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1. Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 04-Oct-2024 19:41:01 UTC Robert McNees

   Science friends! If you were stocking the science section of a book store, what popular (as opposed to academic) titles would you put on the shelves? What books, in your opinion, are absolute essentials?

   (To keep things manageable, let's say from the last ten years.)

   • Michael Busch (michael_w_busch@mastodon.online)'s status on Friday, 04-Oct-2024 19:48:05 UTC Michael Busch

     in reply to

     • Katie Mack
     • Chanda Prescod-Weinstein

     @mcnees Let me go through my shelves of books by people I know:

     @AstroKatie , @chanda , Emily Levesque, Aomawa Shields, Alice Gorman, Don Yeomans, Nathalie Cabrol, ...

     This could go on for a while, since I know lots of people who write books.

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 04-Oct-2024 19:48:05 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     • Michael Busch

     @michael_w_busch Any particular titles? (I have Katie and Chanda on there already)

   • Dr. Victoria Grinberg (vicgrinberg@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 04-Oct-2024 19:48:23 UTC Dr. Victoria Grinberg

     in reply to

     @mcnees

     Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake

     Gathering Moss - a Natural History of Mosses (ok, older than 10 years, but so great and also the German translation appeared only recently!)

     I'm also clearly not reading enough in our field, can't come up with an astro title I read ....

   • Mike Olson (mikeolson@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 04-Oct-2024 19:56:18 UTC Mike Olson

     in reply to

     @mcnees @helenczerski’s The Blue Machine. Everything by Stephen Jay Gould. Most of Oliver Sacks.

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 04-Oct-2024 20:05:28 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     • John Carlos Baez

     @johncarlosbaez Oh nice, I was hoping for some math that went a little beyond the typical pop fare. This looks great.

   • John Carlos Baez (johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Friday, 04-Oct-2024 20:05:29 UTC John Carlos Baez

     in reply to

     @mcnees - maybe Elliptic Tales?

     https://www.amazon.com/Elliptic-Tales-Curves-Counting-Number/dp/0691163502/ref=pd_bxgy_thbs_d_sccl_1/135-4693984-6985809?pd_rd_w=69rh1

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 04-Oct-2024 20:11:25 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     • John Carlos Baez

     @johncarlosbaez Not a hard rule, just trying to keep it manageable. I’ll add that, too. Thanks!

   • John Carlos Baez (johncarlosbaez@mathstodon.xyz)'s status on Friday, 04-Oct-2024 20:11:26 UTC John Carlos Baez

     in reply to

     @mcnees - their earlier book "Fearless Symmetry" is the best place to start, but it's over 10 years old.

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 04-Oct-2024 20:32:42 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     • Dr. Marie McNeely

     @PhDMarie Yeah, Lab Girl went right onto the first list I made. I’m collecting titles for a friend’s store — I’ll add these others. Thanks!

   • Dr. Marie McNeely (phdmarie@qoto.org)'s status on Friday, 04-Oct-2024 20:32:47 UTC Dr. Marie McNeely

     in reply to

     @mcnees

     I like this question! A lot of great suggestions already. The Plant Hunter by Cassandra Quave was excellent. In a similar vein as Lab Girl by Hope Jahren (which is also fantastic). Also, pretty much anything Siddhartha Mukherjee has written.

   • Max (shellback@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 04-Oct-2024 22:59:51 UTC Max

     in reply to

     @mcnees The Twelfth Planet

   • Robert McNees (mcnees@mastodon.social)'s status on Thursday, 10-Oct-2024 13:56:30 UTC Robert McNees

     in reply to

     • 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     @freemo great resource, recommend it to students a lot, but here I’m looking for popular science for the lay reader.

   • 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱 (freemo@qoto.org)'s status on Thursday, 10-Oct-2024 13:56:31 UTC 🎓 Doc Freemo :jpf: 🇳🇱

     in reply to

     @mcnees

     Feynman lectures are the first one that comes to mind.