Dr. Fred Bortz

THE SCIENCE SHELF
REVIEWS BY DATE


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Dear Science Readers,

This site is a continuously growing archive of my book reviews. It is self-funded, with part of the cost covered by your purchases through my Amazon.com links. Thanks to an increasing number of visitors, revenues now cover most of my cost. I appreciate your support.

As of now, most past reviews have been added, and I will be adding others and activating their links when an appropriate occasion arises. If you see the name of a book without an active link and would be interested in my review, or if you click on a link and and get an error message, please e-mail me about it.

For a time, I added books that I had seen and could recommend, but had not written reviews for. Those books are designated with an asterisk (*) below.

Note: All materials on this site are the copyrighted property of Alfred B. Bortz. Individuals may print single copies of reviews or columns for their own use. For permission to publish or print multiple copies of any of the materials on this site, please contact the author by e-mail.

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Reviews of books in reverse chronological order by year of publication.

For my most recent reviews and "roundups," see my page at Science Blog.

For the latest years, the newest additions to the site are listed first.
For previous years, they are listed alphabetically by title (neglecting initial "a/an" or "the") within each year.

[2011 or later][2010][2009][2008][2007][2006][World Year of Physics 2005][2005] [2004] [2003] [2002] [2001] [2000] [Before 2000]


2011-2018


A Bright Future: How Some Countries Have Solved Climate Change and the Rest Can Follow by Joshua S. Goldberg and Staffan A. Qvist

Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto by Alan Stern and David Grinspoon

The Self-Driven Child: The Science and Sense of Giving Your Kids More Control Over Their Lives by William A. Stixrud Ph.D. and Ned Johnson

Turning Points: How Critical Events Have Driven Human Evolution, Life, and Development by Kostas Kampourakis

Swearing is Good for You by Emma Byrne

Behemoth: A History of the Factory and the Making of the Modern World by Joshua B. Freeman

Graphene: The Superstrong, Superthin, and Superversatile Material That Will Revolutionize the World by Les Johnson and Joseph E. Meany, Ph.D.

A Most Elegant Equation: Euler's Formula and the Beauty of Mathematics by David Stipp

Designing Reality: How to Survive and Thrive in the Third Digital Revolution by Neil Gershenfeld, Alan Gershenfeld, and Joel Cutcher-Gershenfeld

Earth in Human Hands: Shaping Our Planet's Future by David Grinspoon

A Most Improbable Journey: A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves by Walter Alvarez

The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, & Everyone In-Between by Abigail Marsh

Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory: The Theoretical Minimum by Leonard Susskind and Art Friedman

The Quantum Labyrinth: How Richard Feynman and John Wheeler Revolutionized Time and Reality by Paul Halpern

Modern Classical Physics by Kip S. Thorne and Roger D. Blandford

The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, & Everyone In-Between by Abigail Marsh

Quakeland: On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake by Katheryn Miles

Mass: The Quest to Understand Matter from Greek Atoms to Quantum Fields by Jim Baggott

The Taking of K-129: How the CIA used Howard Hughes to Steal a Russian Sub in the Most Daring Covert Operation in History by Josh Dean

Darwin's Backyard: How Small Experiments Led to a Big Theory by James T. Costa

What It's Like to be a Dog: And Other Adventures in Animal Neuroscience by Gregory Berns

Significant Figures: The Lives and Work of Great Mathematicians by Ian Stewart

A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution by Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg

The Vaccine Race: Science, Politics, and the Human Costs of Defeating Disease by Meredith Wadman

The Pope of Physics: Enrico Fermi and the Birth of the Atomic Age by Gino Segre and Bettina Hoerlin

The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Herding Hemingway's Cats: Understanding How Our Genes Work by Kat Arney

Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe by Lisa Randall

Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War by Susan Southard

Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett

Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World by Mark Miodownik

Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth by Jim Baggott

Visions of Infinity: The Great Mathematical Problems by Ian Stewart

Near-Earth Objects: Finding Them Before They Find Us by Donald K. Yeomans

The Violinist's Thumb and Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius as Written by Our Genetic Code by Sam Kean

Gravity: How the Weakest Force in the Universe Shaped Our Lives by Brian Clegg

Wired for Culture: Origins of the Human Social Mind by Mark Pagel

The Quantum Story: A History in 40 Moments by Jim Baggott

First Contact: Scientific Breakthroughs in the Hunt for Life Beyond Earth by Marc Kaufman

