Non-Fiction for Non-Students
They say truth is better than fiction, and you'll find plenty of proof to support the claim while perusing the pages of the books listed below. These titles range from engaging explanations about physics, chemistry and other sciences to poignant stories chronicling the transformative effects of science on people's lives.
Awakenings
Author: Oliver Sacks
Ages: Adults and young adults
Publisher: Vintage, 1999
Science Concepts: Medicine, medical experiments, medical treatment
This true story, made into a motion picture, can be a jumping-off point for a discussion of scientific and medical ethics.
Excerpt:
This return-to-oneself, resipiscence, "rebirth," is an infinitely dramatic and moving event, especially in a patient with a rich and full self, who has been dispossessed by disease for years or decades.
All Creatures Great and Small
Author: James Herriot
Ages: Adults and young adults
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 2004
Science Concepts: Animal science
Herriot was a country veterinarian in rural England who wrote stories of the animals and people that made up the world of the English countryside. His stories not only deal with the science of both large and small animals, but with the everyday dilemmas that confront a small-town doctor.
Excerpt:
I rubbed my cold arms. "Well, I should say that’s the lot now." I felt suddenly chilled; I couldn’t say how long I had been standing there looking at the wonder that never grew stale; the little pigs struggling on to their legs. . . .
Animals in Space: From Research Rockets to the Space Shuttle
Authors: Colin Burgess and Chris Dubbs
Ages: Adults
Publisher: Springer, 2007
Science Concepts: Astronomy & space, science history, animals
The authors wanted to publish a book about all the animals involved in space flights to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the adventure of Laika the dog, the first earthling in space. This is a well-researched resource on little-known stories of the dogs, monkeys, rabbits, cats, rats, fish and insects that went into orbit so that scientists could learn how human astronauts would tolerate space travel. The technology of each mission is explained and illustrated for those who wonder how an animal could be sent into space and retrieved. This book could upset dog lovers with its details on the dogs’ training and inevitable deaths.
Excerpt:
Among the group of dogs to go into training for the first series of dog launches were those named Bobik, Chizhik, Dezik, Lisa, Mishka, Neputevvy, Ryzhik, Smelaya and Tsygan. Unfortunately, Bobik missed his chance for fame by running off the day before his flight. A stray dog was quickly recruited and given the name ZIB, which is the Russian acronym, derived from the words “substitute for missing dog Bobik.”
A Ball, A Dog, and a Monkey: 1957 – The Space Race Begins
Author: Michael D’Antonio
Ages: Adults
Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2007
Science Concepts: Astronomy & space, science history, animals
The launch of Sputnik marked the beginning of a competition that took Americans to the moon. Author Michael D’Antonio chronicles a series of events that changed our world, including little-known accounts of “rockoons” – balloons that launched rockets – and a secret facility nicknamed the Skunk Works. The author revives names and events that had been forgotten or were closely guarded by governments. This is a very readable account of America’s reaction to the launch of Sputnik and how America went “space crazy.”
Excerpt:
At 10:28, when the countdown reached zero, a young lieutenant named Boris Chekunov pressed the button to ignite the R-7. Fire and smoke poured out of the roaring engine as the massive rocket lifted off slowly and then picked up speed. After the rocket was away, radio operators tracking its performance soon reported it was perfectly on course. Racing into the night sky at roughly 18,000 miles per hour, it carried Sputnik on a roaring flame that could be seen by precious few as it arced over scattered farms and a vast desert, racing toward Siberia.
The Discovery of Global Warming
Author: Spencer Weart
Ages: Adults
Publisher: Harvard University Press, 2004
Science Concepts: Climate change, environment
Today global warming seems to be everywhere. Weart, director of the Center for History of Physics of the American Institute of Physics, answers the question, “How did scientists begin to identify and to think about a problem before it became evident to the rest of us?” A century ago, scientists such as Joseph Fourier were asking questions about how the Earth’s atmosphere kept heat close to the planet’s surface. Best known for his work with heat transfer, Fourier made observations about the weather that led him to compare the Earth to a box covered with a pane of glass. He is one of many scientists Weart discusses in this history book that reads like a novel and sheds much light on the current discussion of climate change. How did seemingly disconnected scientists from diverse disciplines reach the same conclusions? When and how did issues about climate change become political? Anyone seeking to understand such issues will appreciate the depth of this book.
