Good recent layman's overview of the sciences

[bloviate88]

I'm thinking something like Asimov's New Guide to Science. This is a 900 page tome that provides great explanations of all the major branches of science. The explanatory level is somewhere below a textbook but above a popular science book. The emphasis is on the science rather than historical anecdotes. A similar book is The Ascent of Science by Brian Silver.

However, Asimov is 1993 and Silver 1998. A lot has happened in science since then. Anyone know of any books like these that have been published more recently?

 

[pinball1970]

I'm thinking something like Asimov's New Guide to Science. This is a 900 page tome that provides great explanations of all the major branches of science. The explanatory level is somewhere below a textbook but above a popular science book. The emphasis is on the science rather than historical anecdotes. A similar book is The Ascent of Science by Brian Silver.

However, Asimov is 1993 and Silver 1998. A lot has happened in science since then. Anyone know of any books like these that have been published more recently?

Professionals on this site have spoken highly of "The first three minutes" Steven Weinberg, second edition is also 1993.
"The Road to Reality" Roger Penrose 2004. I think the guys would say it is good for pop science, have to see what the likes of @PeroK and the quantum guys say.
"The Ancestors Tale" 2004 Richard Dawkins.

 

[dextercioby]

I only got the 1st edition of "The first 3 minutes". It was written and published still in the 1970s, comprising the then "fresh" Standard Model of the Fundamental Particles with the 1970s level of cosmological implications of General Relativity. Sure, by 1993, movement had been done in cosmology, while the fundamental particle story remained the same (the 80s were the "String Theory", and dawns of the LQG) so it would be interesting to see what Weinberg rewrote/updated 15 years later. On the other hand, the "The road to reality" by Penrose has graduate level mathematics within (for example fiber bundle approach to mechanics), so it's over the textbook level, actually.

It's very difficult to "dilute" top notch advances in physical theory research to present it at undergraduate/textbook level. If you are aware of such endeavors in the past 15 years, let me know.

 

[Muu9]

I only got the 1st edition of "The first 3 minutes". It was written and published still in the 1970s, comprising the then "fresh" Standard Model of the Fundamental Particles with the 1970s level of cosmological implications of General Relativity. Sure, by 1993, movement had been done in cosmology, while the fundamental particle story remained the same (the 80s were the "String Theory", and dawns of the LQG) so it would be interesting to see what Weinberg rewrote/updated 15 years later. On the other hand, the "The road to reality" by Penrose has graduate level mathematics within (for example fiber bundle approach to mechanics), so it's over the textbook level, actually.

It's very difficult to "dilute" top notch advances in physical theory research to present it at undergraduate/textbook level. If you are aware of such endeavors in the past 15 years, let me know.

 

[pinball1970]

It's very difficult to "dilute" top notch advances in physical theory research to present it at undergraduate/textbook level

I know lots of books but i am not qualified to comment on them other than I liked reading them!
I enjoyed "Fermat's last theorem," by Simon Singh. 1997, I think i still have that one somewhere.

A few books came out when they were researching at CERN looking for the Higgs boson.
"Smashing physics" is the one I went for by Jon Butterworth 2014.

I read George Smoot's book on his CMBR research "Wrinkles in time." 1994.

"The Poincare conjecture" Donal O'Shea 2007.

"Your inner fish" Neil Shubin 2008.

All of the books I have read on Human Evolution are fantastic and I kept those.
So Richard Leaky, Chris Stringer, Richard Dawkins, Donald Johanson, Tim White.

The books are stories really, a research project with the back ground science and history. A lot take that format.