masthead
masthead

Frontiers of Science

Recommended Books (Spring 2015)

The following books are not required. They are recommended for students who wish to go beyond the formal assignments. All are accessible for a non-specialist audience. Library locations and call numbers are supplied, along with Amazon.com prices as of December, 2014.

General:
Bryson, B. (2003). A short history of nearly everything. New York: Broadway Books (544 pp.). [Mathematics: Q162 .B88 2003] [amazon.com: $17.83]
Chalmers, A. F. (1999). What is this thing called science? Indianapolis: Hackett, 3rd edition
(266 pp.) [Barnard and Butler: Q175 .C446 1999] [amazon.com: $16.98]
Firestein, S. (2012). Ignorance. How it drives science. New York: Oxford University Press
(195 pp.). [Science & Engineering (NWC Building): Q175.32.K45 F57 2012]
[amazon.com: $13.28]
Hazen, R. M., & Trefil, J. S. (2009). Science matters: Achieving scientific literacy. New York: Anchor Books (360 pp.). [Butler: Q162 .H36 2009] [amazon.com: $10.10]

Neuroscience (Darcy Kelley):
O’Shea, M. (2005). The brain: A very short introduction. New York: Oxford University Press (136 pp.). [Science & Engineering (NWC Building): QP376 .O84 2005] [amazon.com: $8.99]
Ramachandran, V. S., & Blakeslee, S. (1998). Phantoms in the brain. New York: HarperCollins Publ. Inc. (328 pp.). [Barnard and Mathematics: RC351 .R24 1998] [amazon.com: $10.88]

Astrophysics (Janna Levin):
Levin, J. (2003). How the universe got its spots: Diary of a finite time in a finite space. New York: Anchor Books (225 pp.). [Barnard: QB981 .L392 2003] [amazon.com: $12.06]
Greene, B. (1999). The elegant universe: Superstrings, hidden dimensions, and the quest for the ultimate theory (464 pp.). New York: Vintage Books [Science & Engineering (NWC Building): QC794.6.S85 G75 2003g] [amazon.com: $9.19]
Thorne, K. (1994). Black holes and time warps: Einstein’s outrageous legacy. New York: W. W. Norton & Company (619 pp.). [Milstein (Butler): QC6 .T526 1994] [amazon.com: $11.02]

Earth Science (Terry Plank):
Winchester, S. (2003). Krakatoa: The day the world exploded: August 27, 1883. New York: Harper-Collins Publishers (410 pp.). [Milstein (Butler) and Geology:
QE523.K73 W56 2003g] [amazon.com: $9.37]

Biodiversity (Don Melnick):
Quammen, D. (1996). The song of the dodo: Island biogeography in an age of extinctions. New York: Scribner (702 pp.). [Milstein (Butler) and Barnard: QH541.5.I8 Q35 1996] [amazon.com: $14.96]
Quammen, D. (2006). The reluctant Mr. Darwin: An intimate portrait of Charles Darwin and the making of his theory of evolution. New York: W. W. Norton (304 pp.) [Barnard and Mathematics: QH31.D2 Q35 2006][amazon.com: $10.17]
Speth, J. G. (2004). Red sky at morning: America and the crisis of the global environment. New Haven: Yale University Press (299 pp.). [Lehman: GE149 .S64 2004][amazon.com: $13.30]
Weiner, J. (1995). The beak of the finch: A story of evolution in our time. New York: Vintage Books (332 pp.). [Milstein (Butler), Journalism and offsite: QL696.P246 W45 1995] [amazon.com: $18.71]
Coyne, J. A. (2009). Why evolution is true. New York: Viking (282 pp.). [Offsite:
QH366.2 .C74 2009] [amazon.com: $14.30]
Shubin, N. (2009). Your inner fish: a journey into the 3.5-billion-year history of the human body. New York: Vintage Books (237 pp.). [Butler: QM26 .S58 2008] [amazon.com: $10.31]