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]