Blood Work: A Tale of Medicine and Murder in the Scientific Revolution by Holly Tucker

Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other by Shelly Turkle

The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality by Richard Panek

2010


Adaptive Governance and Climate Change by Ronald D. Brunner and Amanda H. Lynch

Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error by Kathryn Schulz

The Death and Life of the Great American School System: How Testing and Choice are Undermining Education by Diane Ravitch

The Evolutionary World: How Adaptation Explains Everything from Seashells to Civilization by Geerat Vermeij

The Flooded Earth: Our Future in a World Without Ice Caps by Peter D. Ward

The Grand Design by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow

Here's Looking at Euclid: A Surprising Excursion Through the Astonishing World of Math by Alex Bellos

The Little Book of String Theory by Steven S. Gubser

Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science by Ian Sample

Once Before Time: A Whole Story of the Universe by Martin Bojowald

Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach

Proofiness: The Dark Arts of Mathematical Deception by Charles Seife

Settled in the Wild: Notes from the Edge of Town by Susan Hand Shetterly

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation by Steven Johnson

2009


Almost Astronauts: 13 Women Who Dared to Dream by Tanya Lee Stone

The Anatomy of Evil by Michael H. Stone, M.D.

Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human by Richard Wrangham

The Crowded Universe: The Search for Living Planets by Alan Boss

Cruelty: Human Evil and the Human Brain by Kathleen Taylor

Denialism: How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet, and Threatens Our Lives by Michael Specter

Forecast: The Consequences of Climate Change, from the Amazon to the Arctic, from Darfur to Napa Valley by Stephan Faris

The Medea Hypothesis: Is Life on Earth Ultimately Self-Destructive? by Peter Ward

Pluto Confidential: An Insider Account of the Ongoing Battles Over the Status of Pluto by Laurence A. Marschall and Stephen P. Maran

The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Rising Plague: The Global Threat from Deadly Bacteria and Our Dwindling Arsenal to Fight Them by Brad Spellberg, M.D.

Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson

Why Evolution is True by Jerry A. Coyne

2008


Anticancer: A New Way of Life by David Servan-Schreiber, M.D., Ph.D.

Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God by Amos Nur with Dawn Burgess

Beyond UFOs: The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Its Astonishing Implications for Our Future by Jeffrey Bennett

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach

Censoring Science: Inside the Political Attack on Dr. James Hansen and the Truth of Global Warming by Mark Bowen

What the Nose Knows: The Science of Scent in Everyday Life by Avery Gilbert

Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America's Soul by Kenneth R. Miller

Science, Evolution, and Creationism by the U. S. National Academy of Sciences and the U.S. Institute of Medicine

Side Effects: A Prosecutor, a Whistleblower, and a Bestselling Antidepressant on Trial by Alison Bass

Trick or Treatment: The Undeniable Facts About Alternative Medicine by Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst, M.D.

What Bugged the Dinosaurs? Insects, Disease, and Death in the Cretaceous by George Poinar, Jr., and Roberta Poinar

The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature by Daniel J. Levitin

2007


The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier

Cell of Cells: The Global Race to Capture and Control the Stem Cell by Cynthia Fox

A Contract with the Earth by Newt Gingrich and Terry L. Maple

Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming by Bjorn Lomborg

The Design of Future Things by Don Norman

Evil Genes: Why Rome Fell, Hitler Rose, Enron Failed, and My Sister Stole My Mother's Boyfriend by Barbara Oakley

Evolving God: A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion by Barbara J. King

A Force of Nature: the Frontier Genius of Ernest Rutherford by Richard Reeves

Is Pluto a Planet? A Historical Journey Through the Solar System by David A. Weintraub

The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization by Brian Fagan (2004 book added in 2007)

Riddled With Life: Friendly Worms, Ladybug Sex, and the Parasites that Make Us Who We Are by Marlene Zuk

The Social Atom: Why the Rich Get Richer, Cheaters Get Caught, and Your Neighbor Usually Looks Like You by Mark Buchanan

Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming by Chris Mooney

Tested: An American School Struggles to Make the Grade by Linda Perlstein

Where We Stand: A Surprising Look at the Real State of Our Planet by Seymour Garte

2006


After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning by Ian Wilmut and Roger Highfield

Bodies We've Buried: Inside the National Forensic Academy, the World's Top CSI Training School by Jarrett Hallcox and Amy Welch, Foreword by Dr. Bill Bass