Excerpt:
This book is a history of how scientists came to imagine such things: the history of the science of climate change. It is a hopeful book. It tells how a few people, through ingenuity, stubborn persistence, and a bit of luck, came to understand a grave problem even before any effects became manifest. And it tells how many other people, defying the old human habit of procrastinating until a situation becomes unbearable, began working out solutions.
The Everglades: River of Grass
Author: Marjory Stoneman Douglas
Ages: Adults and young adults
Publisher: Pineapple Press, 1997
Science Concepts: Environment, water conservation
Originally published in 1947, this book celebrates a milestone in this 50th anniversary edition. Stoneman Douglas recounts the evolution of public perception of the Everglades from worthless swamp to valuable natural resource. Stoneman Douglas brought the Everglades to the nation's attention and worked as a spokesperson for environmental causes from 1947 to her death in 1998.
Excerpt:
More than halfway down that thrusting sea-bound peninsula nearly everyone knows the lake that is like a great hole in that pawing shape, Lake Okeechobee, the second largest body of fresh water, it is always said, "Within the confines of the United States." Below that lie the Everglades.
Fear of Physics
Author: Lawrence M. Krauss
Ages: Adults
Publisher: Basic Books, 1994
Science Concepts: Physics
The same author has produced a wide variety of books that identify the science concepts in contemporary science fiction. A physicist himself, Krauss translates difficult concepts for the nonscientist. In addition to this work, he has published The Physics of Star Trek and Beyond Star Trek.
Excerpt:
Popular wisdom might have you believe that new discoveries in science always center on radically new ideas. In fact, most often the opposite is true. The old ideas not only survive but almost always remain seminal. While the universe is infinitely diverse in phenomena, it seems to be rather limited in principles. As a result, in physics there isn’t as much premium on new ideas as there is on ideas that work.
Isaac's Storm: A Man, a Time, and the Deadliest Hurricane in History
Author: Erik Larson
Ages: Adults
Publisher: Vintage, 2000
Science Concepts: Meteorology, history of science
Isaac’s Storm is a compelling account of the deadliest storm ever to approach the American continent, more than a century ago. Before the Miami Hurricane Center, the Weather Channel, Doppler radar and other modern meteorological resources, weather was studied using such tools as the humble barometer. This saga takes us back to turn-of-the-century Galveston, Texas, and the hurricane that leveled it. The story is told largely through the experiences of Isaac Monroe Cline, chief of the U.S. Weather Bureau’s Galveston office at the time, who failed to recognize the symptoms of the storm that submerged his city, claiming thousands of lives.
Excerpt:
The seas were busy. A few ships must have encountered the thunder and rain but apparently their crews did not see it as anything unusual. They hung canvas to catch the rain. Steamers raised sails to save coal. Frigate birds wheeled in the cantaloupe dawn.
Galveston spun through space at nine hundred miles an hour. The trade winds blew. Great masses of air shifted without a sound.
Somewhere, a butterfly opened its wings.
Napoleon's Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History
Author: Jay Burreson and Penny Le Couteur
Ages: Adults and young adults
Publisher: Tarcher, 2004
Science Concepts: Chemistry, science history
This book isn’t a history of French fashion trends or a tale of how Napoleon's soldiers aggravated him. Instead it’s about the history of chemistry, or rather the role of chemistry in world history. Each of the 17 chapters covers a particular group of molecules, including sugars (glucose), dyes, caffeine, salt and even silk. The authors go into detail about the importance of each molecule and how its individual chemistry impacted the history of the world. The book is full of diagrams and drawings to help explain the science, which ranges from physics to organic chemistry, and from simple ionic bonds to oxidation reactions. This is a great science book to pick up a little history, and a great history book to pick up a little science.
