found that she in fact had autoimmune inflammation of the brain. This was a biological problem for which there was a cure. So the attitudes to her changed.

In this book, she focuses on a famous experiment by David Rosenhan, a psychologist who published a paper in Science in 1973 that came to be regarded as a watershed study in the history of psychiatry. It reported how Rosenhan and other researchers had presented themselves at different psychiatric hospitals all saying they were experiencing the same symptoms, which is that they were hearing voices that said ‘thud, empty, hollow.’  The paper reported they were all diagnosed with schizophrenia and institutionalised for a period varying from days to weeks. It concluded that the hospitals could not distinguish insanity from sanity.  According to Cahalan, this paper had a profound impact on psychiatry and how it was perceived, and led to the standardisation of criteria for psychiatric diagnosis, and the withdrawal of funding for many psychiatric homes. Rosenhan wrote a book about his research but he never finished it.

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In The Great Pretender, Cahalan embarks on a fascinating investigation and tracks down Rosenhan’s colleagues and others who had known him, including the ‘pseudo-patients’ who had gone into the psychiatric homes and their families and friends. She ultimately found the first 200 pages of his unfinished book, and concluded that much of the content of the paper in Science was fabricated. She wrote to Science but did not get a response. According to a note that she unearthed, Rosenhan got himself committed by going way beyond the agreed ‘thud, empty, hollow’ strategy. He told the psychiatrist he was sensitive to radio waves, that he could hear what people were thinking and that he was suicidal. In other words, the doctor had no option but to admit him, and the system worked.

Let’s turn to Transcendence by Gaia Vince, who won the Royal Society science book prize back in 2015 for Adventures in the Anthropocene. What’s her latest book about?

This is fascinating and all-encompassing view of evolution from the beginning of the human species to what we are today. It focuses particularly on evolution through fire, language, beauty and time. It’s intelligently and thoroughly researched, with an impressive body of publications and reading being covered. Gaia Vince has lived in three different countries and visited over 60. This comes through as she draws on her experience in various ways. She speaks with authority.

We are used to thinking about genes and the environment in relation to evolution, but she brings out the role of culture , and how this differentiates us from other species. It has given us a level of connectivity that has made us, so far, very successful and has made us into this superorganism, which she calls ‘Homni.’ Each chapter begins with a narrative that draws the reader in. Some are from her own experience, some from that of others. In the chapter on “Landscaping”, there is a personal account of how Vince got caught in a fire while in a car and how she had to accelerate out of it. There’s a chapter on “Telling”, which starts with a boy (Jimmy Wales) in Alabama who was fascinated with encyclopaedias and went on to found Wikipedia.

The next book you and the other judges have chosen as one of the best science books of 2020 is The Body: A Guide for Occupants by Bill Bryson. What can you say about this book? 

Bill Bryson is, of course, well known. He’s written on many different themes and is a previous recipient of the Royal Society science book prize for his A Short History of Nearly Everything . In this new book, he embarks on a journey into the interior of the human body and, as the title suggests, it is rich with his wry sense of humour. It is a comprehensive and fascinating guide. It is written in accessible form and packed full of facts. It covers diverse topics, including the skin and hair, the microbes that live inside us, the brain, the heart, the immune system, sleep, cancer and death.

The Body: A Guide for Occupants makes the reader focus on the miracle of what it is to be human and how most of the time our very complex bodies run smoothly. We don’t tend to think about them so our awareness of their sophistication is very much suppressed, it’s in the background.

“There is darkness, revelation and hope. There is inspiration”

He anchors his chapters in talks with experts. He also brings in these little snippets about the lives of individuals who made key advances, like the German biochemist Adolf Butenandt who liked fencing without wearing protective equipment and, as a consequence, had a jagged scar across his cheek of which he was very proud.

Next up, please tell us about Jim Al-Khalili’s The World According to Physics. 

Jim Al-Khalili calls this an ‘ode to physics’.  It has a lot in it, but it is a small, accessible and very well written book, beautifully presented in compact form. The author invites us to understand what physics tells us about the universe and the nature of reality itself. He introduces fundamental concepts of space, time, energy, matter, quantum theory, relativity and thermodynamics. He goes into the array of theories that attempt to explain the world around us, currently quite numerous. Then he goes into the idea of a ‘theory of everything’, in which all theories may potentially be united. A central question here is, how likely is it that this will ever happen?  When we look back at the developments in physics over the last 100 or so years, we see electromagnetic unification, which underpins quantum electrodynamics. Once that had been unified, it became obvious retrospectively. If or when a ‘theory of everything’ is deduced, then maybe it will also be obvious with hindsight. Or maybe it just won’t be possible to do it. There’s quite a bit around this holy grail of reductionism. What is the minimal set of rules that explain a system? Will it be possible to do this or not?

Finally, let’s talk about Explaining Humans by Camilla Pang. 

Camila Pang is a research scientist specialising in translational bioinformatics. She was diagnosed with autism at the age of eight. She also has ADHD and anxiety disorder. Explaining Humans is a charming investigation of how to understand human behaviour, drawing on her superpower of neurodiversity . At the beginning is a touching narrative of how, as a young girl, she is asking her mother whether there is a manual to explain humans: she couldn’t understand human behaviour and felt she couldn’t fit in. This book is, in a way, that very manual.

Each chapter focuses on a different facet of science, and explains a different theme in a readily accessible way.  Each also brings in analogies with human behaviours, and how to interpret and respond to them. The book embraces everything from machine learning, biochemistry, thermodynamics, light, sound, quantum physics, evolution, chemistry and game theory . In each of these chapters she explains how she has learned to use rules and devices from those various fields as a lens to understand and interpret human behaviour. The concepts are illustrated with some very nice little hand drawings. It seems like there’s a formula to the structure of the chapters. Each one starts with a personal recollection or experience and then dives into the science and then sums up at the end.

There’s a striking combination of personal experience and hardcore science that draws the reader in. I think that formulaic approach is part of the charm. It illustrates the writer’s need for structure when approaching writing each chapter.

The fascinating thing is it provides insights into different ways of thinking and of the challenges of  being neurodiverse in a ‘normal’ world. It’s a scientific book but it’s also very personal. It could open up science to a much more diverse readership than one might normally expect.

I was reading how at the age of eight she fell in love with Stephen Hawking and was trying to imitate the way he sat in a chair!

Ha! I really like the analogy she uses for the proteins involved in cell signalling – the empathetic receptor proteins that sense changes in the external environment;  the no drama adaptor proteins that decide the best way to communicate a message across a cell; the loud extrovert kinases; and the thoughtful nuclear proteins that interpret and orchestrate the response. I know I’m not a kinase, but I know how it makes me feel to be in the room with one!

Is there anything you’d like to say in conclusion?

It has been a real honour and a privilege to chair the judging panel for the 2020 Royal Society Book Prize. Science is an integral part of our lives. It is beautiful, diverse and vast. Science holds the key to the time-critical global challenges that we face of ensuring food security, health, and environmentally sustainable ways of living.

The six books we have discussed all make science intriguing, accessible and exciting. Some raise awareness of the scientific process and of our understanding that scientists are humans too. Others are calls to arms, asking us to consider our place in the universe and what we can bring to humanity in our various ways. There is darkness, revelation and hope. There is inspiration.

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November 2, 2020

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Anne Osbourn

Professor Anne Osbourn is a Project Leader at the John Innes Centre and Director of the Norwich Research Park Industrial Biotechnology Alliance. She is also an honorary professor at the University of East Anglia, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2019. Her research focuses on plant-derived natural products with potential importance for the development of drugs and other compounds useful for medicine, agriculture or industry. Anne is also a poet, and has developed and co-ordinates the Science, Art and Writing Trust , a cross-curricular science education outreach programme.

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•   20 of the best popular science books

20 of the best popular science books

Philip ball, author of how life works , on what makes a great popular science book, plus our reading list of books that make the cut..

What is the secret of the most successful popular science books? There isn’t one, to tell the truth – but at the same time, it’s a formulation that works pretty well. Promise (ideally in the title) to reveal something “secret” or “hidden” about the world – about the plants, the brain, the universe, you name it – and you have a hook to draw in readers. This is a very old tradition: one of the most popular books for the Middle Ages was called the Secret of Secrets , a mishmash of alchemy, astrology, magic and medicine allegedly written by Aristotle, and audiences couldn’t resist that allure. It might sound a far cry from today’s popular science, but in both cases the promise plays on the fact that nature is often hard to fathom and understand. A good science book will deliver Aha! moments, leaving you feeling the wiser for it. 

Still, there’s no equation or formula that tells you how to do that. Sometimes the trick is to tell a human story, perhaps even with heroes and villains. Sometimes the sheer poetry of the prose is what wins the reader over. Sometimes we delight in mind-boggling ideas, or by contrast in finding the unexpected in the most ordinary or unappealing of places: dust, bacteria, disease. But at the core of the best science books are ideas: they make us think, and perhaps wonder, and we finish them looking at the world afresh.

How Life Works

By philip ball.

A cutting-edge new vision of biology that proposes to revise our concept of what life is – from Science Book Prize winner and former Nature editor Philip Ball. Today we can redesign and reconfigure living systems, tissues, and organisms. Some researchers believe that ultimately we will be able to regenerate limbs and organs, and perhaps even create new life forms that evolution has never imagined. Incorporating the latest research and insights, How Life Works is a sweeping journey into this new frontier of the nature of life, a realm that will reshape our understanding of life as we know it.

Space Oddities

By harry cliff.

In Space Oddities , physicist Harry Cliff takes readers on a tour of a baffling universe, discovering odd phenomena that challenge established cosmic theories. Unexplained particle energies are appearing under Antarctic ice, unidentifiable forces are meddling with matter's building blocks, and stars are inexplicably speeding away. Cliff delves into these mind-bending puzzles, meeting scientists seeking answers and questioning if these are natural anomalies or signs of hidden worlds. Through wonder, clarity, and humour, Cliff paves a path to investigate evolving physics and cosmology.

A Brief History of Black Holes

By dr becky smethurst.

In her enlightening book, Dr. Becky Smethurst explores the enigmatic phenomenon of black holes, which we orbit along with the Sun in the Milky Way center. From early cosmic observations and massive star collapse, to the famous black hole photographs and her research findings, Dr. Smethurst unravels mysteries. She explains why black holes aren't truly 'black', the dire consequence of 'spaghettification', their resemblance to sofa cushions rather than hoovers, and the future direction within the event horizon. The book reveals secrets of the universe, hidden in black holes.

The Rise and Reign of the Mammals

By steve brusatte.

In  The Rise and Reign of the Mammals , palaeontologist Steve Brusatte weaves together the history and evolution of our mammal forebears with stories of the scientists whose fieldwork and discoveries underlie our knowledge, both of iconic mammals like the mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers of which we have all heard, and of fascinating species that few of us are aware of. For what we see today is but a very limited range of the mammals that have existed; in this fascinating and ground-breaking book, Steve Brusatte tells their – and our – story.

The Last Drop

By tim smedley.

Water scarcity is the next big climate crisis. Water stress – not just scarcity, but also water-quality issues caused by pollution – is already driving the first waves of climate refugees. And yet in recent years some key countries have been quietly and very successfully addressing the problem. How are Singapore and Israel, for example – both severely water-stressed countries – not in the same predicament as Chennai or California? Award-winning environmental journalist Tim Smedley explores how we can mend the water table that our survival depends upon, offering a fascinating, universally relevant account of how we've got here and suggesting practical ways to address the crisis, before it’s too late.

Wise Animals

By tom chatfield.

Wise Animals delves into our historical relationship with technology, charting its evolution from rudimentary tool usage and fire mastery to the birth of the computer, internet, and AI. It argues that just like our ancestors, modern children learn and develop alongside their era's technology, signifying our individual and species-wide co-evolution with technology. Rather than viewing technology as a threat, it presents the humanist perspective that we're neither technology's masters nor victims, but it's an integral part of our identity, intertwined with our future.

The Psychology of Stupidity

By jean-francois marmion.

Edited by Jean-François Marmion, this dissection of stupidity is brought to you by some of the brightest brains around, including a Nobel Prize winner. The Psychology of Stupidity explains how lazy thinking leads to bad decisions, why even smart people can believe nonsense, how media manipulation makes us all dumber, and the pitfalls of trying to debate with a fool.

Psychedelic Apes

By alex boese.

Psychedelic Apes  is a deep dive into a black hole. What if we are all living inside one and we just don't realise? What if we are the extraterrestrials? What if the dinosaurs were wiped out in a nuclear war? Bestselling writer Alex Boese looks at the strange subculture of wacky scientific ideas, and shows how some of them may be closer to reality than we think . . . 

How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch

‘If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.’ - Carl Sagan. Inspired by Sagan’s famous line, Harry Cliff ventures out in search of the ultimate apple pie recipe, tracing the ingredients of our universe through the hearts of dying stars and back in time to a tiny fraction of a second after our universe began. If you've ever wondered what matter is really made of, or how our world began after the Big Bang, or what the very first moments of our universe looked like – then this is the book for you.

Life's Edge

By carl zimmer.

What exactly does it mean to be alive? Carl Zimmer examines the borders – if there are any - that surround the 'living world' and deftly summarises the many previous attempts to define 'life'. Whether searching for unique wildlife across the planet or making his own attempt to create life in a test tube, Zimmer tackles the fundamental question at the core of many social issues - when do we declare someone legally dead? When does life begin? Life's Edge is an utterly absorbing investigation by one of the greatest science writers of our generation. 

by Jackie Higgins

Sentient  assembles a menagerie of zoological creatures – from land, air, sea and all four corners of the globe – to understand what it means to be human. Through their eyes, ears, skins, tongues and noses, the furred, finned and feathered reveal how we sense and make sense of the world, as well as the untold scientific revolution stirring in the field of human perception.

Until Proven Safe

Until Proven Safe tracks the history and future of quarantine around the globe, chasing the story of emergency isolation through time and space.  Part travelogue, part intellectual history – a book as compelling as it is definitive, and one that could not be more urgent or timely.