Civilized Life in the Universe: Scientists on Extraterrestrial Intelligence by George Basalla

The Cloudspotter's Guide: The Science, History, and Culture of Clouds by Gavin Pretor-Pinney

The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth by E. O. Wilson

Extinction: How Life on Earth Nearly Ended 250 Million Years Ago by Douglas H. Erwin

Field Notes From A Catastrophe: Man, Nature, and Climate Change by Elizabeth Kolbert

Fleeing Fundamentalism: A Minister's Wife Examines Faith by Carlene Cross

Letters to a Young Mathematician by Ian Stewart

The Master Plan: Himmler's Scholars and the Holocaust by Heather Pringle

Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law by Peter Woit

Out of Thin Air: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Earth's Ancient Atmosphere by Peter Ward

The Scientist as Rebel by Freeman Dyson

The Secret Life of Numbers: 50 Easy Pieces on How Mathematicians Work and Think by George G. Szpiro

Sensuous Seas: Tales of a Marine Biologist by Eugene H. Kaplan

This is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession by Daniel J. Levitin

The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin

The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God by Carl Sagan, edited by Ann Druyan

The View from the Center of the Universe: Discovering Our Extraordinary Place in the Cosmos by Joel R. Primack and Nancy Ellen Abrams

Walking Zero: Discovering Cosmic Space and Time Along the Prime Meridian by Chet Raymo

The Weather Makers: How Man is Changing the Climate and What it Means for Life on Earth by Tim Flannery

What Your Doctor Hasn't Told You and the Health Store Clerk Doesn't Know: The Truth About Alternative Treatments and What Works by Edward L. Schneider, M.D., and Leigh Ann Hirschman

2005


Books for the World Year of Physics, 2005

Astro Turf: The Private Life of Rocket Science by M. G. Lord

The Botanist and the Vintner: How Wine Was Saved for the World by Christy Campbell

Centauri Dreams: Imagining and Planning Interstellar Exploration by Paul Gilster

Climate Crash: Abrupt Climate Change and What It Means for Our Future by John D. Cox

The Evolution-Creation Struggle by Michael Ruse

The Fly in the Cathedral: How a Group of Cambridge Scientists Won the International Race to Split the Atom by Brian Cathcart

The Grand Tour: A Travelers Guide to the Solar System by Ron Miller and William K. Hartmann

The Hunt for the Dawn Monkey: Unearthing the Origins of Monkeys, Apes, and Humans by Chris Beard

Infinite Worlds: An Illustrated Voyage to Planets Beyond our Sun by Ray Villard and Lynette R. Cook, illustrator

A Left-Hand Turn Around the World: Chasing the Mystery and Meaning of All Things Southpaw by David Wolman

Life As We Do Not Know It: The NASA Search for (and Synthesis of) Alien Life by Peter Ward

Living with Polio: The Epidemic and Its Survivors by Daniel J. Wilson

Man the Hunted: Primates, Predators, and Human Evolution by Donna L. Hart and Robert W. Sussman

Master Mind: The Rise and Fall of Fritz Haber, the Nobel Laureate Who Launched the Age of Chemical Warfare by Daniel Charles

Monkey Business: The True Story of the Scopes Trial by Marvin Olasky and John Perry

Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are by Frans de Waal

The Planets by Dava Sobel

Polio: An American Story by David M. Oshinsky

The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney

Splendid Solution: Jonas Salk and the Conquest of Polio by Jeffrey Kluger

Spook: Science Tackles the Afterlife by Mary Roach

Stargazer: The Life and Times of the Telescope by Fred Watson

Strange Angel: The Otherworldly Life of Rocket Scientist John Whiteside Parsons by George Pendle

2004


The Ancestor's Tale: A Pilgrimage to the Dawn of Evolution by Richard Dawkins

The Architecture and Design of Man and Woman: The Marvel of the Human Body Revealed by Alexander Tsiaras*

Archives of the Universe: A Treasury of Astronomy's Historic Works of Discovery edited and with Introduction by Marcia Bartusiak*

Beating Back the Devil: On the Front Lines with the Disease Detectives of the Epidemic Intelligence Service by Maryn McKenna

Bones Rock: Everything You Kneed to Know to be a Paleontologist by Peter Larson and Kristin Donnan*