Excerpt:
In June 1812, Napoleon’s army was 600,000 strong. By early December, however, the once proud Grande Armée numbered fewer than 10,000. …What caused the downfall of the greatest army Napoleon had ever led? Why did Napoleon’s soldiers, victorious in previous battles, falter in the Russian campaign? Strange as it may seem, the disintegration of Napoleon’s army may be traceable to something as small as the disintegration of a tin button, the kind that fastened everything from the greatcoats of Napoleon’s officers, to the trousers and jackets of his foot soldiers. When temperatures drop, shiny metallic tin starts to change into a crumbly nonmetallic gray powder – still tin, but with a different structural form.
The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements
Author: P.W. Atkins
Ages: Adults and young adults
Publisher: Basic Books, 1997
Science Concepts: Chemistry
An entertaining and clever look at the periodic kingdom, the elements that comprise it, and navigating around it.
Excerpt:
Many chemists, physicists, and artisans have contributed to the discovery of the regions of the kingdom. Some have stumbled on a new element unexpectedly; others have planned their journeys of exploration, in the expectation of discovering an element whose existence they already suspect. Some of this exploration is the equivalent of land reclamation, for it is along the southern shore of the mainland that there is every expectation of creating new land.
The Planets
Author: Dava Sobel
Ages: Adults and young adults
Publisher: Penguin, 2006
Science Concepts: Astronomy, history of science
Dava Sobel, a science journalist for 30 years, has created yet another best-selling book that makes the story of these celestial bodies read like a novel. Each chapter of Sobel’s book focuses on an individual planet and its place in the solar system, in ancient and contemporary mythology, and in the culture of classroom science. Sobel discusses Earth and the historical figures who were challenged with mapping our world; Jupiter and Galileo’s beliefs about the planet; and Venus’s storied beauty.
Excerpt:
Hours into the night, Venus still outshines every other light, unless the Moon intrudes to best her. The Moon appears bigger and brighter, by virtue of lying about one hundred times closer to us, though Venus is the larger and fairer by far. Venus’s shroud of yellow-white cloud reflects light much more effectively than the dun-colored, dust-covered surface of the Moon. Virtually 80 percent of the sunlight lavished on Venus just skitters off her cloud tops and spills back into space, while the Moon beams back a mere 8 percent.
Radar, Hula Hoops, and Playful Pigs: 67 Digestible Commentaries on the Fascinating Chemistry of Everyday Life
Author: Joe Schwarcz
Ages: Adults and young adults
Publisher: Owl Books, 2001
Science Concepts: Chemistry, food science
Sixty-seven essays on the science of food, shampoos, cosmetics and the chemistry of everyday life.
Excerpt:
The wonders of apples just keep accumulating: munching on apples reduces the risk of cavities; scientists at the Taste Research Foundation of Chicago have even found that apple smell can reduce anxiety. So anyone still worried about chemical residues on apples should just take a good whiff of an apple and then eat one.
Red Moon Rising: Sputnik and the Hidden Rivalries that Ignited
the Space Age
Authors: Matthew Brzezinski
Ages: Adults
Publisher: Times Books, 2007
Science Concepts: Astronomy & space, science history
Published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Sputnik, this book provides a look at the politics behind the space race, from Dwight Eisenhower and Nikita Khrushchev to Lyndon Johnson. It begins at the end of World War II with programs by the Germans and Russians to produce and test rockets for use as weapons. The technology they developed and later brought to the U.S. became the basis for the vehicles that propelled astronauts to the moon. This book offers a fascinating look behind the scenes at Russian politics and the secrecy that preceded the digital age.
Excerpt:
When told that Explorer was in orbit, Nikita Khrushchev reportedly shrugged. The race, he well knew, would no longer be so one-sided, now that a sleeping giant had been roused; and for the Soviet Union, it would be a contest of diminishing returns. But it did not matter.
Moscow had already scored its biggest gains by the time Juno soared into space, and those all-important early victories could never be pushed aside.
The Science of Jurassic Park and the Lost World
Author: Rob DeSalle and David Lindley
Ages: Adults and young adults
Publisher: Basic Books, 1997
Science Concepts: DNA, cloning, extinction
A discussion of dinosaur DNA and the possibility of cloning extinct creatures.
Excerpt:
So by now you’ve isolated and sequenced a whole stack of little fragments of what you think is dinosaur DNA, and you want to put them together to make the complete DNA of a dinosaur – its genome. Trouble is, you don’t know what the genome looks like in the first place, so it’s going to be difficult to figure out how to put these pieces together in the right order.
