Best Science Books of 2004 — Updated

I mentioned in an earlier post that ScienceFriday on NPR this week had a list of the best science books of 2004. Well, here are the books:

“J.
Robert Oppenheimer: And the American Century,” David Cassidy.
(Pi Press, 2004)

"Mind
Wide Open: Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life,"
Steven Johnson, (Scribner, 2004)

"The
Map That Changed the World : William Smith and the Birth of Modern
Geology" by Simon Winchester. Perennial, 2002.

"Everything
and More: A Compact History of Infinity" (Great Discoveries)
by David Foster Wallace. W.W. Norton & Company, 2003.

"The
Midnight Disease : The Drive to Write, Writer’s Block, and the
Creative Brain" by Alice Weaver Flaherty. Houghton Mifflin,
2004.

"A
Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. Broadway,
2003.

How
To Clone The Perfect Blonde: Using Science To Make Your Wildest
Dreams Come True by Sue Nelson, Richard Hollingham Quirk Books,
2004.

"Degrees
Kelvin: A Tale of Genius, Invention, and Tragedy,” David Lindley,
(Joseph Henry Press, 2004)

 “The
Ancestor’s Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution,’ Richard
Dawkins, (Houghton Mifflin, 2004)

“Moon
Rush” Improving Life On Earth With The Moon’s Resources,” Dennis
Wingo, (Collectors Guide Publishing Inc, 2004, Apogee Books Space
Series)

“Uncorked
: The Science of Champagne,” Gerard Liger-Belair,
(Princeton University Press, 2004)

“Curious
Minds : How a Child Becomes a Scientist,” by John Brockman, (Editor),
(Pantheon, 2004)

“The
Sky is Not the Limit: Adventures of an Urban Astrophysicist,”
Neil de Grasse Tyson, (Prometheus Books, 2004, paperback)

“Beating
Back the Devil : On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives
of the Epidemic Intelligence Service,” by Maryn McKenna, (Free
Press, 2004)

“Rats
: Observations on the History and Habitat of the City’s Most Unwanted
Inhabitants,” Robert Sullivan, (Bloomsbury USA, 2003)

"Obsessive
Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie" by Barbara Goldsmith.
W. W. Norton & Company, 2004.

"Understanding
Flight" by David Anderson, Scott Eberhardt. McGraw-Hill Professional,
2000.

Einstein books: 

"The
Invisible Century: Einstein, Freud, and the Search for Hidden
Universes,” Richard Panek, (Viking Books, 2004)

“Einstein’s
Cosmos: Einstein’s Cosmos: How Albert Einstein’s Vision Transformed
Our Understanding of Space and Time,” Michio Kaku, (WW Norton
and Company, Great Discoveries series, 2004)

“Einstein
Defiant: Genius Versus Genius in the Quantum Revolution,” Edmund
Blair Bolles, (Joseph Henry Press, 2004)

"Coffee Table” Books

“Earth
from Space,” Andrew K. Johnston, (Firefly Books Ltd, 2004)

“Magnificent
Mars,” Ken Croswell, (Free Press, 2003)

So, how many of these have I read? Well, the David Foster Wallace book on infinity, which was better than I expected; the Bryson “everything” book, which was good, but Bryson’s textual tics became wearying; and Steve Johnson’s “Mind Wide Open”, which was great, as I’ve come to expect from Steven.

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