Copies in Seconds: Chester Carlson and the Birth of the Xerox Machine by David Owen

Defining the Wind: The Beaufort Scale and How a 19th-Century Admiral Turned Science into Poetry by Scott Huler

The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements of Earthworms by Amy Stewart

The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World by Paul Roberts

FitzRoy: The Remarkable Story of Darwin's Captain and the Invention of the Weather Forecast by John and Mary Gribbin

Futures: 50 Years in Space, The Challenge of the Stars by David A. Hardy and Sir Patrick Moore

Math and the Mona Lisa: The Art and Science of Leonardo Da Vinci by Bulent Atalay*

The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle by Eric Lax

Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson and Donald Goldsmith*

Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil by David Goodstein

Pandora's Baby: How the First Test Tube Babies Sparked the Reproductive Revolution by Robin Marantz Henig

The Real Mars by Michael Hanlon*

The Whale Book: Whales and Other Marine Animals as Described by Adriaen Coenen in 1585

Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love by Helen Fisher

The World of Gerard Mercator: The Mapmaker Who Revolutionized Geography by Andrew Taylor*

2003


Column published March 30, 2003, Earth Policy 2003.

Alpha and Omega: The Quest for the Beginning and End of the Universe by Charles Seife

Darwin and the Barnacle: Story of One Tiny Creature and History's Most Spectacular Scientific Breakthrough by Rebecca Stott

DNA: The Secret of Life by James D. Watson*

The Earth Policy Reader by Lester R. Brown

Edison and the Electric Chair: A Story of Light and Death by Mark Essig

Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life by Leonard Mlodinow

Hitler's Scientists: Science, War, and the Devil's Pact by John Cornwell

The Last Sorcerers: The Path from Alchemy to the Periodic Table by Richard Morris

The Life and Death of Planet Earth: How the New Science of Astrobiology Charts the Ultimate Fate of Our World by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee

Meteorites, Ice, and Antarctica: A Personal Account by William Cassidy

The Path: A One-Mile Walk Through the Universe by Chet Raymo

The Prism and the Pendulum: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments in Science by Robert P. Crease

The Radiation Sonnets: For My Love, in Sickness and in Health by Jane Yolen

Rocket Dreams: How the Space Age Shaped Our Vision of the World Beyond by Marina Benjamin

Science, Money, and Politics: Political Triumph and Ethical Erosion by Daniel Greenberg

State of the World 2003 by the Worldwatch Institute

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach

Sync: The Emerging Science of Spontaneous Order by Steven Strogatz

Take Joy: A Book for Writers by Jane Yolen

2002


 Column published December 23, 2002, Holiday Gifts for Science Readers.

Column published November 10, 2002, A Tale of Two Planets reviewing books about the mapping and measurement of Earth and Mars.

Column published August 25, 2002, Comparative review of two books about the investigation of the crash of USAir Flight 427

Column published July 14, 2002 (Books about the World of 2050) supplemented by links to reviews of related books.

Column published April 21, 2002 (Books about Intelligence, Artificial and Real) supplemented by links to reviews of related books.

Column published February 3, 2002 (Books about Extra-solar Planets and Extraterrestrial Life) supplemented by additional material about older books on those fields and the people who work in them.

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker

Distant Wanderers: The Search for Planets Beyond the Solar System by Bruce G. Dorminey

The Dynamic Great Lakes by Barbara Spring

Flesh and Machines: How Robots Will Change Us by Rodney A. Brooks

Flight 427: Anatomy of an Air Disaster by Gerry Byrne

From Conception to Birth: A Life Unfolds by Alexander Tsiaras

How to Build a Time Machine by Paul Davies

The Man Who Changed How Boys and Toys Were Made: The Life and Times of A. C. Gilbert, the Man Who Saved Christmas by Bruce Watson

Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World by Oliver Morton

A Matter of Degrees: What Temperature Reveals About the Past and Future of Our Species, Planet, and Universe by Gino Segre

The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and Hidden Error that Transformed the World by Ken Alder

The Mystery of Flight 427: Inside a Flight Investigation by Bill Adair

The Next Fifty Years: Science in the First Half of the Twenty-First Century edited by John Brockman

On the Shoulders of Giants: The Great Works of Physics and Astronomy edited with comments by Stephen Hawking

Redesigning Humans: Our Inevitable Genetic Future by Gregory Stock

The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works by Roger Highfield

Seeing in the Dark: How Backyard Stargazers Are Probing Deep Space and Guarding Earth From Interplanetary Peril by Timothy Ferris