The Sleeping Beauties

By suzanne o'sullivan.

In Sweden, refugee children fall asleep for months and years at a time. In upstate New York, high school students develop contagious seizures. In the US Embassy in Cuba, employees complain of headaches and memory loss after hearing strange noises in the night.

These disparate cases are some of the most remarkable diagnostic mysteries of the twenty-first century, as both doctors and scientists have struggled to explain them and – more crucially – to treat them. 

Inspired by a poignant encounter with the sleeping refugee children of Sweden, neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan travels the world to visit other communities who have also been subject to outbreaks of so-called ‘mystery’ illnesses.

Bond explores why some of us are so much better at finding our way than others. He also tackles the controversial subject of sex differences in navigation, and tries to understand why being lost can be such a devastating psychological experience. Discover how our brains make ‘cognitive maps’ that keep us orientated, even in places that we don’t know, and how our understanding of the world around us affects our psychology and behaviour.

Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain

By lisa feldman barrett.

In seven short essays about that big grey blob between your ears, neuroscientist Lisa Feldman Barrett explores the origins and structure of the brain, as well as shelving popular myths about the alleged battle between thoughts and emotions, or between nature and nurture. Sure to intrigue casual readers and scientific veterans alike, the book is full of surprises, humour and revelations about human nature.

The Formula

By albert-lászló barabási.

Did you always think success was just down to luck? It turns out, there’s a lot more science to it than that. In  The Formula , Barabasi has discovered the indisputable scientific laws that actually dictate who gets ahead and why.

The Genius Within

By david adam.

What if you have more intelligence than you realize? Dr David Adam has been testing the exciting boundaries of neuroscience, and he’s here to show you how science can actually make your brain sharper, more focused, and even more intelligent.

How Emotions Are Made

Our understanding of emotion hasn’t changed since Plato: we believe that emotions are hardwired into our brains, and we’re just taken along for the ride. But what if this view is wrong? And what implications does this have for society? When judges give lesser sentences for crimes of passion, when police officers fire at threatening suspects, what if they’re all relying on a dangerously outdated view of emotion?

The Wizard and the Prophet

By charles c. mann.

Never has the future of our planet been so pressing as it is today. As global temperatures soar, the population races towards ten billion, and our food sources threaten to run out,  The Wizard and the Prophet  weighs up the crucial perspectives of two little-known scientists, Norman Borlaug and William Vogt. Vogt, the Prophet, believes that our prosperity can only lead to ruin – but Borlaug, the Wizard, believes science will continue to rise to the challenges we face.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat

By oliver sacks.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat is the million-copy bestseller from the acclaimed neurologist, Oliver Sacks, a man the New York Times called 'the poet laureate of medicine'. In this extraordinary book, he recounts the stories of patients lost in the bizarre, apparently inescapable world of neurological disorders.

For even more pop science book recommendations, check out this episode of Book Break with guest host Simon Clarke:

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50 Best Fictional STEM & Science Books for Kids

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I’m excited to share the best fictional STEM and science books for kids ages 4 to 12. (STEM means science, technology, engineering, art, and math .) The stories on today’s list will make STEM enticing to preschool, elementary, and middle school readers. (If it isn’t already.)

Whether or not your kids are interested in STEM, see what develops after reading one of the books on this list. Maybe an interest will grow? Try these fun STEM activities or read these scientific method stories !

I’ve divided this into three sections: picture books , beginning chapter books , and middle grade books .

STEM & Science Books

SHOP this entire list of books.

STEM & Science Picture Books

Vivi Loves Science by Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes, illustrated by Joelle Murray SCIENCE Vivi loves science and being curious. When her class gets to go the ocean for a field trip, she learns many new, wonderful things about tide pools.

Libby Loves Science by Kimberly Derting and Shelli R. Johannes, illustrated by Joelle Murray SCIENCE Libby loves science and experiments with recipes and experiments at school. Chemistry reminds her of cooking. At the science fair, she and her classmates need to attract more people to the booth to show that science is fun, but their experiments don’t win them the prize of an ice cream party. Their teacher reminds them that it’s about trying, not winning.

Mae and Gerty and the Matter with Matter written by Elaine Vickers, illustrated by Erica Salcedo MATTER I loved this clever introduction to matter and science using the baby sister’s antics and first word, “madda.” When little sister Gerty shouts “Madda” while popping Mae’s bubbles, Dad praises her for getting all three states of matter: solid, liquid, and gas. Frustrated at all the attention Gerty is getting, older sister Gerty decides she can ask questions, make messes, and try stuff out with her little sister. So they do!

The Princess and the Petri Dish by Sue Fliess, illustrated Petros Bouloubasis SCIENTIFIC METHOD A STEM loving princess named Pippa uses the scientific method to improve the taste of green peas. She’s successful at first but must use her skills again to solve the overgrowing pea plants which shows the kingdom that she’s the best scientist in the land.

When Grandpa Gives You a Toolbox by Jamie L. B. Deenihan, illustrated by Lorraine Rocha ENGINEERING The boy wanted a dollhouse, but grandpa gives him a toolbox. He realizes that he can use his toolbox to build a house for a bird, help a neighbor with her mailbox, and build exactly what he wanted originally — a dollhouse. This is a special story that defies gender stereotypes, encourages creative engineering, and shows a loving relationship between grandparent and child. 

The Twist-a-Roo written by Kathleen Doherty, illustrated by Kristyna Litten STEAM In a charming STEAM story filled with wordplay and GORGEOUS illustrations, Badger discovers a twist-a-roo, aka. a kaleidoscope . Even though Badger’s forest friends urge Badger to store food for the winter, Badger keeps playing. What will happen when Badger’s food storage runs out, and it’s snowy outside? A group of friends share their food with Badger, and Badger chases away their winter blues with the zippy-zappy fancy light show. You’ll be reading this delightful story again and again — there is so much to love!

Mazie’s Amazing Machines  written by Sheryl Haft, illustrated by Jeremy Holmes SIMPLE MACHINES / ENGINEERING Mazie loves engineering. She solves problems with her inventions–like feeding her dog Doodle and helping her dad lift a tire.  She imagines, draws, builds with simple machines like ramps and pulleys. Mostly everyone loves engineering as much as Maize…which can both cause problems and solve them! I love the comic panel illustrations.

Princesses Can Fix It! by Tracy Marchini, illustrated by Julia Christians MAKERS A darling girl empowerment story where the princesses show their dad that they are capable and don’t need to be stuck in limiting gender roles. When the king has issues with alligators, the princesses know they can fix it. And, even though the king dismisses them, their brother the prince encourages them, and the princesses try and try until they find a solution!

Eclipse   by Andy Rash TIME / ECLIPSE Written in a countdown, parallel structure with three different verb tenses starting with future, then present, and then past,  a boy plans to see an eclipse using time words like month, days, hour minutes, and then, they arrive at the spot to see the Sun disappear behind the Moon.  Then, the boy and his father return home and try to remember the eclipse they saw. Kids will love the amazing digital illustrations.

How to Seesaws Go Up and Down? A Book About Simple Machines   by Jennifer Shand, illustrated by Srimalie Bassani SCIENCE: SIMPLE MACHINES The author asks readers a question like –“Why can you almost always ride faster on a bigger bike than a smaller bike?” and adds a silly hypothesis like, “Is it because bigger bikes have secret rocket boosters?” Read more about the wheel and axel and how a big wheel gets a bigger tire turn. The author shows everyday, common objects that kids can recognize for their examples like the flag on a flagpole, a seesaw in a park, a truck going up a mountain or a screw in a piece of wood. The explanations are easy to understand in spot-on kid language. I recommend this book to introduce kids to science concepts, particularly for elementary classrooms learning about simple machines.

Jo Bright and the Seven Bots  by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by Meg Hunt ROBOTICS In this updated science fiction Sleeping Beauty, clever Jo loves building Bots from scratch.  But the jealous queen wants to be the best bot builder — better than Jo. Rhyming, jaunty text depicts Jo befriending a dragon and fixing an enchanted dragon. They capture the queen and the mirror-bot makes Jo the new queen. It’s an engaging, girl-power  STEM story  that readers will love.

Robot Repairs  by Jonathan Litton, illustrated by Magali Mansilla TECHNOLOGY / ENGINEERING Continuing the STEAM series is another story about Max and Suzy, this time about problem solving an old  robot  who needs fixing. The friends work together to figure out which pieces are arms and legs, attach the head, and put in new batteries. Kids will find this story interesting!

The Backyard Build  by Jonathan Litton, illustrated by Magali Mansilla ENGINEERING Max, Suzy, and their neighbor Miss Gizmo make a plan and build a swing. Then they choose more materials and make a seesaw and a slide. The story models coming up with a plan and executing it but doesn’t go into the details of building any of these playtoys.

The Picnic Problem  by Jonathan Litton, illustrated by Magali Mansilla MATH : SHAPES, COUNTING, ADDING From the STEAM stories series comes a new story focused on math. Max and Suzy get a letter from Miss Add-It-Up that sends them to the park to solve a math-related  treasure hunt  of clues. For example, “Which kite has the longest tail? Ignore the strings, so you don’t fail.” Max and Suzy compare tails of the differently shaped kites. The circle kite ends up being the winner and having their next clue. There’s a ton of  fun math problems that kids  can solve with the main characters as you read the story. I love that this story is actually a relatable adventure story that integrates math into it.

Creep, Leap, Crunch! A Food Chain Story written by Jody Jensen Shaffer, illustrated by Christopher Silas Neal The first half of this book is a cumulative food chain story that starts with the sun and the plants. Each page adds on a predator who eats the prey — the mouse eats the cricket, the snake eats the mouse, all the way up to a brown bear eating the fox. Then, the cricket hops away from the mouse, and the fox sneaks around the black bear, and none of the animals get eaten. Back matter explains more about the forest and the animals. This is a perfect STEM read aloud introduction to food chains and forest biomes .

Matter: Physical Science for Kids   by Andi Diehn, illustrated by Hui Li SCIENCE: MATTER Matter made understandable for kids — I love it! You are made of matter. “Matter is anything that takes up  space  and can be weighted. / How do you weigh things? / With a scale!” The next page asks how much you, your dog, a tree, and our shoes weigh. What about air? The book gives more info and a simple balloon experiment to show about air. I like that after the air, the book talks about juice to introduce liquids. The content of this entire book, including what isn’t matter at the end, is all an excellent introduction.

Power Up: Your Incredible, Spectacular, Supercharged Body  by Seth Fishman, illustrated by Isabel Greenberg SCIENCE: BODY This book feels like a motivational speech! I’m positive it will motivate your kids to be more curious about their powerful bodies! Use this book as an introduction to studying the body or energy –it’s sure to captivate students at school and kids at home. “ That little finger has enough energy to light up one of the biggest cities in the world for an entire day. That’s power for four million refrigerators, seven million TVs, eighteen hundred schools, and about twelve thousand stoplights. ” Isn’t that so wild!? I think the illustrations with a main character of color are spectacular.

Let’s Investigate with Nate: The Water Cycle  by PBS host Nate Ball illustrated by Wes Hargis SCIENCE: WATER This is Ms. Frizzle and  The Magic School Bus  with a male main character. Like The  Magic School Bus , Nate takes the kids who are talking with cartoon bubble on adventures to learn more about the science. It’s informative; I just wish it were more original.

Matter (Hands-On Science)  by Lola M. Schaefer, illustrated by Druscilla Santiago CHEMISTRY This picture book is a fantastic introduction to chemistry with clear text and illustrations. Simple, interactive experiments show children hands-on examples of the states of matter from solid to gas to liquid that kids can do at home as their read and in real life. For example, “put” the sugar into juice and watch it dissolve. Next, place the juice in the freezer and close the door, aka. turn the page. While you wait, you can predict what will happen by tapping on the picture showing what you think might happen to the juice in the freezer. You’ll turn the page to see…it’s solid ice! Isn’t that brilliant and interactive!?

STEM Beginning Chapter Books for Kids Ages 6 – 8

Ready to get your beginning readers interested in science, technology, engineering, and math? While you can read nonfiction books , these fiction stories integrate those topics. Read about a girl who loves rocks, genius inventors, and math-loving detectives.

Jada Jones Rock Star  by Kelly Starling Lyons, illustrated by Vanessa Brantley Newton SCIENCE (GEOLOGY) Jada’s starts the school year hoping to find new friends,  hopefully ones that love rocks as much as she does.  She misses her best friend but feels excited when her class studies geology. Unfortunately, one bossy girl in Jada’s group project makes fun of Jada’s interest in rocks. Sound like real life? This is a well-written STEM-related story that shows the challenges of getting along with others and staying true to yourself. Plus, you’ll like that the main character (of color) is a big science nerd!

Parker Bell and the Science of Friendship  by Cynthia Platt, illustrated by Rea Zhai SCIENCE Parker loves science and hopes she and her team will win a medal in the science competition.  The lovely friendship and STEM book engages readers in a relatable story about Parker’s new friendships as well as using the scientific method for invention, robots, & egg drops.

Ellie, Engineer  by Jackson Pearce ENGINEERING This is a well-written STEM adventure that  makes engineering seem enticing and creative!  After a disastrous “french braid machine” tangles her best friend’s hair, Ellie, who already identifies herself as an engineer, plans to make her BFF a new birthday present — a dog house, getting help from a neighbor boy and a group of girls from school who are bitter rivals up until Ellie helps them work together.

Frank Einstein and the Antimatter Motor  by Jon Scieszka, illustrated by Brian Biggs SCIENCE, ENGINEERING Frank is a genius inventor. When lightning sparks his robots, Klink and Klank, into life, he’s got built-in lab partners. Until Frank’s enemy steals them.  Humor, technology, and science make this an appealing series.

