Science Books suggestions

[x___x]

hey everyone,

i'm not sure where this topic is supposed to be, since it's not about literature.

ummm, i have lots of free time in the summer vacation, and i really like reading.

But i need some help here, i'm interested in astrophysics and astronomy, so if someone would suggest me some good books which talk about these topics. something like "A Brief History of Time" by stephen hawking will be great!

&& that's not all, i need some suggestion on biological or physiological books. Mahuta, help please!

one more thing: i need general science books for general readers like "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson.

note: please don't suggest textbooks for me

Thanks!

[Sandwich]

Re: Biology I really enjoyed Oxygen by Nick Lane and The Private Life of the Brain by Susan Greenfield. There're some others which are meant to be good but which I didn't think were all that riveting beyond the concepts which are the Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat (Oliver Sacks) and Power, Sex, Suicide (Nick Lane).

And everybody says you have to read The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins, but I'm going to confess that I haven't, although you might want to. That man's frankly belligerent writing style drove me up the wall in the only other book of his I've read. That Bill Bryson one is wonderful

[R-Lau R-Piz]

Hi,

Biology and Physiology:

-Anatomy and Physiology for Dummies

-The Theory of Evolution by Cynthia L. Mills

-Genetics for Dummies

-The Cartoon Guide to Genetics by Larry Gonick

-The Manga Guide to Molecular Biology by TrendPro

Miscellaneous:

-101 Things You Don't Know About Science by James Trefil

I have all these books in the form of pdf and I keep it in my 4shared storage. If you are interesting to download any of these, just give your email and I'll send the links.

P/S: In biology, I love Genetics and Human Physiology..hehehe..dislike Plant Science..

[x___x]

Thanks Sandwich for your suggestions, i'll try to read about the books and see which ones would suite me better.

&& R-Lau R-Piz, thanks for your suggestions as well. i'd very much appreciate it if you send me the links. i'll send you my email now.

it seems that we both hate plant science! it was the worst topic in IB biology! it drives me nuts whenever i try to comprehend it!

thank you very much both of you.

[Center Field]

Its nice to see someone who is also interested in such topics!!!

I have a library at home of astrophysical literature, most of them are college textbooks.

The best text book I have is Astrophysics in a nutshell by Dan Maoz. Its used at most universities in the U.S.A

For easy reading really anything by Hawking is good.

A book called The search for the meaning of space, time, and matter by Kai Woehler is also very good-although it covers many different scientific topics besides Astronomy.

For Bio I strongly recommend the origin of the species-if you havent read it.

If you really have a lot time for good reading on all science (save psychology really) I recommend A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson. Its long, but very very informative and it goes over the history of science from Ancient China (circa 5000 B.C) to contemporary times

Oh and if you want more just say so and when i return home I will post my entire Astro library

Edited July 14, 2010 by Center Field

[x___x]

Oh that's wonderful! Most of the books in our library are about circuits and things for engineers, which is not tolerable at all!

i'll see if i can buy the book you recommended by Kai Woehler online. i don't think i can find it in our book shop.

&& if you have time, can you please post some more book recommendations?

Thank you!

[Center Field]

Of course I will. But how much do you want? LOL if everything is asked of me I am going to have to go digging around in my attic for stuff.

The book by Woehler is rare, so online might be best. He is not entirely well known but he has done some cool things and he actually was speaking to a professor at my internship about a possible experiment to test string theory.

Oh, and it contains a bio section too I think if I remember correctly-so you should like that.

[Center Field]

OK lets see

Astronomy Today is a great textbook series, it can be found on the internet for relatively little money.

The website AAVSO is also good.

If you are insanely good at math, and are up for a challenge, I would suggest the meaning of relativity by Albert Einstein. Its hard to read, but good. and interesting.

We have this huge general science book literally called The Science Book. It has short but detailed histories/explanations of every scientific breakthrough man has ever achieved. It is published by weidenfeld and nicolson.

My dad cleaned out our shelves and replaced them with new ones while I was away so this will be augmented as soon as i learn the whereabouts of the old books.

Another cool bio book by Henry Gee is called Jacobs Ladder

[Irene P]

Physics, by Halliday and Resnick! It's a classic, after all...

[Center Field]

Before the Beginning, our universe and others by Martin . Rees is decent.

About Time by Paul Davies is also supposedly good-its one I haven't read yet.

Galaxy Formation by Longair

Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology: An introduction By Paul Schneider

We have a lot of asrrophysics journals but subscriptions cost $1200 dollars usually and these are all like inherited and bought at garage sales so they might not be plausible...