What Do You Care What Other People Think?

Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman

James Gleick · 532 pages

A gem of a book, about the life and mind of one of the most influential and iconoclastic characters in 20th century physics. Really a pleasure to read.

Radioactive: Marie and Pierre Curie, A Tale of Love and Fallout

Lauren Redniss · 205 pages

Presents the professional and private lives of Marie and Pierre Curie, examining their personal struggles, the advancements they made in the world of science, and the issue of radiation in the modern world.

Lab Girl

Hope Jahren · 408 pages

An illuminating debut memoir of a woman in science; a moving portrait of a longtime friendship; and a stunningly fresh look at plants that will forever change how you see the natural world Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she’s studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Her first book is a revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also so much more. Lab

Starstruck: A Memoir of Astrophysics and Finding Light in the Dark

Sarafina El-Badry Nance · 336 pages

My Brief History

Stephen Hawking · 127 pages

Stephen Hawking is one of the most brilliant cosmologists of our time, and author of the 10 million copy bestselling A Brief History of Time, one of the iconic books of its generation. Now, for the first time, he tells the story of his life in his own words, in a book expanded from a lecture of the same name.

My Inventions: The Autobiography of Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla was one of the most brilliant and daring inventors and visionaries of his time. My Inventions is Tesla's autobiography, with focus on his major discoveries and innovations, including the rotating magnetic field, the magnifying transmitter, and the Tesla coil. His research laid much of the groundwork for modern electrical and communication systems, and his impressive accomplishments in

Einstein: His Life and Universe

Walter Isaacson · 704 pages

The first full biography of Albert Einstein since all of his papers have become available shows how his scientific imagination sprang from the rebellious nature of his personality. Biographer Isaacson explores how an imaginative, impertinent patent clerk--a struggling father in a difficult marriage who couldn't get a teaching job or a doctorate--became the locksmith of the mysteries of the atom an

Uncle Tungsten

Oliver Sacks · 337 pages

"From his earliest days, Oliver Sacks - the distinguished neurologist who is also one of the most remarkable storytellers of our time - was irresistibly drawn to understanding the natural world. Born into a large family of doctors, metallurgists, chemists, physicists, and teachers, his curiosity was encouraged and abetted by aunts, uncles, parents, and older brothers. But soon after his sixth b

Travelling to Infinity: My Life with Stephen

Jane Hawking · 483 pages

The wife of the reknowned British physicist describes their courtship and marriage, her years caring for his physical needs, his rise to prominence as a scientist and world celebrity, their bitter divorce, and later reconciliation. Stephen Hawking's first wife, Jane, relates the inside story of their marriage. As Stephen's academic renown soared, his body was collapsing under the assaults of a mo

An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness

Kay Redfield Jamison · 223 pages

From Kay Redfield Jamison - an international authority on manic-depressive illness, and one of the few women who are full professors of medicine at American universities - a remarkable personal testimony: the revelation of her own struggle since adolescence with manic-depression, and how it has shaped her life. Vividly, directly, with candor, wit, and simplicity, she takes us into the fascinating

Spaceman: An Astronaut's Unlikely Journey to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe

Mike Massimino · 336 pages

The Making of the Atomic Bomb

Richard Rhodes · 886 pages

Here for the first time, in rich, human, political, and scientific detail, is the complete story of how the bomb was developed, from the turn-of-the-century discovery of the vast energy locked inside the atom to the dropping of the first bombs on Japan. Few great discoveries have evolved so swiftly -- or have been so misunderstood. From the theoretical discussions of nuclear energy to the brig

My Journey : Transforming Dreams into Actions

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam · 160 pages

Inspirational stories from the life of the author.

The Time Traveller

Ronald Mallett, Bruce Henderson · 352 pages

Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Other Four-Letter Words

Michael Ausiello · 309 pages

Television industry journalist Michael Ausiello tells the story of his final year with his partner of thirteen years, Kit Cowan--diagnosed with a rare and very aggressive form of neuroendocrine cancer--while revisiting the many memories that preceded it, and describes how their undeniably powerful bond carried them through all manner of difficulties, with humor always front and center of the relat

The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope

William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer · 294 pages

William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and hunger, and a place where hope and opportunity were hard to find. But William had read about windmills in a book called Using Energy, and he dreamed of building one that would bring electricity and water to his village and change his life and the lives of tho

Disturbing the Universe

Freeman Dyson · 304 pages

The classic intellectual autobiography of a great theoretical physicist Spanning the years from World War II, when he was a civilian statistician in the operations research section of the Royal Air Force Bomber Command, through his studies with Hans Bethe at Cornell University, his early friendship with Richard Feynman, and his postgraduate work with J. Robert Oppenheimer, Freeman Dyson has compos

My Stroke of Insight: A Brain Scientist's Personal Journey

Jill Bolte Taylor · 188 pages

Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science

Richard Dawkins · 464 pages

"Dawkins shares with us his infectious sense of wonder at the natural world, his enjoyment of the absurdities of human interaction, and his bracing awareness of life's brevity: all of which have made a deep imprint on our culture" --

The Double Helix

James D. Watson · 202 pages

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 24, 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 d

Pink Boots and a Machete: My Journey from NFL Cheerleader to National Geographic Explorer

Mireya Mayor · 304 pages

In the Presence of My Enemies

Gracia Burnham, Dean Merrill · 320 pages

An African Love Story: Life, Love and Elephants

Daphne Sheldrick

Survival in the Killing Fields

Haing Ngor, Roger Warner · 521 pages