Mad Scientist Academy: The Dinosaur Disaster  by Matthew McElligott SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY Unusual characters attend this school where their wacky science teacher has built an interactive, robotic dinosaur exhibit that accidentally come to life.  If your kids love science, off-beat  graphic novels,  they’ll love this series that mixes science and technology with fantasy in a most entertaining way.

Ada Lace is On the Case  by Emily Calandrelli with Tamson Weston, illustrated by Renee Kurilla SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY Ada moves to a new neighborhood. She observes everything that happens out her window. After she makes friends with a neighbor girl, they notice a distraught neighbor whose dog is missing and determine to solve who took it . Together, with another neighbor boy, they use  science and technology  to solve the mystery of the missing dog.

Franny K. Stein  by Jim Benton SCIENCE, ENGINEERING I adore Franny! She’s a  non-social, wacky scientist kid who is always messing up her science experiments or getting into some sort of trouble.  This series is totally hilarious.

EngiNerds by Jarret Lerner ENGINEERING, TECHNOLOGY You got to love a book that glorifies the nerds! (At least I do!!) This book is awesome. It’s about a group of kids, one of whom secretly makes robots for each person in their group of EngiNerds. Of course, this all goes wrong making for a funny, fast-paced adventure your kids won’t be able to put down.

Olga and the Smelly Thing From Nowhere  by Elise Gravel SCIENCE If you LOVE kooky books, this book fits the bill.  Olga finds the most unusual, unknown creature whom she names “MEH” after the sound it makes.  She uses her deductive reasoning to figure out what it is (something new!) and what it likes to eat (olives)! But what will she do when Meh disappears? Things I love about this book: 1) the illustrations — they rock! 2) the narrator’s voice — it’s believable and funny 3) the plot — especially the  mean girls  who aren’t so mean after all.

Science No Fair: Project Droid   by Nancy Krulik and Amanda Burwasser, illustrated by Mike Moran SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY Imagine going to school with your so-called cousin Java who is really a robot in disguise . That’s Logan’s life. But his inventor mother insists Logan keep Java’s secret. Unfortunately, the Silverspoon twins pair up with Java for the science fair. Logan’s worried Java’s secret won’t be safe for long.

The Case of the Claymore Diamond Math Inspectors  by Daniel Kenney and Emily Boever MATH Viva math! These friends love  math and are proud of it — in fact ,  they’re sure they can use their math skills to solve crimes . This first mystery is about a jewelry store robbery. And they do solve it by finding clues that the police miss, freeing an innocent man. This is a delightful easy chapter book series.

The Computer Code Mystery  by Justin Taylor, illustrated by Lindsay Hornsby TECHNOLOGY Celia and Anna use science, art, technology, engineering, and math (STEAM) to solve mysteries. They’re on the case when their  video game  is hacked.

Best STEM Science Middle Grade Books for Kids Ages 8 – 12

You’ll notice that I’ve indicated the major STEM themes within each story. (I’m considering inventors to be engineers if you’re wondering.)

I hope this list helps you find the best STEM and science books for your kids to read next.

Elements of Genius: Nikki Tesla and the Ferret-Proof Death Ray  by Jess Keating SCIENCE, TECH, ENGINEERING, MATH Inventor Nikki Tesla joins a new school called the Genius Academy where she’s not the only genius  and  she’s supposed to start working well with others. (That will be hard!) When Nikki’s death ray is stolen from a locked safe, she and her classmates must collaborate to find it using all their STEM skills and hopefully, save the world. They follow clues around the world, thwart plots to divide their group, and capture the bad guy before he can use the death ray.  Not only does this engrossing story feature smart kids who love STEM but the action and themes of friendship and growing up resonated and entertained me.

Explorer Academy: The Nebula Secret  by Trudi Trueit SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY This is National Geographic’s first fictional book series with full-color illustrations that hits the spot with an  exciting mix of science, technology, adventure, and mystery . Newly accepted into the prestigious  Explorer Academy  for science and exploration, Cruz realizes that someone is trying to kill him; someone who doesn’t want him finding out about his mother’s mysterious research and untimely death. There’s tons of cool tech, amazing friendships, plot twists, plus an intriguing premise.

Explorer Academy Vela: The Sailor Cipher written by Trudi Trueit, illustrated by Kadijah Khatib SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY In this new series, we follow Sailor’s adventures on a new and improved boat called Vela. But just as she’s about to start classes, Sailor learns that her sister is missing and it might be due to her work for a secret organization. Despite worrying about her sister, Sailor needs to go undercover to find the mole in the secret organization, keep attending classes, and keep her powers of animal communication a secret . Action, intrigue, and adventure — plus great illustrations and writing make this a stand-out first book of a new must-read series.

Emmy in the Key of Code   by Aimee Lucido REALISTIC / STEM An exquisite book that celebrates music, STEM, making friends, and growing into yourself.  Emmy’s eager to start a new school and make friends but she’s thwarted by rudeness at every turn. A daughter of professional musicians, Emmy decides to accept that even though her entire life is music and she lives for music, she’ll never be a musician herself. So for an elective, she takes computer programming instead of music. A girl in her programming class named Abigail is friendly but only during class. Which makes Emmy feel both good for that little attention but angry at being kept a secret. As Emmy’s family adjusts to San Francisco, Emmy figures out her place in the world, especially as it relates to her growing love for programming.

Science Factopia! Follow the Trail of 400 STEM-tastic Facts written by Rose Davidson, illustrated by Andy Smith This engaging nonfiction book is filled with information and eye-catching, colorful illustrated designs.

Dragon Vs. Unicorns: Kate the Chemist  by Dr. Kate Biberdorf with Hillary Homzie SCIENCE, SCIENTIFIC METHOD Exciting from the first page (a fire breathing science experiment!!), this awesome new STEM chapter  book series  is hard to put down.  There’s lots happening in Kate’s busy life every day but no matter if she’s dealing with science, the school play, or friends, she’s a determined problem solver. When she tries to figure out who is sabotaging the school musical, it’s going to take all her skills to find the culprit.

The Multiplying Mysteries of Mount Ten  by Krista Van Dolzer MATH When Esther and her stepdad accidentally arrive at math camp, not  art camp , they’re forced to stay due to a major storm. Then both her roommate and stepdad go missing and she receives clues about mythological monsters, one of whom might be a murderer. Delightful.

The Monarchs of Winghaven written by Naila Moreira SCIENCE & CONSERVATION In this gentle story about a nature-loving scientist girl named Sammie, Sammie loves observing the field she calls “Winghaven” and recording the flora and fauna she notices in her nature journal. But she doesn’t love it when a boy named Bram imposes on HER spot and gives her suggestions for improving her drawings. Even so, Bram’s photography of nature and friendliness wins Sammie over. Together, they start a summer study of the monarchs who live at Winghaven, inspired by a grad student they meet at Winghaven. When a shady deal involving the mayor and a developer would mean the destruction of the ecosystem for development, Bram and Sammie must figure out how to save and protect the land.

The Friendship Code #1 Girls Who Code  by Stacia Deutsch TECHNOLOGY Lucy joins  coding club so she can make an app  for her uncle to remember his medications.  But the class is moving TOO slow. Then, a mysterious letter arrives on her locker with instructions in code. The subsequent messages in code put her back in touch with old friends and help her build a new friendship. But who is sending her messages? Whoever it is, they’re teaching Lucy and her friends about input/output, conditionals, loops, and variables. To solve the mystery, the girls decide to write their own code . . . This series is off to a great start with an intriguing mystery, friendship dilemmas, and tangible coding knowledge. I’m impressed.

Secret Coders: Get with the Program  by  Gene Luen Yang  and Mike Holmes TECHNOLOGY What’s happening at Hopper’s new school? She and her friends discover something very amazing about the birds — they’re robotic and can be controlled by numbers. Which leads  the kids to go up against the scheming, evil janitor.   Readers learn some basics of how to use the  programming language Logo  with sequence, iteration, and selection, and must apply their knowledge to help the characters. Interactive with diverse  main characters makes this a very well-done STEM graphic novel .

The Code Busters Club Case 1 The Secret of the Skeleton Key   by Penny Warner MATH Use your math skills and deductive reasoning along with the main characters as they  write and solve codes throughout this adventurous STEM mystery story.

Click’d  by Tamara Ireland Stone TECHNOLOGY At coding camp, Allie makes an app to help kids can find new friends.  When she returns to school, she releases it only to discover it has a major glitch. Relatable and engaging, this is a cool STEM-themed story of a middle school girl’s coding project that has unexpected consequences both positive and negative.

The Wollstonecraft Detective Agency The Case of the Missing Moonstone  by Jordan Stratford, illustrated by Kelly Murphy TECHNOLOGY  I LOVE this fantastically developed  historical fiction  story for several reasons – the girl-centric history is really interesting (and empowering), the characters are so well-developed ,  and the plot is a grand adventure!  The author imagines a friendship between Ada Byron, genius daughter of Lord Byron and the world’s first computer programmer, and Mary Shelley, the world’s first science-fiction author who almost could have been friends in real life but for about a decade of years. Mary joins Ada to study with Ada’s tutor and the duo form a detective agency. In this first adventure, Mary and Ada learn about another historical figure who invented hypnotism and solve the case of a stolen heirloom.

Spin the Golden Light Bulb  by Jackie Yeager ENGINEERING You’ll be inspired by  11-year old  inventor-hopeful, Kia, and four classmates who live in 2071 and are getting the chance to compete for a spot at the Piedmont Inventor’s Prep School.  They’ll have to be creative, work as a team, and use their STEM skills in order to succeed.

Brendan Buckley’s Universe and Everything In It   by Sundee T. Frazier SCIENCE BOOKS Self-proclaimed scientist,  Brendan, decides to use the scientific method to figure out what happened to his mother and grandfather’s relationship.  He will discover that science can’t always figure out matters of human emotions, including prejudice. –> See more books using the scientific method to solve problems.

The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate   by Jacqueline Kelly SCIENCE BOOKS Set in the late 1800s, 11-year-old  Calpurnia loves to observe the natural world.  Despite society’s expectations, her grumpy grandpa helps Callie explore her interest in science. This is contrasted with her mother’s push for Callie to be like other girls with cooking and sewing. Callie struggles to find her way through the confusion of her family’s expectations and her own interests.

The Number Devil     by Hans Magnus Enzensberger MATH Robert hates math. Until he dreams about the Number Devil.  In his dreams, Robert discovers the relevance of mathematics which when he awakes, he later applies at school . From square roots to Fibonacci numbers to mathematical theory, Robert dreams of an amazing mathematical adventure.

KEEP READING

Science Fiction Books

Engineering Books

STEM Toys & Gifts (SCIENCE / MATH / TECH / ENGINEERING)

Coding for Kids

Harry Potter Spells

Harry Potter Potions

Melissa Taylor, MA, is the creator of Imagination Soup. She's a mother, former teacher & literacy trainer, and freelance education writer. She writes Imagination Soup and freelances for publications online and in print, including Penguin Random House's Brightly website, USA Today Health, Adobe Education, Colorado Parent, and Parenting. She is passionate about matching kids with books that they'll love.

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I have a new STEM book to share! It’s the first in a series of STEM based chapter books for younger readers. In the first book, Marie and Albert learn about gravity when they discover a secret lab at their school that turns it off! It’s a race to save their classmates from floating away! The adventure covers the topics of gravity, mass and scientist Isaac Newton. Title: The Secret Laboratory, Gravity Gone! By: Kristen Bottger

Science Friday

From tiny krill to concrete jungles: 2022’s best science books for kids.

12:14 minutes

• Read Transcript
• More from this episode

The holidays are right around the corner, which means for those who give gifts in December, now is the time to start putting together that shopping list. If you have a young person in your life who loves science, why not expand their library and get a book or two?

Joining Ira to give their recommendation for the best children’s science books of the year—both fiction and nonfiction—are Melissa Stewart, science book author based in Boston, Massachusetts, and Kristina Holzweiss, education technology specialist based on Long Island, New York.

Disclaimer: When you purchase products through the Bookshop.org links on this page, Science Friday may earn a small commission which helps support our journalism.

Melissa Stewart’s Picks:

Author of Tree Hole Homes: Daytime Dens and Nighttime Nooks   and more science books for children

Your Place In The Universe by Jason Chin

Get The Book

“This new book… starts with a person and it looks at the insides of our bodies: cells, and then molecules and atoms, and then all the way down to quarks and gluons. Jason Chin is really well known for his beautiful, lifelike illustrations, and so this is a book that I think kids will really love.”

Footprints Across The Planet by Jennifer Swanson

“It ranges all the way from footprints of some of our favorite animals: from elephants to birds, all the way down to tiny little flies. It also looks at footprints from fossilized dinosaurs.”

Yoshi And The Ocean: A Sea Turtle’s Incredible Journey Home by Lindsay Moore

“It tells the remarkable story of an injured loggerhead sea turtle that was rescued by some Japanese fishermen… then eventually released with a radio tag, and scientists are able to watch it swimming… all the way back to his home in Australia.”

Blips On A Screen: How Ralph Baer Invented TV Video Gaming And Launched A Worldwide Obsession by Kate Hannigan

“A book about a Jewish refugee… [who], when TV was first invented, he wanted it to be more interactive, and he had the skills and expertise to figure out how to create those very first video games that have developed into one of the pastimes that kids love more than anything today.”

Concrete: From The Ground Up by Larissa Theule

Do you have a buddy engineer in your life, or a young person who wonders about the architecture and design in their world? This book covered ancient building designs with modern materials to show readers how concrete has a deeper history than one might think.

Good Eating: The Short Life of Krill by Matt Lilley

Krill might seem small, but they are a cornerstone in the marine food chain! This book is perfect for ocean-obsessed readers, especially those who have exhausted their interest in megafauna like blue whales and are looking for a new animal to love.

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Kristina Holzweiss’s Picks:

Education technology specialist and STEM and makerspace author

Copycat: Nature-Inspired Design Around the World by Christy Hale

“This book is nature inspired designs… it has photos of nature, and how we have adapted those items in our design.”