Silent Spring
Author: Rachel Carson
Ages: Adults and young adults
Publisher: Mariner Books, 2002
Science Concepts: Environment, water management
Rachel Carson’s 1962 landmark work on pesticides and chemicals in marine environments was a driving force in establishing a national consciousness for issues that had been virtually hidden from public view. The book sparked public outcry, as well as backlash from private industry and organizations such as the American Medical Association. This 40th anniversary edition contains an introduction by former Vice President Al Gore. Carson’s work is an excellent starting point for meaningful debate in high school classrooms, with a passage like this one surprising students with as much relevance today as it had in 1962.
Excerpt:
In an age when man has forgotten his origins and is blind even to his most essential needs for survival, water along with other resources has become the victim of indifference.
Space Dogs: Pioneers of Space Travel
Author: Chris Dubbs
Ages: 9-12
Publisher: Writer's Showcase Press, 2003
Science Concepts: Astronomy & space, science history, animals
This book provides a look at the dogs of the Soviet space program. Suitable for middle school and up, it describes dog training, contains photos not seen before, and underscores the dogs’ importance to the success of the program. Dog lovers may find it difficult to read about the dogs that died in the name of science.
Excerpt:
She got up, stretched herself thoroughly, front legs and body, then back legs to their full extension. Then she came to greet him. “You have been selected to go on the fourth flight. I was just at the meeting where they decided.” He stuck his fingers through the wire to pet her nose. “They said you were a brave dog, and very strong.” He smiled at this play of words on her name, Smelaya – Brave One – as the brave one licked his fingers. “You will be famous, Smelaya. Your name will be written in the stars.”
This Is My Planet: The Kids’ Guide to Global Warming
Author: Jan Thornhill
Ages: 9 to 12
Publisher: Maple Tree Press, 2007
Science Concepts: Environment, climate change
This book provides a balanced look at the effects of global warming on land, on the ocean and on people. Thornhill provides a great deal of information in a way that is easy to read, interesting for children and adults, and optimistic about the future – if we pay attention to what the Earth is telling us. Organized by habitats and regions, the book explains the connections among Earth’s creatures and presents a clear picture of what is happening all around us. The book includes activities kids can do to model effects of the process and concludes with ways that kids can make a difference in what happens to our planet.
Excerpt:
If scientists are right, each one of us is at least a little bit responsible for Global Warming. And each one of us has to decide what kind of a world we want to live in in the future. Our planet has been around for almost five billion years. In that time it has undergone enormous change over and over again. Global Warming may be the Earth’s next big change. No matter what change lies ahead, the Earth isn’t going anywhere. And neither are people. But what we do now could have a big effect on what our lives will be like in years to come.
Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud
Author: Robert Park
Ages: Adults and young adults
Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2001
Science Concepts: Science fraud, pseudoscience
A physics professor from the University of Maryland, Park separates fact from fiction regarding scientific progress. He encourages all of us to identify the silliness in some reports of scientific discoveries.
Excerpt:
In the opening remarks by committee members, Representative Bob Walker, a Pennsylvania Republican, set the tone. He proposed that the $5 million that had been redirected to cold fusion be increased to $25 million. It is, he said, the least we can do.
What Einstein Told his Cook: Kitchen Science Explained
Author: Robert L. Wolke
Ages: Adults and young adults
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company, 2002
Science Concepts: Chemistry, food science
Understandable explanations for all sorts of questions regarding food science. For example: What is a calorie? Why does water boil? How do microwaves make heat? Readers who enjoy this book will want to check out two more Wolke titles, What Einstein Told his Barber and What Einstein Told His Cook 2: The Sequel: Further Adventures in Kitchen Science.
Excerpt:
As in all health research, the worst that can be said of a dietary practice is that it increases the risk of something or other. That doesn’t mean "eat it and die." Risk is only a probability, not a certainty. Nevertheless, cutting down on sodium may well be a prudent thing to do.
Browse other Science in Literature titles:
For more information please contact Center Director Roxanne Hughes at hughes@magnet.fsu.edu or (850) 645-8179.
Classroom Outreach
