What Science Books Have Intrigued you The Most

bmed90

Name one science book that you have found to be revolutionary in shaping your perception of science whether it be mathematics biology astronomy physics chemistry or engineering.

It can even be a book about one of the great minds of science I.E Einstein, Plank, Platos, Aristotle, Da Vinci etc.

Give the author, date published, and one thing you remember about the book that really made you think, "wow that is just crazy".... or just say what the book generally encompasses in the text


Im currently looking for not a good book but a great book to read in my spare time. I want to read a book that will make me grow as a practitioner of science.

Jorriss

Solomons Organic Chemistry was most likely it for me. My interests have completely shifted since then but organic chemistry was the first subject to capture me in such a way that I would spend hours and hours working through the textbook without taking the class. I just found organic chemistry a lot of fun. It was enjoyable to try and deduce mechanisms or to come up with a synthesis for a challenging molecule (If I were to recommend an organic book btw, it would not be this one).

Otherwise, the two textbooks I go back to the most for enjoyment are Strauss PDE's and Sakkurai Modern quantum mechanics. Neither of these are really spare time reading books though.

mathwonk

riemann's works. and euclid. and hilbert's geometry and the imagination, and courant's calculus, and mumford's books on algebraic geometry.

basically the more famous the author the better the book.

mal4mac

Newton's Principia?

20Tauri

Ooh, Euclid. I was a bit irritated when I had to work through the Elements last year, but looking back on it I'm glad my professor forced me to do it. It's really amazing to realize that someone had to be the first to recognize and prove the things we take for granted. It's certainly not easy reading, though. The principles are simple enough, but it's not in modern notation at all, and you really have to work through the proofs as you follow along to get the most out of it.