Octopuses Have Zero Bones: A Counting Book About Our Amazing World by Anne Richardson

“It is not a typical counting book. I would not use this for little kids to learn how to count from one to ten—because as you find out when you go through the book, it doesn’t just talk about numbers one through 10 And but it talks about bigger numbers.”

The First Rule of Climate Club by Carrie Firestone

“This book talks about a group of students, and they are activists, and they’re talking about climate change. Not only is it about science and climate, but how relationships build.”

Gamer Girls: 25 Women Who Built the Video Game Industry by Mary Kenney

“Video games is definitely a hook… any way you can connect something an actual toy, or a game, with a book, I think that’s a really great idea.”

Real Outdoor Science Experiments: 30 Exciting Steam Activities for Kids by Jenny Ballif

Do your 8- to 12-year-olds have questions about how sinkholes forms, or why leaves change colors in autumn? The great outdoors is a great place to be inspired to experiment.

Segment Guests

Melissa Stewart is a science book author based in Boston, Massachusetts.

Kristina Holzweiss is an education technology specialist based in Long Island, New York.

Segment Transcript

IRA FLATOW: This is Science Friday. I’m Ira Flatow. A bit later in the hour, we’ll get an Indigenous perspective on conservation and environmental restoration, plus our annual Ig Nobel Awards coverage.

But first with the holidays right around the corner, that means, you know, it’s gift-giving season. And if you have a young person in your life who loves science, you might be thinking about what to get them for Christmas or Hanukkah.

Well, why not kick it old school? Get them a book. Yeah, a whole bunch of science books for kids and young adults came out this year. And joining me are two people who are going to tell us all about their favorites. Melissa Stuart, science book author based in Boston, Massachusetts. Kristina Holzweiss, edtech librarian based in Syosset, New York. That’s out on Long Island. Welcome to Science Friday.

KRISTINA HOLZWEISS: Thank you so much.

MELISSA STUART: It’s great to be here. Thanks for having us.

IRA FLATOW: Nice to have you. A quick note, this conversation was recorded in front of a live Zoom audience. And for more information about how you can join a future live stream, head over to sciencefriday.com/livestream.

All right, let’s get right to our questions. Melissa, you write science books for kids. So I know you’re very involved with this world. Can you give me your top three recommendations of science books for kids that came out this year.

MELISSA STUART: Sure, thanks for having me. I’d be happy to share. So the first book that I wanted to talk about is one of the most highly anticipated science books of the year. It’s coming out next week.

It’s called The Universe in You– A Microscopic Journey. And it is written by Jason Chin, who has won the Caldecott Medal, and the Cyber Honor Medal in the past. And it’s actually a follow-up to a very popular book from a couple of years ago called Your Place in the Universe.

And so Your Place in the Universe sort of started with a person and then went out into the planets, and the galaxy, and the universe. This new book goes in. It starts with a person and it looks at the insides of our bodies, cells, and then molecules, and atoms, and then all the way on all the way down to quarks and gluons. So Jason Chin is really well known for his beautiful lifelike illustrations. And so this is a book that I think kids will really love.

And the second book I wanted to share is called Footprints Across the Planet. This is by Jennifer Swanson. And this is a really great book. It’s beautifully illustrated. The photos in this book are top notch. And it ranges all the way from footprints of some of our favorite animals from elephants to birds all the way down to tiny little flies. It also looks at footprints from fossilized dinosaurs and everything from footprints that have been left permanently by people on the moon to digital footprints.

And then the third book that I wanted to talk about this is called Yoshi and the Ocean. And the subtitle of this book is A Sea Turtle’s Incredible Journey Home. It’s written by Lindsay Moore. And it tells the remarkable story of an injured loggerhead sea turtle that was rescued by some Japanese fishermen, and then rehabilitated for a period of 20 years, and then eventually released with a radio tag and scientists were able to watch it swimming a total of 25,000 miles all the way back to its home in Australia.

IRA FLATOW: Wow. wow.

MELISSA STUART: So it’s a really– beautiful art and really well written.

IRA FLATOW: That is some– that’s something really cool. And some great books. Thank you, Melissa.

Kristina, you’re up. You were named the 2015 Scholastic School Librarian of the Year, so I imagine you’re clued in to what kids actually like and they seek out. And I know you’re also heavily involved with the makerspace world, which I think is terrific. So give me please your top three recommendations.

KRISTINA HOLZWEISS: Well, thank you, Ira. Well, I’m going to give you some recommendations that I love that could be appropriate for, I would say, maybe intermediate, elementary school, middle school is where I spent 23 years of my career. I’m now in the high school.

But I love photos and any books. And I think any kids would love this. This one is called Copycat. And I love connecting nature with technology. And I love doing that in my makerspace, very low tech and high tech. And this book is nature inspired designs. So basically, it has photos of nature and how we have adapted those items in our design. So here we have an image of a snail and it’s home, and then a home that looks like that in the desert.

My second book is called Octopuses have Zero Bones. Now, it is a counting book, but it is not a typical counting book. I would not use this for little kids to learn how to count from 1 to 10. Because as you find out when you go to the book, it doesn’t just talk about numbers 1 through 10, but it talks about bigger numbers.

So for example, we have our 0, but we also have our 1, and then the 1 turns into a 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, all the way up. So basically, the author takes zeros and puts it at the end of numbers to really scale up the counting. So there is only one heart in your body, but then we talk about if we place a 0 behind the 1, we have a 10. So it’s not a traditional typical counting book.

And also we think of STEM books as traditionally non-fiction. Well, I love fiction books as well. And I love the intersection between fiction non-fiction with science. This is called The First Rule of Climate Club. And the author is Carrie Firestone, who wrote the book Dress Coded. And that was a middle school book.

And this book talks about a group of students, and they are activists, and they’re talking about climate change. But it’s not just about activism, not only is it about science and climate, but how relationships build. So I love learning about the Global Goals by the United Nations.

There are Global Goals that students around the world are talking about climate change, and equity, and education, and there’s so– zero poverty. This one is all about climate change. So it’s a really good to inspire our young youth activists.

IRA FLATOW: That’s great. And what kinds of science books do you find kids at your school gravitating to? Does that change based on grade level, Kristina?

KRISTINA HOLZWEISS: Well, I work in a high school now. So a lot of the science books that our students are reading are really driven by the curriculum. But I find that students of all ages love books that have to do with pop culture. So books that have to do– like the science behind toys or the science behind their favorite brands, the science behind everyday technology that they use. So their connection with the science and their passions–

IRA FLATOW: Right.

KRISTINA HOLZWEISS: –that’s what I’m finding it’s more what they gravitate to.

IRA FLATOW: I love those kinds of books. That’s why I read kids books because there’s so much good stuff right. They don’t take that anything for granted, and I like that. Yeah.

Melissa, you just got off a book tour for your own book. Can you tell us about that book?

MELISSA STUART: I did. I actually had two books that came out within the last month or so. So the first one is called Tree Hole Homes.

And it’s about creatures that live in trees. It includes the usual suspects, like birds and squirrels, but also some amazing animals from all over the world like iguanas and crabs. And my favorite thing about the art in this book is that it actually was painted on real pieces of wood. So when you look at the trees, what you’re seeing is the grain of the actual wood pieces that the Illustrator Amy [INAUDIBLE] used.

IRA FLATOW: Beautiful stuff. Just gorgeous.

MELISSA STUART: Yeah. Beautiful, beautiful art. And then the other, which is totally different is called Mega Predators of the Past. And this book is not about dinosaurs, it’s about the other mega predators of the ancient world. So it includes everything from giant ripper lizards, which are on the cover here.

IRA FLATOW: Ripper lizards, don’t think we ever heard of that.

MELISSA STUART: Yeah.

IRA FLATOW: [LAUGHS]

MELISSA STUART: Yeah, wouldn’t want to run into one in a cave. That’s for sure. And one of my favorites is these giant terror birds, which are as tall as giraffes. And so this book really takes a fun look at some of these amazing creatures, it includes little comparison illustrations that show you the size compared to humans and also some other more common animals that are alive today.

IRA FLATOW: [INAUDIBLE] has a question about books for aspiring astrophysicists. Go ahead, [INAUDIBLE].

AUDIENCE: Hi, good afternoon, everybody. Hi, Ira. So I have a 9-year-old grandson, and he is an aspiring astrophysicist. He loves everything about space, so I’m looking for books that you could recommend on space, planets, nebula– he really loves nebula– stars.

And he’s so into the James Webb Space Telescope, but I don’t– I need something that’s at his grade level or he could probably read about fifth, sixth grade level. And, of course, pictures are always good. So any recommendations you have.

MELISSA STUART: I think a really great place for him to start would be the book that I was mentioning a little bit earlier, Jason Chin’s book that came out in 2020. It’s called Your Place in the Universe. I think he would really enjoy that book.

IRA FLATOW: One of the nonfiction categories that I loved as a kid was biography. I remember reading books about Einstein, or books of Louis Pasteur, all kinds of folks, even Anthony Fauci has a book about him out this year. And that’s what one of our listeners wants to know. What new science biographies should we be watching for?

MELISSA STUART: One of my favorite from the year is called Blips on the Screen. It’s by Kate Hannigan. And the subtitle is How Ralph Baer Invented TV, Video Games, and Launched a Worldwide Obsession. So this is a book about a Jewish refugee who really he was so incredibly persistent, he immediate– when TV was first invented, he wanted it to be more interactive. And he had the skills and expertise to figure out how to create those very first video games that have developed into one of the pastimes that kids love more than anything today.

IRA FLATOW: Kristina, I have one last question for you. We’re running out of time. I’m wondering if there are topics that you find are connected. If your kid likes topic X, they may like topic Y. Some sort of connection there. What do you think Kristina.

KRISTINA HOLZWEISS: Well, video games is definitely a hook. There’s a book called Gamer Girls that talks about women in the video game industry. So any way you can give, like I said, connect something, like an actual toy or a game with a book, I think that’s a really great idea robots, artificial intelligence, cell phones, learning about social media and how to be safe on social media, all those things can really help our students and our children.

IRA FLATOW: Some great books suggestions. I want to thank both of you for taking time to be with us today. Melissa Stuart, science book author based in Boston. Kristina Holzweiss, [? edtech ?] librarian based in Syosset, New York. Thank you for taking time to be with us again.

MELISSA STUART: Thank you.

IRA FLATOW: And maybe you were driving during the segment and you can’t quite remember the title of one of our recommendations, that happens a lot. We’ve got you covered. Go to our website sciencefriday.com/kidsbook and you can find all the STEM books for kids that we talked about today, plus a few extra recommendations that we couldn’t quite fit into this conversation. Sciencefriday.com/kidsbooks.

Copyright © 2022 Science Friday Initiative. All rights reserved. Science Friday transcripts are produced on a tight deadline by 3Play Media. Fidelity to the original aired/published audio or video file might vary, and text might be updated or amended in the future. For the authoritative record of Science Friday’s programming, please visit the original aired/published recording. For terms of use and more information, visit our policies pages at http://www.sciencefriday.com/about/policies/.

Meet the Producers and Host

About kathleen davis.

Kathleen Davis is a producer at Science Friday, which means she spends the week brainstorming, researching, and writing, typically in that order. She’s a big fan of stories related to strange animal facts and dystopian technology.

About Diana Plasker

Diana Plasker is the Senior Manager of Experiences at Science Friday, where she creates live events and partnerships to delight and engage audiences in the world of science.

About Kyle Marian Viterbo

Kyle Marian Viterbo is a community manager at Science Friday. She loves sharing hilarious stories about human evolution, hidden museum collections, and the many ways Indiana Jones is a terrible archaeologist.

About Ira Flatow

Ira Flatow is the host and executive producer of Science Friday .  His green thumb has revived many an office plant at death’s door.

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50+ Engaging Living Science Books for Elementary & Middle School Students

Are you struggling to find living science books to use with your literature-based homeschool curricula? Here’s a great list of living books for science for elementary and middle school students.

When I taught second grade in a small, private school before my kids were born, science consisted of reading from a dry textbook that was part of our structured curriculum. I forced myself to have the kids take out those textbooks several times a week. And then we read.

Kids took turns reading paragraphs or sections of that day’s chapter. And you could see kids’ eyes glass over as other students were reading. The writing was dull and stilted, written down to the “reading level” of grade two. Even immediately after reading, most of the kids couldn’t tell you much about that day’s chapter.

In contrast, we’ve read some of the living science books below in our homeschool. They drew us in- not just the kids, but me as well. The writing was well-constructed and engaging. And we wanted to keep reading because we were interested in the narrative.

If you want to keep your family engaged when it comes to reading about science, here are some great living science books for your elementary and middle school aged kids. Of course, homeschooling is flexible. So, you can likely use them with younger or older kids as well. And I love reading books like this aloud to the whole family because we get the chance to discuss – which means that kids assimilate the information and make sense of it more easily.

I’ve divided the books into different science topics and given a suggested grade level. I’ve also included some great textbooks that read more like living books.

Living Science Books

Living science books for biology/life science, living science books for physics, living science books for chemistry.

Living Science Books for Nature Study

Living science books for earth science, living science books for astronomy.

Living Science Textbooks 

Bonus: living science book unit study.

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March 9, 2023 at 4:59 pm

Wow, I have several of these titles but there are many we have never read. Time to add to my bookshelf. 😉

March 9, 2023 at 5:48 pm

Great! I’m glad it gave you new ideas!

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23 Inspiring Science Books for Kids in Elementary School

Fire up their curiosity.

Many of the world’s renowned scientists started life as a curious young child who thought big thoughts, asked big questions and explored their world in new and interesting ways. Share this collection of intriguing science books for kids and who knows? You may just inspire the next great scientist of our era.

Plus…check out our collection of 25 STEM books , too!

