Discover Magazines All-Time Essential Reading List
Discover the all-time essential reading list from Discover Magazine, featuring seminal science books like The Selfish Gene, Silent Spring, and The Elegant Universe. From psychology and physics to nature and civilization, this curated collection of must-read titles by Dawkins, Carson, and Einstein will transform your bookshelf.
Book
Relativity
by Albert Einstein
An easy to understand collection of the ideas of one of the greatest scientists of the twentieth century including the idea he is most known for, the theory of relativity Redesigned inside and out to have a fresh, appealing look, this new edition of a classic Crown Trade Paperback is a collection of Einstein's own popular writings on his work and describes the meaning of his main theories in a way virtually everyone can understand.
Book
The Selfish Gene
by Richard Dawkins
The million copy international bestseller, critically acclaimed and translated into over 25 languages.This 30th anniversary edition includes a new introduction from the author as well as the original prefaces and foreword, and extracts from early reviews. As relevant and influential today as when it was first published, The Selfish Gene has become a classic exposition of evolutionary thought.Professor Dawkins articulates a gene's eye view of evolution - a view giving centre stage to these persistent units of information, and in which organisms can be seen as vehicles for their replication. This imaginative, powerful, and stylistically brilliant work not only brought the insights of Neo-Darwinism to a wide audience, but galvanized the biology community, generating much debate and stimulating whole new areas of research.
Book
The Double Helix
by James D. Watson
The classic personal account of Watson and Crick’s groundbreaking discovery of the structure of DNA, now with an introduction by Sylvia Nasar, author of A Beautiful Mind. By identifying the structure of DNA, the molecule of life, Francis Crick and James Watson revolutionized biochemistry and won themselves a Nobel Prize. At the time, Watson was only twenty-four, a young scientist hungry to make his mark. His uncompromisingly honest account of the heady days of their thrilling sprint against other world-class researchers to solve one of science’s greatest mysteries gives a dazzlingly clear picture of a world of brilliant scientists with great gifts, very human ambitions, and bitter rivalries. With humility unspoiled by false modesty, Watson relates his and Crick’s desperate efforts to beat Linus Pauling to the Holy Grail of life sciences, the identification of the basic building block of life. Never has a scientist been so truthful in capturing in words the flavor of his work.
Book
Silent Spring
by Rachel Carson
The essential, cornerstone book of modern environmentalism is now offered in a handsome 40th anniversary edition which features a new Introduction by activist Terry Tempest Williams and a new Afterword by Carson biographer Linda Lear.
Book
The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat: And Other Clinical Tales
by Oliver Sacks
Explores neurological disorders and their effects upon the minds and lives of those affected with an entertaining voice.
Book
The Interpretation of Dreams
by Sigmund Freud
The classic study of dream analysis that marked the beginning of psychoanalysis.
Book
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
by Thomas S. Kuhn
Thomas S. Kuhn's classic book is now available with a new index.
Book
The Elegant Universe
by Brian Greene
Introduces the superstring theory that attempts to unite general relativity and quantum mechanics
