Your Summer Science Book List
25:48 minutes
Headed on vacation this summer? Why not take a great science book along with you? Author Lee Billings and Brainpickings.org editor Maria Popova share their top picks for summer science reading, from recent releases to oldies-but-goodies, and even a little sci-fi.
UPDATE: Here are the titles discussed on the show:
Maria Popova:
The Accidental Universe, by Alan Lightman
Alice in Quantumland, by Robert Gilmore
Animal Madness, by Laurel Braitman
The Baby Tree, by Sophie Blackall
The Art of Scientific Investigation, by W.I.B. Beveridge
Lee Billings:
Lucky Planet: Why Earth is Exceptional—and What That Means for Life in the Universe, by David Waltham
Proof: The Science of Booze, by Adam Rogers
Shaman, by Kim Stanley Robinson
Fiasco, by Stanislaw Lem
Ira Flatow:
Wool (series), by Hugh Howey
The Martian, by Andy Weir (listen to the SciFri interview with Weir here and read an excerpt here)
Micro: A Novel, by Michael Crichton and Richard Preston
Listeners:
The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature, by David George Haskell
The Uncommon Raven: One Smart Bird, by Diane Phelps Budden
Segment Guests
Maria Popova
Maria Popova is the editor and founder of BrainPickings.org and a MIT Futures of Entertainment Fellow. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.
Lee Billings
Lee Billings is editor of Scientific American and author of Five Billion Years of Solitude: The Search for Life Among the Stars (Current, 2013) based in New York, New York.
Meet the Producer
About Annie Minoff
@annieminoffAnnie Minoff is a producer for The Journal from Gimlet Media and the Wall Street Journal, and a former co-host and producer of Undiscovered. She also plays the banjo.