Science Book Series

The colorful books in the  National Geographic Little Kids First Big Book of Series  are perfect curiosity-sparkers for kids in grades PreK-3: 

1.  Little Kids First Big Book of the Rainforest by Moira Rose Donohue

2. Little Kids First Big Book of Birds and Bugs by Catherine D. Hughes

3. Little Kids First BIg Book of Why 2 by Jill Esbaum

Other titles in the series include Animals, Space, Ocean, How, Who and more. 

The National Geographic Kids Everything Series provide amazing graphics and more complex text for kids in grades 3-6:

4. Everything Predators: All the Photos, Facts and Fun You Can Sink Your Teeth Into by Blake Hoena

5. Everything Weather: Facts, Photos and Fun That Will Blow You Away by Kathy Furgang

6. Everything Reptiles: Snap Up All the Photos, Facts, and Fun by Blake Hoena

Other titles in this series include Dolphins, Pets, Big Cats, Insects, Space, and more. 

The Baby Professor Series tackles topics across the curriculum, but their science books are particularly engaging for elementary students:    

7.   My Little Brain! Explaining the Human Brain for Kids

 8.  Astronomy for Kids: Planets, Stars and Constellations

9. Bones in the Human Body! Anatomy Book for Kids

Scientist Biographies

Read these inspiring stories about famous scientists who started out as curious kids just like your students:

10. The Girl Who Thought in Pictures: The Story of Dr. Temple Grandin by Julia Finley Mosca 1-4

11. The Doctor With an Eye for Eyes: The Story of Dr. Patricia Bath by Julia Finley Mosca

12. On a Beam of Light: A Story of Albert Einstein by Jennifer Berne  K-3

13. Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and the Mysteries of the Cosmos by Stephanie Roth Sisson 1-3

14. Manfish: A Story of Jacques Cousteau by Jennifer Berne 2-5

Science Experiment Collections

Here are three of the latest fun-filled collections of science experiments for kids . Suitable for students in grades K-2 with a little guidance, and students in grades 3-5 on their own:

15. Awesome Science Experiments for Kids by Crystal Chatterton  

16. The 101 Coolest Simple Science Experiments ages 5-12 by Jamie Harrington, Holly Homer, and Rachel Miller

17. Pop, Sizzle, Boom!: 101 Science Experiments for the Mad Scientist in Every Kid by Amy Oyler ages 5-12

Encyclopedias

The Ultimate Collection has large colorful pictures and tons of interesting facts in an easy-to-read format for students in K-3:

18. Ultimate Oceanpedia: The Most Complete Ocean Reference Ever by Christina Wilsdon 

19. Ultimate Dinopedia by Don Lessem

20. Ultimate Bodypedia: An Amazing Inside-Out Tour of the Human Body by Patricia Daniels 

The NatGeoKids Encyclopedias have amazing images and more complex text and higher level concepts for kid in grades 3-5:

21. Science Encyclopedia: Atom Smashing, Food Chemistry, Animals, Space, and More! By National Geographic Kids 

22. Space Encyclopedia: A Tour of Our Solar System and Beyond by David A. Aguilar 

23. Animal Encyclopedia: 2,500 Animals with Photos, Maps and More! By Lucy Spelman 

What are your favorite science books for kids? Come in share in our  WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group  on Facebook. WeAreTeachers HELPLINE is a place for teachers to ask and respond  to questions on classroom challenges, collaboration and advice.

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10 Must-Read Books for Science Lovers

Embark on a journey of scientific discovery with these top 10 must-read books. dive into everything from the cosmos to the human genome, unravelling the mysteries of the universe..

Saturday July 29, 2023 , 3 min Read

For those with an affinity for the enigmas of the cosmos, the principles of nature, or the complexities of the human psyche, science literature serves as a portal into a realm of enlightenment and fascination. These books decipher intricate hypotheses and pioneering findings, making them comprehensible to all. Let's delve into a select collection of ten pivotal books that any science enthusiast will cherish.

1. " A Brief History of Time " by Stephen Hawking

No roundup of science books would be entirely without this masterwork. Hawking's "A Brief History of Time" escorts readers across the expanse of the cosmos, explicating notions of space, time, black holes, and the inception of the universe in an idiom comprehensible to non-specialists.

2. " The Gene: An Intimate History " by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Mukherjee harmoniously blends science, societal history, and personal tales to probe the endeavour to comprehend human heredity and its unexpected sway on our lives, persona, identities, destinies, and decisions.

3. " The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks " by Rebecca Skloot

This narrative shares the extraordinary and frequently disregarded tale of Henrietta Lacks, a woman whose cancer cells morphed into one of the most crucial apparatuses in contemporary medicine. It's an absorbing examination of the ethics in scientific investigation.

4. " The Man Who Knew Infinity " by Robert Kanigel

This biography narrates the life of Srinivasa Ramanujan, an autodidactic Indian mathematician whose endowments to mathematical analysis, number theory, and continued fractions retain their influence.

5. " The Elegant Universe " by Brian Greene

Brian Greene elucidates superstring theory—a concept with the potential to harmonise quantum mechanics and general relativity—in a manner that's engaging and digestible. It offers a deep immersion into the realm of particle physics.

6. " Thinking, Fast and Slow " by Daniel Kahneman

Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman delves into the dual systems steering our thought processes—swift, intuitive thinking, and slow, mindful thinking. It's an indispensable read for those intrigued by cognitive psychology and decision-making.

7. " The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer " by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Another tour de force by Mukherjee, this narrative is an elegant and insightful chronicle of the 'emperor of all maladies', cancer, offering an excellent fusion of history, science, and storytelling.

8. " Silent Spring " by Rachel Carson

This revolutionary narrative, initially published in 1962, opened the world's eyes to the ecological impacts of pesticides. It's essential reading for those keen on ecology and environmental science.

9. " Cosmos " by Carl Sagan

In "Cosmos," Carl Sagan guides readers on a breathtaking voyage through the universe, examining phenomena from the Big Bang to the potential existence of extraterrestrial intellect.

10. "Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body's Most Underrated Organ" by Giulia Enders

This narrative embarks on an entertaining and enlightening journey through the digestive system, underscoring the vital role our gut health plays in overall wellness.

Whether you're a practising scientist or a leisurely reader with a penchant for science, these books proffer a treasury of knowledge, revelations, and captivating tales that kindle curiosity and augment comprehension. So, take the plunge and let your scientific expedition commence!

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My Favorite Science Novels for Middle School

Science novels in middle school make great read alouds, novel studies, and unit hooks!

This may surprise you, but middle school students LOVE listening to books read out loud!!

Reading has always been one of my favorite ways to relax and unwind! I love to share my love with reading with my science students through read alouds in the classroom.

Why use science novels in the middle school classroom?

• Expose students to new books and authors
• Great jumping point for discussions
• Novels that integrate science can help students see real-world applications
• Using science novels in middle school is a great way to extend the curriculum and enhance a love of reading!

Short on time? Here are a few ideas for fitting science novels into your middle school classroom:

• Begin class with a few pages of the novel to get the class settled and focused.
• Use the first chapter or excerpt to to introduce a new unit.
• Combine ELA and have students write short summaries of the novel.
• Select books that are related to your unit of study and read only the first chapter to expose them. Set aside copies in the school library for students to borrow.

HERE ARE A FEW OF MY FAVORITE SCIENCE NOVELS FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL WITH SOME FREE RESOURCES!

1. laika by nick abazdis.

Historical fiction plus a graphic novel? Yes please!

Lai kia is both a quick read and a huge hit during our space unit!

It’s the fictionalized story of Laika, the first living creature that was launched into space.

Dog lovers, you may need a box of tissues, but this is definitely worth the read!

2. The Thing about Jellyfish by Ali Benjamin

In this realistic fiction novel, the main character loses her best friend in a drowning accident.  The main character struggles to make sense of this tragedy, and is convinced that it was caused by a rare jellyfish sting. 

This book is interwoven with interesting scientific facts that make it a great read-aloud for middle school science students.

Bonus – it’s in the works with Netflix to make a movie!!!

3. The Lorax by Dr. Seuss

Yes, your students probably read The Lorax in elementary school, but this quick and easy book takes on a whole new meaning when students get older!

4. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

This true story is about a poor southern woman who had her cervical cells unknowingly harvested without her consent when she was treated for cancer in 1951. Over the years, her cells have paved the way for scientific discoveries and have become one of the most important tools in medicine. 

This book is a great segue into difficult questions about ethics, race, and culture.

There is a Young Reader’s Edition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (Rebecca Skloot & Gregory Mone) that’s an age appropriate choice for middle school students. It ties very well into the life science curriculum. ***However, this edition seems to be out of print at the time, and can be difficult to find.

Teacher’s Guide & Movie Version

5. Hidden Figures (Young Reader’s Edition) by Margot Lee Shetterly

Students will love the true story about four African American women who helped NASA to launch our country into space. They may have already seen the movie, but trust me, the books are always better!

There are several free resources available to enhance the novel!

• Resources from Lipscomb University’s College of Engineering
• Nasa Modern Figures Toolkit

6. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (Young Reader’s Edition) by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is based on the true story of a 13 old boy from Malawi who uses engineering to save his village from famine.

Students will love this inspiring story that weaves science concepts of magnetism and energy.

Some resources you may enjoy:

• William Kamkwamba’s TED Talk about his experiences in Malawi.
• Teacher’s Guide from Howard Community College with lots of ideas for introducing the novel, discussion questions, and assignment ideas
• Netflix released a movie adaptation in 2019.

7. Hoot by Carl Hiassen

Learning about endangered species? Students will love Hoot, a perfect novel for middle school filled with mystery, suspense, and of course, endangered species.

Scholastic has a free teacher’s guide available with lessons for students to discuss, research, and write about topics from the novel.

A movie version of Hoot was released in 2006. Currently it is available on Netflix.

8. Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer

Life as We Knew It is the first in a series about the moon being pushed closer to Earth and how it changes EVERYTHING!

This survival story is told through the main character, Miranda’s journal entries.

Thinking about using this book in class? Take a look at Susan Beth Pfeffer’s blog post loaded with TONS of resources for using it in the classroom!

Looking for other engaging middle school science novels your students will love?

Check out this post!

5 Middle School Science Novels You Don’t Want to Miss

Want to help students improve their summarizing skills and listening comprehension? Try science summaries – you can find them in the FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY!

This post “Science Novels for Middle School” contains affiliate links. I may earn a small commission when you click on the links at no additional cost to you.

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32 of the best science books for kids to read right now

From family foraging guides to science history made fun, these are the best science books for kids.

Our team have chosen the best science books for kids to read this year. Head outside for some family foraging with the help of Alys Fowler and Heidi Griffiths' new book or get gruesome facts to fascinate your gore-obsessed teens from Erika Engelhaupt's weird science adventures.

For more great content, come join us over for lunchtime genius. You’ll get free samples of new and popular books, plus reading recommendations and all the latest science news sent directly to your inbox. Just sign up to the Science Focus Newsletter .

If these books make you want to dust off the safety glasses and don your lab coat, try these easy indoor food experiments or find out how to help your children learn to code . OR how about our ultimate round-up of the best science books in 2023.

The best science books for kids to read in 2023

Tell me about… plants.

If your child is just starting to read, then they'll love this colourful book by CBeebies writer Emily Dodd, which introduces them to the world of plants. Along with a basic introduction to plant biology, they'll also learn dozens of bite-sized facts, like that some plants are taller than skyscrapers, and some smell like poo!

Tell Me About… Human Body

Also by Emily Dodd, this science book shines a light on the intricacies of the human body. Young readers will learn how their heart pumps blood, how the nerves work, what the immune system does, and much more. The last few pages cover feelings, emotions and how you can keep your body happy – a really nice touch.

Unlocking The Universe

Stephen hawking and lucy hawking.

If your child is looking to learn about a wide range of scientific topics, this book will be a great introduction. Unlocking the universe is a range of essays, facts and interesting images on ideas ranging from the moon, to vaccines and even travel through space and time.

Despite its heavy topics, the book deals with these ideas in a way that children can easily understand.

A Really Short History Of Nearly Everything

Bill bryson.

A lot has happened in history, but if you have a child that wants to learn about... well, everything, this will be the book for them.

It covers the dawn of dinosaurs, modern-day mysteries and everything in-between. Despite its aim at children, it is a book that adults will get pleasure from too.

On The Origin Of Species

Sabina radeva.

On the origin of species was Charles Darwin's famous novel depicting his theories on evolution. His original text is maybe slightly too heavy for a child to get into, which is why graphic designer and molecular biologist Sabina Radeva have recast the story, using illustrations and a simplified text.

I Am A Book. I Am A Portal To The Universe

Miriam Quick and Stefanie Posavec

The winner of the 2021 Royal Society Young People’s Books Prize has been selected by children and has been announced as I Am a Book. I Am a Portal to the Universe by Miriam Quick and Stefanie Posavec.

Big numbers, great graphics, mind-blowing facts and a healthy dose of interactivity, this book is a lot of fun. You’ll find answers to questions you never knew you needed, including, How long is an anteater's tongue? How tiny is the DNA in your cells? How fast is gold mined? How loud is the sun? And how many stars have been born and exploded in the time you've taken to read this sentence?

On winning the competition, scientist and lecturerDr Andrew Juppsaid: "I was looking for books that were particularly engaging or presented science in a new way. This book encouraged the reader to touch certain parts of the page to transfer bacteria, balance it on their head, and drop the book from a height – the interactivity of this book is what science is all about!"

Kid Innovators

Robin Stevenson and Allison Steinfeld

Every parent thinks their kid is going to change the world, but what can we learn from the formative years of those who really did?

From Florence Nightingale and the Wright brothers to Bill Gates and Elon Musk, this imaginative, inspiring book tells the childhood stories of innovators of all kinds. Each mini biography comes with colourful illustrations and interesting factoids about game-changers in science, entertainment, business and technology. Worried your child is a daydreamer? Don’t be. Alan Turing was exactly the same.

• Read more about science history

KEW: Grow, Forage And Make

Alys Fowler and Heidi Griffiths

Lockdown gave us all a new appreciation of the outdoors and, for many parents, forced us to come up with inventive ways to keep young people engaged and entertained. This new fieldbook from Kew Gardens is packed with fun ideas for small green fingers.

From foraging edible flowers and roots to growing neon beetroots in the dark, there’s an emphasis on discovery and mud-splattered practicality with lots of things to make, grow and find – indoors and outdoors.

Fourteen Wolves

Catherine Barr and Jenni Desmond

This is an evocative story about rewilding, designed to capture imaginations young and old, as well as give us all a refreshed appreciation of nature. The book tells the story of the wolves of Yellowstone Park. They disappeared in the 1930s and their absence had far-reaching consequences for the local ecosystem, with the fortunes of many species tied up with that of the pack.

It took until 1995 for wolves to be reintroduced to Yellowstone, and this wonderfully illustrated book tells the amazing story of what happened next.

• Listen to our podcast about rewilding with Dr Andrea Perino

Diary Of A Young Naturalist

Dara McAnulty

One of the most warmly received books in any genre from recent years gets a paperback release this month. Diary of a Young Naturalist chronicles the life of author Dara McAnulty, a nature-obsessed environmental campaigner who finds peace in observing, recording and understanding the wildlife and landscapes he encounters.

McAnulty is autistic and his book, often described as a blend of nature book and coming-of-age memoir, charts a tumultuous period of his life. His relationship with the environment is one of solace, and a reminder to us all of the healing power of the natural world.

Where The Wild Things Grow

David Hamilton

Part how-to guide, part love letter to the ecosystems on our doorsteps, this book reveals the food hidden in plain sight that most of us have the chance to forage. From wild mushrooms and berries to the weeds that grow in our gardens, David Hamilton draws on his own extensive experience to explain what’s out there and where to find it. Along the way, he also illuminates the science and history of wild foods and explains how to use them in recipes.

Gory Details: Adventures From the Dark Side of Science

Erika Engelhaupt

Based on a blog from National Geographic, this collection of scientific snapshots explores the weird, the gross and the funny. In other words, it’s great for young minds who want to impress their friends with something outrageous (but informative).

The book covers everything from bee stings to blood spatter at crime scenes – so it’s probably one for teens rather than tots – and never skimps on the juicy, biological or anatomical details. Often illuminating unreported areas of science, there’s plenty for parents here, too.

• Hear (detailed) stories from the world of forensic science in our podcast with Prof Dame Sue Black

More great science books for children and teens

None of the above suit your kids' interests?

Try these brilliant books for science lovers and nature enthusiasts. There's something here for all ages!

What To Look For In Spring

Elizabeth Jenner

We might be in the chilliest months of the year right now, but soon the natural world will start waking up from its winter slumber to burst into life once more. This beautifully illustrated, pocket-sized book guides young readers through the wonders of nature that can be witnessed during spring, including meteor showers, boxing hares and bleating lambs.

Ladybird’s original series of What To Look For books was published in the 1960s, and this modern, child-friendly update is sure to appeal to the new generation of readers.

Marie Curie And Her Daughters

Imogen and Isabel Greenberg

Many of us are familiar with Marie Curie, the brilliant scientist who made game-changing discoveries in the field of chemistry. Yet perhaps less well known are her two daughters, Irène and Ève, who grew up to be just as passionate and independent as their mum. Irène became a great scientist, while Eve was a journalist, war correspondent and humanitarian, who later worked for UNICEF.

This gorgeously illustrated book tells the remarkable story of Marie, Irène and Ève, as they travel the world, save lives during WWI and WWII and win Nobel Prizes.

Made For Each Other

Joanna McInerney and Georgina Taylor

Sometimes it pays to have a trusted friend close by. In nature, teamwork can make the difference between surviving another day or becoming someone else’s lunch.

This stunning book, illustrated by debut artist Georgina Taylor, takes us on a tour through some of the most intriguing partnerships in the wild world. Whether they help each other to ward off predators, remove parasites, reproduce or feed, the organisms featured in this book have learnt how to work together to successfully co-exist.

What’s The Weather?

Fraser and Judith Ralston

At a time when extreme weather is becoming more common, it makes sense to get clued up on the science behind it. This colourful book tells us about clouds, the climate and global warming, reveals how the weather has changed over Earth’s entire history, what it could be like in the future, and teaches us how we can predict the weather.

What’s The Weather? is jam-packed with bite-sized facts and cute illustrations that reveal intriguing titbits of information, such as the different names for snowflake structures and how lightning storms form. A great one for learning at home.

The Awesome Power Of Sleep

Nicola Morgan

Teenagers today have to struggle with excessive amounts of screentime, pressure from social media, school stress, late nights, and worries about friendships. It’s no wonder they aren’t getting enough sleep! Nicola Morgan, an expert on the adolescent brain, explores the importance of sleep for teenage health, wellbeing and development, and reveals why a good night’s rest is so crucial.

With plenty of scientific evidence conveyed in an accessible and authoritative way, this helpful guide is a fascinating read for both teenagers and adults alike.

30-Second series

A great series of books for revision, there are books on GCSE topics such as biology , chemistry and physics , but also specific titles including the study of genetics , the writings of Shakespeare and the science of Earth's weather . Condensing each topic into 50 fundamental facts, these short books make learning straightforward and (dare we say it) interesting!

Also in the series are books aimed at adults, so if you fancy getting a better understanding of topics like opera , politics or fashion , check them out.

How Science Works

Although this book is primarily aimed at adults, it is full to brimming with easy to understand diagrams, illustrations and infographics that will spark the imagination of anyone that picks it up, young or old.

Teens cramming for an exam will love the fact that every page is dedicated to a specific part of science (think the quantum world, machines, special relativity or the carbon cycle), while for the rest of us this is probably the best science book if you need a quick refresher.

I Want to be... Series

Becky Davies, illustrated by Richard Merritt

• Buy I Want to be an Astronaut from Bookshop.org and Waterstones
• Buy I Want to be a Doctor from Amazon UK and Bookshop.org
• Buy I Want to be a Firefighter from Bookshop.org and Waterstones

These books for babies and toddlers make the perfect introduction to people's jobs and what their daily life is like. Share stories of what an astronaut might do out in space, or explain what your role as a doctor involves. Where is that firetruck going? I Want to be a Firefighter can help answer your little one's questions.

Turn and Learn: Our World

Isabel Otter, illustrated by Hannah Tolson

If you've been watching Sir David Attenborough's new series as a family, why not explore more of the Earth with this interactive book for young readers? You'll meet the people who live in the Arctic, the creatures that live in the desert, and see the world from a new perspective through Hannah Tolson's detailed illustrations.

By the same author and illustrator is Turn and Learn: Weather , to help you explain how rain and the Sun, thunder and snow, come to be outside our windows.

Stop that Virus!

Illustrated by Susanna Rumiz

The coronavirus pandemic has brought up conversations that many of us didn't expect, and children may have asked questions that you might not know how to answer. Stop that Virus! explains how a team of cells within your body helps attack an intruder. What is the human body's immune system, and what do antibodies do to stop the enemy?

The book doesn't go into the role of personal hygiene in immunology, so it's important to also talk about hand-washing and how that can Stop that Virus!

The Weird Maths series

David Darling and Agnijo Banerjee

• Buy Weird Maths: At the Edge of Infinity and Beyond from Amazon UK , Waterstones or Bookshop.org
• Buy Weirder Maths: At the Edge of the Possible from Amazon UK , WHSmith or Bookshop.org
• Buy Weirdest Maths: At the Frontiers of Reason from Amazon UK , Waterstones or Bookshop.org

Mathematics is weird .

Teenage maths whizz Agnijo Banerjee, and his tutor and science writer David Darling, fill the pages of three books with exotic and unusual facts about maths, including God's Number (the smallest number of moves it takes to solve a Rubik's cube) and the reigning role of Pi in just about everything.

• Learn these unusual maths facts

Wish We Knew What to Say: Talking with Children About Race

Dr Pragya Agarwal

From a data and behavioural scientist, this book gives parents the confidence to answer their children’s questions about race and racism. It includes questions, resources and suggestions for scenarios that could start these tricky conversations, written with delicacy and authority.

This isn’t just for parents, though – it’s aimed at anyone who has young people in their life and wants to support the education of the next generation.

• Read our interview with Dr Pragya Agarwal

Nodding Off: The Science of Sleep from Cradle to Grave

Alice Gregory

Offering parents an insight into their children's, and their own, sleep patterns, sleep psychologist Professor Alice Gregory brings science and self-help together in this guide to getting a good night's rest. Thoroughly researched with interviews and statistics, this book is essential reading for all – whether you get 4 or 40 winks a night.

• Listen to Alice Gregory talking about sleep on the Science Focus Podcast

Hélène Druvert and Emmanuelle Grundmann

This fantastic title from Hélène Druvert for children aged 7-11 explains the most fascinating facets of the sea, including waves, coral reefs and the food chain. With captivating fold-out infographics and stunning laser-cut illustrations, it’s a beautiful, interactive tome that’ll help both kids and adults appreciate our oceans.

Is There Anybody Out There?

Dara Ó Briain

The hilarious Dara Ó Briain offers scientific answers to questions such as: how did life begin? How was the Earth created? Do aliens exist? in this illustrated book for 9+ years.

• Listen to our podcast with Dara Ó Briain

Encyclopedia Prehistorica of Sharks and Other Sea Monsters: The Definitive Pop-Up

Matthew Reinhart and Robert Sabuda

These often-forgotten prehistoric monsters once ruled the seas, and they are no less menacing in their pop-up paper form. A fight between two sea lizards unfolds between the pages, and the tentacles of ancient squid reach out from the depths of the ocean.

Stunningly crafted and meticulously researched, the Encyclopedia Prehistoric a is a book that will be used and admired again and again.

Outdoor Maker Lab

Professor Robert Winston

Kids love making things, especially when it involves mess, explosions, and anything that makes you go “wow” (fun fact: so do we ). Professor Robert Winston (the scientist with a very fetching moustache that presented the seminal BBC TV show The Human Body ) introduces this 160-page book filled with wonderful experiments that are easily made using household items, but show off some seriously fun science.

Kay’s Anatomy: A Complete (and Completely Disgusting) Guide to the Human Body

From the junior doctor who wrote the best-selling comedic memoir This is Going to Hurt comes a thorough tour through the human body. Answering questions like: What’s in a bogey? Do hideous creatures really live on our eyelashes? How does food become poo?

Kay’s Anatomy is like Horrible Histories but for the human body.

Probably best to have your Christmas dinner before opening presents, if you intend on gifting this…

This Book is Not Rubbish

Isabel Thomas

We all know that the grown-ups have messed up and now our planet is struggling. But you can help save it. This book contains 50 everyday ideas, like how to use less water when you do the washing-up, to how to make your next birthday party eco-friendly.

The Lost Words

Robert Macfarlane and Jackie Morris

Worried by the way in which natural words (acorn, dandelion, kingfisher, etc) were disappearing from children’s vocabulary, Robert Macfarlane teamed up with illustrator Jackie Morris to produce this exquisite ‘spell book’, combining acrostic poems with hand-painted artwork.

Randall Munroe

XKCD webcomic creator and former NASA roboticist Randall Munroe addresses questions such as ‘If we all disappeared, how long before the last light went out?’ and ‘Can you warm up a cup of tea just by stirring it?’. It’s like BBC Science Focus ’s Q&A section fell down the rabbit hole… but the author’s inquisitive mind is the star.

• Listen to Randall Munroe talking about his newest book, How To , on our podcast

Why Your Parents Are Driving You Up the Wall and What To Do About It

Dean Burnett

Why are teens so emotional? Why won’t they listen when adults depart their worldly knowledge? Why won’t they tidy their rooms?

Well, there are plenty of parenting books out there that attempt to answer these questions, but neuroscientist Dean Burnett’s book offers teens an insight into their parents’ minds. By giving teenagers the psychology behind why their parents do the things they do, Burnett answers common complaints such as; why is my Dad always dragging me out of bed? Why are my family always so obsessed with asking ‘How was school?’ and more.

• Listen to Dean Burnett talking about the teenage brain on the Science Focus Podcast

The best books of all time

For more great book recommendations, check out these lists:

• The best science books to read right now
• The best maths books
• The best quiz collections and puzzle books
• The best wildlife books and nature writing
• 5 best physics books, according to Jim Al-Khalili
• AI: 5 of the best must-read artificial intelligence books
• 5 race science books you must read

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50 Science Picture Books for Kids that Teach about Our Amazing World

Plug any science topic into the library catalog and you will certainly find a large selection of science books for kids on that subject. But which of those myriad of dinosaur or ocean books will you actually enjoy reading with your child? When you are looking for science picture books to read aloud, you don't really want a book that is just a pool of facts . You want something with a story, with a bit of humor, even! And you most certainly want appealing illustrations!

(Note: Book covers and titles are affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.)

I have filled this list with what I feel are good science picture books to share with children, not just science fact reference books.  The Common Core standards and STEM/STEAM curricula means there is an increased interest in finding fun, quality non-fiction children's science books to share in the classroom as teaching tools, but the picture books on this list are great for home reading, too.

Because this list is so large, I've divided it into 10 well-loved subjects, and given a very brief overview of why I liked each selection. Happy reading!

Dinosaur Picture Books

After reading these books, be sure to visit your local Natural History Museum .

How Big Were the Dinosaurs? Lita Judge wrote one of my favorite fiction picture books, Red Sled, so it was natural that I would pick up her dinosaur book. I love it.

Boy, Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs by Kathleen V. Kudlinski.  Remember the Brontosaurus? This book goes beyond just the facts about dinos as we know them now, but how our scientific understanding changes over time.

Barnum's Bones by Tracey Fern. This is a playful look at the man who discovered the first T-Rex, every kid's favorite dinosaur.

Inside Outside Dinosaurs by Roxie Munro. If many of these books seem a bit advanced for your kids, then Inside Outside Dinosaur is a good choice for your preschooler. Munro's oversized book is simple: alternating pages display the inside and outside of dinos! It's a perfect read before heading off to your local natural history museum.

My First Big Book of Dinosaurs by Catherine D. Hughes is a longer, more in-depth book, but still great for preschoolers on up.

Plant Science Picture Books

Read these books, then plant a garden or visit your local botanic garden!

Celebritrees: Historic and Famous Trees of the World by Margi Preus. An interesting look at famous trees and what makes them so special.

Farmer Will Allen and the Growing Table by Jacqueline Briggs Martin. A former basketball star turns an abandoned lot into a community garden. This is a great way to teach kids that not all farms need tractors.

Secrets of the Garden: Food Chains and the Food Web in Our Backyard .  A story of two kids planting and reaping a harvest will encourage kids to become little scientists in their own gardens.

Living Sunlight: How Plants Bring the Earth to Life by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm. Because I am an arts & literature type of person I love science books that describe their subjects in poetic terms. The text is marvelous. I guarantee your will be inhaling and exhaling deeply by the end! Plus, Molly Bang's illustrations are simply illuminating.

A Seed is Sleepy by Dianna Aston. A beautifully illustrated book that makes seeds fascinating! Kids will come away amazed at the complex powerhouses seeds really are!

Space Picture Books

Want even more titles for your space-obsessed kids? Check out the books on our list of space books for kids. Head over to NASA for up to date science facts!

Pluto's Secret: An Icy World's Tale of Discovery by Margaret Weitekamp and David DeVorkin. Pluto's had a rough time of it these last few years. It's about time he got his own book. It's a fun and playful story, with loads of facts about the little guy.

National Geographic's Big Book of Space by Catherine D. Hughes. I think I could put a "Big Book" in each of these categories for which there is a relevant title. I usually am put off by books displaying brand merchandising, but this is an excellent series that grows with the child. (Besides, NG is a pretty high quality "brand".) I recommend it.

The Mighty Mars Rover: The Incredible Adventures of Spirit and Opportunity by Elizabeth Rusch. is for ages 8 and up but my younger son loves looking at the photographs. You won't get any closer to Mars than this book.

Moonshot: The Flight of Apollo 11 . Brian Floca's detailed illustrations tell the story of Apollo 11.

A Black Hole Is Not a Hole by Carolyn Cinami DeCristofano. For ages 8 and up. This book is so good. It actually made me understand black holes... and made me laugh.

Animal Picture Books

Does your child love animals? See our expanded list of nonfiction animal books !

Frog Song by Brenda Z. Guiberson. Splendid illustrations, splendid onomatopoeic text you can practically feel and splendid facts about these interesting creatures threatened with extinction.

Eat Like a Bear by April Pulley Sayre. Little known fact: I really like bears! Share the love of bears with this simple, playful book about how and what bears eat all year long. Includes an end note about different kinds of bears. Great for little ones.

Animalium by Jenny Broom. This wonderful oversized book is a fantastic choice for kids who love classification, and those who love the linger at natural history museums. Gorgeously accurate illustrations that evoke nature illustrations of the past take children and curious adults on a tour of of the animal kingdom. Just wonderful.

Can We Save the Tiger? by Martin Jenkins. More than a book about tigers, author Martin Jenkins examines several extinct species, what led to their extinction, and how we can work to save endangered animals.

Lifetime: The Amazing Numbers in Animal Lives by Lola M. Schaefer is a fun look at animals for kids who also love numbers.

Earth Science Picture Books

Earth science covers many topics! We have a full list of books for kids who love volcanos, earthquakes and dirt! Check out our list of earth science picture books .

A Rock Is Lively by Dianna Aston. Kiddo is really into rocks and gems these days. I'm looking forward to when he and his uncle the geologist get together next. He's been reading books for older kids, but this is a lovely illustrated book for kids just starting out.

Volcano Rising  by  Elizabeth Rusch. A dramatic look at volcanos using paper collage illustrations that will have your kids "hissing" and "pop!-ing" and shouting "volcano rising!" by the end.

Grand Canyon by Jason Chin. The story follows a child and an adult on a walk through the magnificence of the Grand Canyon, detailing how the layers were formed, the plants and wildlife that live in the basin. There is so much information here that you and your children will want to read it over and over and then will immediately start planning your next vacation!

Planet Earth/Inside Out by Gail Gibbons.  This book does exactly what the title suggests: it shows the layers of the earth and how they work together to form an amazing planet.

The Sun, The Wind and the Rain by Lisa Westberg Peters. This is a lovely book that uses a child building a sand castle as a parallel to the way mountains form. The simple explanation makes it a good choice for younger children.

Ocean Picture Books

The world's oceans of full of mystery, learn more at the National Ocean Service . Your local aquarium is your next stop!

Coral Reefs: A Journey Through an Aquatic World Full of Wonder . Once again Jason Chin hits the mark with his awesome illustrations. A girl in the New York Public Library starts reading about the ocean only to find herself swept away on an adventure of scientific discovery.

Ocean Sunlight: How Tiny Plants Feed the Seas by Molly Bang and Penny Chisholm. Be sure to read this as a companion to Living Sunlight, above.

All the Water in the World by George Ella Lyon is a wonderfully poetic look at the water cycle.

Life in the Ocean: The Story of Oceanographer Sylvia Earle by Claire A. Nivola. Science is not just about the elements, it's also about people.

Sea Horse: The Shyest Fish in the Sea by Chris Butterworth. When I was a kid I was a little obsessed with the tiny sea horse. They seemed so magical to me. John Lawrence's illustrations from wood cuts and engravings perfectly capture that magic.

Human Biology Picture Books

All children want to know more about how their bodies work. These biology books will start to satisfy their curiosity.

Who Has What? All About Girls' Bodies and Boys' Bodies by Robie H. Harris is an excellent book for kids who are starting to notice that not everyone is the same.

The Human Body Factory: The Nuts and Bolts of Your Insides by Dan Green is for kids ages 7 and up who like books with lots of little information blurbs!

What's Eating You?: Parasites -- The Inside Story by Nicola Davies. Moms will be grossed out, kids will be riveted.

Weird But True: Human Body: 300 Outrageous Facts about Your Awesome Anatomy . National Geographic does it again. Be prepared for your children to tell you all sorts of interesting science facts at the dinner table.

What Makes a Baby? Cory Silverberg. This is a not-dumbed down version of how things work but it is entirely age appropriate. Plus, it's a celebration of families. Excellent.

Environmental Books

These science picture books cover subjects like energy usage, environmental damage and recovery, and the impact of human actions on the environment.

Energy Island: How One Community Harnessed the Wind and Changed Their World by Allen Drummond. Hold onto your hats. The story of how the Danish island of Samsø became completely energy efficient will inspire your kids.

Meadowlands: A Wetlands Survival Story by Thomas F. Yezerski was a particularly interesting book for my kids since we live close by. I'm quite pleased that the name "Meadowlands" is no longer synonymous with football in their minds!

What's So Bad About Gasoline?  by Anne Rockwell. In general, I find the "Let's Read and Find Out" series of leveled science books to be an excellent series. You will easily find them at your local library. My son found this to be a fascinating book. It's a good start to learning about fossil fuels.

No Monkeys, No Chocolate by Melissa Stewart & Allen Young. is an interesting look at how monkey behavior is integral to the continued existence of chocolate. This is a great conversation starter about the interconnectedness of life on earth and how important it is to maintain balance in the environment.

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba mixes social studies, engineering and environmental issues. Learn how a fourteen year old changed his community.

Evolution Picture Books

Evolution is a fascinating topic and many schools don't cover it comprehensively. Lead your children down the path of scientific discovery with these wonderful evolution science books!

Island: A Story of the Galápagos . Jason Chin's marvelous illustrations tell the story of evolution on "Darwin's Island" from its geological beginnings to the present. Fascinating.

Older than the Stars by Karen C. Fox. I love, love, love this book. Like several other books on this list it has a sort of "double text". You can read the large text straight through as a story to younger kids, but the sidebars will interest older kids looking for answers to their burning questions. This beautiful look at how the universe evolved ties all living things to the beginning of time.

Lucy Long Ago  by Catherine Thimmesh is for kids ages 8 and up. It is a fascinating look at the discovery of "Lucy" in 1974 by paleontologists and how it changed the way we view our human ancestry. There is a lot of information in this book but it's very approachable (even for grown-ups like me!).

Life on Earth: The Story of Evolution by Steve Jenkins is a kid-friendly approach to a huge subject. You can read a little or a lot of this book because each page has small asides about various animals or evolutionary traits.

Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story by Lisa Westberg Peters is a good book to explain a complicated subject to kids ages 4 and up.

Engineering Picture Books

The increased attention on STEM topics means that learning about engineering science is trendier than ever! Keep up with the Joneses with these engineering-themed picture books.

Toilet: How It Works by David Macaulay. Many of David Macaulay's books about engineering and structures are for middle grade on up, but this leveled easy reader will entice kids into the world of mechanics with their favorite subject: the bathroom. (This is part of the How It Works easy reader series. Be sure to check out the other books!)

If You Lived Here: Houses of the World  by Giles Laroche is a combination of architectural science and social studies.

Brooklyn Bridge by Lynn Curlee. It's true that we have a teensy-weensy bias towards books about New York City. Can you argue, though, about the awesomeness of this bridge? This book is not just about engineering science of the bridge, but the history of the time, the persons involved, and it contains stellar illustrations, maps and diagrams.

Dreaming Up: A Celebration of Building by Christy Hale. Kids at play mirror great feats of engineering around the world. Fantastic for preschoolers. I definitely would have put this one on my list of picture books for little engineers and inventors had I discovered it earlier!

Engineering the ABC's: How Engineers Shape Our World by Patty O'Brien Novak. Teach your kids ages 4 and up about all the ways engineers contribute to the world.

More book lists to love:

• The best STEM books for kids (all ages)
• Picture book biographies of women scientists
• Books about poop!!!!

Reader Interactions

Lucy Mitchell says

March 03, 2014 at 8:01 am

fantastic list - thanks a million, I've just ordered two!

Erica MomandKiddo says

March 03, 2014 at 8:29 am

Yay! I'm so glad it's helpful for you. Enjoy the books!

writersideup says

March 03, 2014 at 12:13 pm

Wow, Erica! I LOVE the wide variety of subject matter you have here! Such a great collection of books 🙂 Thanks!

March 03, 2014 at 12:16 pm

Thank you! I really tried to make it useful and interesting and focus on picture books that weren't just dry texts.

March 03, 2014 at 12:17 pm

Well, it looks like you accomplished what you wanted. The selection looks REALLY good 🙂

Jeanette Nyberg says

March 03, 2014 at 2:45 pm

Great books- and I love that your list is heavy on the poop theme, my personal favorite topic. I think some of these may sway my kid away from only wanting to read superhero books.

March 04, 2014 at 8:46 am

I'm thinking I will need to make that poop book list after all!

michelle says

March 04, 2014 at 6:29 am

This list is awesome. Something to pin and look back at in the future. I have completely gotten into non-fiction picture books because of the challenge at Kid Lit Frenzy. I think it might be rubbing off on my daughter as well since she brought 2 non-fiction books about birds home yesterday from school.

Thank you, Michelle! Enjoy the books!

Lynnsy says

March 04, 2014 at 10:40 am

For the evolution category, we love "BANG!: How We Came to Be"

March 04, 2014 at 10:52 am

I've seen that one, but I haven't read it yet. Thanks for the recommendation.

Melissa says

February 26, 2022 at 3:31 pm

We also enjoy “When Planet Earth Was New,” the illustrations are fantastic.

February 28, 2022 at 3:39 pm

Thanks for your recommendation.

Catherine says

March 04, 2014 at 12:39 pm

Thanks so much for this list - my son loves "fact" books - having read through every space book we could find, we are now on the search for more books about rocks and habitats. We've read a bunch of the books on your list (the Redwoods and Sloth books were two recent favorites - those sloths really are unbearably cute!), but lots of good ideas. My daughter is particularly fond of books about animals - one favorite that comes to mind is "Weird Friends: Unlikely allies in the animal kingdom"

March 04, 2014 at 12:47 pm

I'm glad you like the list and thank you for the suggestion. I've never heard of that book. I bet my boys will love it.

Margaret Peot says

March 04, 2014 at 6:31 pm

This is a great list! Gorgeous covers...

Miranda Paul says

March 05, 2014 at 1:19 pm

Great list! So excited to see illustrators Jason Chin and Elizabeth Zunon on the list. I have read a number of these books, but there are several I need to check out. Many thanks.

March 05, 2014 at 1:21 pm

Thank you, Miranda. Enjoy your new finds!

March 06, 2014 at 10:22 am

I just spent a enjoyable 30 minutes comparing your fabulous list to what my library has. It is truly amazing how much you can learn from children's books! Thank you for putting it together. 🙂

March 06, 2014 at 10:24 am

You are welcome! I'm so glad you found the list useful.

March 06, 2014 at 5:42 pm

This is SUCH an awesome list Erica. I am all set for 2014 Non Fiction reading 🙂 thanks for sharing it on Kidlit Bloghop this week.. I put this on my Pinterst board! -Reshama @ Stackingbooks

March 10, 2014 at 10:28 am

I love the wide variety of subjects you decided to take on - there really is something for everyone on this list! 🙂

Pragmatic Mom says

March 11, 2014 at 6:24 pm

We don't read much non fiction so I will have to try some on your list for my son! Thank you for such an extensive list! Thanks so much for joining us for the Kid Lit Blog Hop too!

Anna Browning says

June 30, 2014 at 10:54 am

I love that there are so many picture books focusing on science! The first book I published was a picture book about the moon; we included an illustration of the Solar System and "Tanner's Moon Journal of Moon Facts." It should be our goal to get kids excited about learning! Thanks for this list of books!

http://anna-browning.com/books/moon-rocks/

Kathryn says

October 18, 2015 at 11:04 pm

Great list. I'd like to add Cathryn Sill's series about animals and habitats. About Birds; About Mammals; About Habitats: Desert; About Habitats: Wetlands. Also Red eyed tree frog and Chameleon Chameleon both by Joy Cowley are great nonfiction titles for the toddler/preschool set. Steve Jenkins and Collard Sneed do animal titles for elementary school age kids. i love nonfiction books for kids 🙂

October 19, 2015 at 6:06 am

Thanks for the suggestions!

Susanna Leonard Hill says

May 19, 2016 at 12:54 pm

Thanks for a great list! I found some gems! (Including your blog which I haven't visited before! I grew up in NYC 🙂 )

Carol Simon Levin says

February 15, 2017 at 2:32 pm

I love this list (and, indeed, all of the lists you do Erica) and I shared this with a preschool teacher today who was thrilled. In case you are interested, here is my annotated bibliography of informational read-alouds which I presented at a parent-teacher workshop: http://carolsimonlevin.blogspot.com/2013/10/uncommon-core-outstanding-informational_18.html

Carly Jones says

December 17, 2019 at 7:07 am

Thank you ! A great list, I have subscribed and sent the web address to my colleagues. We are going to start a Science picture book library and use your list to get us started.

I'd love to know if there are any recommendations for teaching 'Everyday Materials'. We will be looking at categorisation of different materials and their properties. I'd love a picture book or 2 to use in my teaching of Y1-2.

Thanks again! Carly

December 17, 2019 at 1:10 pm

Hi Carly, glad you enjoyed the list. Unfortunately, I don't have a recommendation for you for "everyday materials."

joseph settecasi says

January 21, 2021 at 10:44 am

I have written a science based children's book called Ford Goes Looking for the Sun.

A preview is available on my website josephsettecasi.com

I would be glad to send you a copy to review.

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Five Books for People Who Really Love Books

These five titles focus on the many connections we can form with what we read.

My dad likes to fish, and he likes to read books about fishing. My mom is a birder; she reads about birds. There are plenty of books on both subjects, I’ve found, when browsing in a gift-giving mood. These presents don’t just prove I’m familiar with their interests. They’re a way to acknowledge that we read about our pastimes to affirm our identity: Fly-fishers are contemplative sorts who reflect on reflections; birders must cultivate stillness and attention. What we choose to read can be a way of saying: I am this kind of soul.

For my part, I like reading more than I like almost anything else. And so, in the manner of my parents, I like to read books about books . Writers who write about writing, readers who write about reading—these are people I instantly recognize as my kind. We’re people who are always in the middle of a chapter, who start conversations by asking, “What are you reading right now?” For us, a meta-book is like coffee brewed with more coffee. It’s extra-strength literature.

If you really love books, or you want to love them more, I have five recommendations. None of these are traditional literary criticism; they’re not dry or academic. They take all kinds of forms (essay, novel, memoir) and focus on the many connections we can form with what we read. Those relationships might be passionate, obsessive, even borderline inappropriate—and this is what makes the books so lovable. Finishing them will make you want to pick up an old favorite or add several more titles to your to-read list.

U and I , by Nicholson Baker

I can now say that I’ve been reading Baker for more than 20 years, or more than half my life. But I didn’t know that would happen when I found U and I in a college friend’s car, borrowed it, and never returned it. The subject, not the author, appealed to me then—I loved John Updike. And so did Baker, though love is probably not the right word. This book-length essay is not quite, or not merely, an appreciation of Updike; it’s a hilarious confessional “true story” of Baker’s anxieties, ambitions, competitive jealousy, and feelings of inadequacy in the face of Updike’s abundant body of work. It’s rich too, with wonderful observations on reading and writing in general, as in a passage considering how much more affecting a memoir becomes once the author is deceased: “The living are ‘just’ writing about their own lives; the dead are writing about their irretrievable lives , wow wow wow.”

A poem by John Updike: 'Half Moon, Small Cloud'

Dayswork , by Chris Bachelder and Jennifer Habel

I almost prefer to keep certain books on my to-read list forever, where they remain full of magical possibility and cannot disappoint me. Moby-Dick is one of them. What if, God forbid, I chance to read it at the wrong time or in the wrong place and it doesn’t change my life? So I turn to Dayswork instead, which feels like cheating—you get some of the experience of reading Moby-Dick without any of the risk. This very novel novel, written collaboratively by a novelist and a poet who happen to be married, is sort of a sneaky biography of Herman Melville, framed by a meta-narrative about a woman writing a book during lockdown. This narrator delivers a parade of delightful facts and quotes and anecdotes, which she’s been collecting on sticky notes. You could think of it also as a biography of Melville’s most famous novel, which has had its own life after his death and touched so many other lives. Dayswork is fragmentary, digressive, and completely absorbing.

Read: The endless depths of Moby-Dick symbolism

Written Lives , by Javier Marías, translated by Margaret Jull Costa

Marías is one of my favorite novelists, but I only recently encountered this work, a collection of short, dubiously nonfictional biographies in a very specific style. In the prologue, Marías explains that he had edited an anthology of stories by writers so obscure, he was forced to compose their biographical notes using odd, scanty evidence that made it all sound “invented.” It occurred to him that he could do the same thing for authors much more famous (Henry James, Thomas Mann, Djuna Barnes), treating “well-known literary figures as if they were fictional characters, which may well be how all writers, whether famous or obscure, would secretly like to be treated,” he explains. The result is marvelously irreverent, packed with unforgettable details (Rilke, supposedly, loved the letter y and used any excuse to write it) and endearing patterns (Marías would have us believe that many writers loathe Dostoyevsky). Written Lives immediately earned a spot on my shelf of most treasured objects, and every friend I’ve recommended it to has been equally enchanted.

Read: An introverted writer’s lament

Dear Friend, From My Life I Write to You in Your Life , by Yiyun Li

This sad and incredibly beautiful memoir from a writer best known for her fiction takes its title from a line in a notebook by the New Zealand author Katherine Mansfield. For Li, correspondence, diaries and journals, and literature in general are forms of consolation and companionship that make life worth living even in times of overwhelming despair. The memoir is a record of the reading experiences that saved Li from a dangerous depression. It made me want to dig more deeply into the work of all her favorite writers—Thomas Hardy, Ivan Turgenev, Elizabeth Bowen, William Trevor—because she describes them so warmly and affectionately, as if they were friends. Here, as in her novels, Li is philosophical, with a gift for startling aphorisms: “Harder to endure than fresh pain is pain that has already been endured,” she writes. And “One always knows how best to sabotage one’s own life,” or “What does not make sense is what matters.” Li’s work is so moving and so very wise.

Madness, Rack, and Honey , by Mary Ruefle

The American poet Mary Ruefle is one of those writers people like to call a “national treasure,” which always has to do with something beyond brilliance or talent, an additional spectacular charm that makes you wish you knew them in “real life.” This collection of lectures on poetry and topics adjacent to poetry (sentimentality, theme, the moon) is the perfect introduction to Ruefle’s particular charisma. She’s unabashedly devoted to poets and poems, but you don’t have to love poetry to fall in love with her voice. She’s plainspoken yet mysterious, always asking curious questions, about death and fear and secrets, and then answering herself with surprising authority. Ruefle is inclined toward quirky asides, but all roads lead back to books: “I offer my dinner guest, after dinner, the choice between regular and decaf coffee, when in fact I don’t have any decaf in the house,” she writes. “I am so sincere in my effort to be a good host that I lie; I think this probably happens all the time in poetry.” Ruefle offers a beautiful example of how a life filled with reading opens and alters the mind.

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The best new science fiction books of July 2024

The Matrix star Keanu Reeves’s debut sci-fi novel is out this month, written in collaboration with old hand China Miéville, and we also have new books from Adam Roberts and Aliette de Bodard

By Alison Flood

1 July 2024

Keanu Reeves: a ‘genre-bending pioneer’

See Li/Picture Capital/Alamy

The world of science fiction sees some major celebrity input this month, as Keanu Reeves’s debut novel hits the shelves. We can also look forward to the latest book from one of the UK’s top sci-fi writers, Adam Roberts, and to some quantum fun from Peng Shepherd.

I think I’m most excited about Mateo Askaripour’s This Great Hemisphere , though. It’s a mix of sci-fi and political thriller, and comes highly recommended – just what I need for my holiday reading later in July. I might also pack MJ Wassmer’s Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend , which sees a bunch of holiday-makers going a bit Lord of the Flies when the sun explodes while they are at a luxury resort. Just the ticket to relax with.

The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville

This is a collaboration between “two genre-bending pioneers”, according to its publisher, inspired by Keanu Reeves’s BRZRKR comic books. It follows an immortal soldier who wants to be able to die, a “tall lean man … looking at them from below a long fringe of black hair”, who clearly is meant to look exactly like Reeves. A US black-ops group says it can help him with that death wish – if he helps the team out first.

Now, I have read some of this already, because I am a big fan of China Miéville (if you haven’t read Embassytown then rush to get a copy – it’s such a clever and mind-bending piece of sci-fi). And obviously, I’m a big fan of Reeves too, because… Keanu Reeves.

But I had to put the book aside because I found it so flowery that I couldn’t keep going. I may well dip back in, though, because if you can’t have faith in Neo, who can you have faith in? Maybe I just need to get into the zone.

Lake of Darkness by Adam Roberts

OK, this one I am definitely up for. Not only does it sound like tons of fun, but Roberts is reliably excellent. This time round, he gives us two starships orbiting a black hole. Both ships’ crews are killed in a single afternoon by Captain Alpha Raine, who says he was commanded to do so by a voice emanating from the black hole. This voice is named, rather enticingly, Mr Modo. Nobody believes Raine, of course, but something seems to be spreading from inside that black hole.

Our writers pick their favourite science fiction books of all time

We asked New Scientist staff to pick their favourite science fiction books. Here are the results, ranging from 19th-century classics to modern day offerings, and from Octavia E. Butler to Iain M. Banks

This Great Hemisphere: A novel by Mateo Askaripour

Set in the future, this novel follows a young woman relegated to second-class citizenship who sets out to find her older brother – someone she had thought was dead, but is now the main suspect in a high-profile murder. Its publisher is comparing it to the work of N. K. Jemisin and Naomi Alderman, and an early review from the book industry site Kirkus called it “a page-turning vision of a future made all too plausible by our volatile present”. I think it sounds really interesting and will definitely be tracking it down.

Toward Eternity: A novel by Anton Hur

This looks super intriguing. It’s set in a near-future world where cancer is being eradicated by a new technological therapy, in which the body’s cells are entirely replaced with “nanites”, robot cells that cure the sick – and, in fact, leave the person almost immortal.

We follow literary researcher Yonghun, who has a lot going on: not only does he create a machine that can think, but he also receives the new nanotherapy. This book promises that it will explore “the nature of intelligence and the unexpected consequences of progress, the meaning of personhood and life, and what we really have to fear from technology and the future” – a lot, for one novel, but I’m willing to give it a go.

The Edge of Solitude is set on a ship heading for Antarctica

Shutterstock/Vadim_N

The Edge of Solitude by Katie Hale

This eco-thriller is set during “a time of acute climate crisis”, on a ship heading for Antarctica to hopefully save the region. On board is a disgraced environmental activist, Ivy Cunningham, who is trying to rescue her reputation – but is also starting to question the motives of her fellow passengers, and of the project as a whole.

Zero Stars, Do Not Recommend by MJ Wassmer

Dan Foster, a “professional underachiever”, is taking a holiday on an island resort when the sun explodes. He then has to choose whether to save himself or help his fellow guests as the temperature drops and revolution brews. Apocalypse in paradise? I’m there!

These are the best new science fiction books to read this June 2024

New books from Adrian Tchaikovsky and the late Michael Crichton (with James Patterson) are among the great new sci-fi novels out this month

All This and More by Peng Shepherd

At 45, Marsh isn’t pleased with where her life has ended up, from her career to her marriage to her relationship with her teenage daughter. So when she gets the chance to be the star of the TV game show All This and More , which uses “quantum technology” to let contestants revisit their pasts, she seizes it. But – you guessed it – even when she gets everything she wants, it all seems a little off, and Marsh starts to ask if it is worth it. Another one for my holiday reading, I think – I love a good “looking for happy ever after” story, and the addition of time travel and a sprinkle of quantum fairy dust sounds great.

Navigational Entanglements by Aliette de Bodard

This new novella from the author of  The Red Scholar’s Wake  is a space opera with added martial arts. It is set in an area of space known as the Hollows, which is populated by the mysterious, deadly Tanglers. When a Tangler escapes, it must be captured before it can destroy a civilian city. Two juniors from rival clans, both on missions to stop the Tangler, find their feelings for each other growing.

In This Ravishing World by Nina Schuyler

This short story collection will give us a “kaleidoscopic view of the climate crisis”, promises its publisher, moving from a boy trying to bring the natural world back to his urban life to a ballet dancer trying to inhabit the consciousness of a rat (at this stage, it isn’t clear why – but I’m keen to find out).

Gravity Lost is the second in the space-set Ambit’s Run series

Shutterstock/Corona Borealis Studio

Gravity Lost by L. M. Sagas

This is the second in the Ambit’s Run series from Sagas, following Cascade Failure . It sees the crew of the Ambit, fresh from thwarting the destruction of a planet, trying to jailbreak the man they had just handed over to one of the major powers in the Spiral.

The Icarus Changeling by Timothy Zahn

Agent Gregory Roarke has been tasked with finding a teleportation portal on a far-flung colony world. But the former bounty hunter finds himself up against some better-equipped rivals – and then the murders begin… This is the latest in the series.

Two brilliant new novels from Adrian Tchaikovsky show his range

The prolific Adrian Tchaikovsky has two terrific sci-fi offerings out this year, one the story of a scientist turned prisoner shipped to a faraway planet, the other a light-hearted tale of robotic murder, says Emily H. Wilson

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• New Scientist Book Club

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