Strange Matters: Undiscovered Ideas at the Frontiers of Space and Time by Tom Siegfried

Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are by Joseph LeDoux

True Genius: The Life and Science of John Bardeen by Lillian Hoddeson and Vicki Daitsch

The Turk: The Life and Times of the Famous Eighteenth Century Chess Playing Machine by Tom Standage

Tuxedo Park: A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science that Changed the Course of World War II by Jennet Conant

What Does a Martian Look Like? The Science of Extraterrestrial Life by Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart

2001


 The Coming Storm: Extreme Weather and Our Terrifying Future by Bob Reiss

The Difference Engine: Charles Babbage and the Quest to Build the First Computer by Doron Swade

The Hole in the Universe: How Scientists Peered Over the Edge of Emptiness and Found Everything by K. C. Cole

Hurricane Watch: Forecasting the Deadliest Storms on Earth by Dr. Bob Sheets and Jack Williams

Imagining Space: Achievements * Predictions * Possibilities 1950-2050 by Roger D. Launius and Howard McCurdy with foreword by Ray Bradbury

The Impact of the Gene: From Mendel's Peas to Designer Babies by Colin Tudge

An Intimate Look at the Night Sky by Chet Raymo

It's a Bunny-Eat-Bunny World: A Writer's Guide to Surviving and Thriving in Today's Competitive Children's Book Market by Olga Litowinsky

The Lady Tasting Tea: How Statistics Revolutionized Science in the Twentieth Century by David Salsburg

The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, 1300-1850 by Brian Fagan

The Magic Furnace: The Search for the Origin of Atoms by Marcus Chown

Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning; How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future in This Century On Earth and Beyond by Martin Rees

Mission Jupiter: The Spectacular Journey of the Galileo Spacecraft by Daniel Fischer

Nearest Star: The Surprising Science of Our Sun by Leon Golub & Jay M. Pasachoff

The Secret Life of Dust: From the Cosmos to the Kitchen Counter, the Big Consequences of Little Things by Hannah Holmes

Sputnik: The Shock of the Century by Paul Dickson

The 23rd Cycle: Learning to Live with a Stormy Star by Sten Odenwald

The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking

A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attenttion, and the Four Theaters of the Brain by John J. Ratey, M.D.

The Worlds of Galileo: The Inside Story of NASA's Mission to Jupiter by Michael Hanlon with Foreword by Arthur C. Clarke

2000


 Biography of a Germ by Arno Karlen

Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain by Michael Paterniti

E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation by David Bodanis

Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz

A Fish Caught in Time: The Search for the Coelacanth by Samantha Weinberg

Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters by Matt Ridley

Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect by Paul R. Ehrlich

The Infinite Journey: Eyewitness Accounts of NASA and the Age of Space by William E. Burrows with foreword by Walter Cronkite

Inside the Hurricane: Face to Face with Nature's Deadliest Storms by Pete Davies

Jacobson's Organ and the Remarkable Sense of Smell by Lyall Watson

Laughter: A Scientific Investigation by Robert R. Provine

Life's Matrix: A Biography of Water by Philip Ball

Mendeleyev's Dream: The Quest for the Elements by Paul Strathern

Millions of Monarchs, Bunches of Beetles: How Bugs Find Strength in Numbers by Gilbert Waldbauer

Nature Out of Place: Biological Invasions in the Global Age by Jason van Driesche and Roy van Driesche

The Neptune File: A Story of Astronomical Rivalries and the Pioneers of Planet Hunting by Tom Standage

Ocean's End: Travels Through Endangered Seas by Colin Woodard

Paradigms Regained by John L. Casti

Rare Earth: Why Complex Life is Uncommon in the Universe by Peter D. Ward and Donald Brownlee

Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind by Hans Moravec

Stardust: Supernovae and Life -- The Cosmic Connection by John Gribbin with Mary Gribbin

Turn Right at Orion: Travels Through the Cosmos by Mitchell Begelman

Universal Foam: From Cappuccino to the Cosmos by Sidney Perkowitz

Voyage to Mars: NASA's Search for Life Beyond Earth by Laurence Bergreen

Water: The Fate of our Most Precious Resource by Marq de Villiers

Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife

1999


 Captured by Aliens: The Search for Life and Truth in a Very Large Universe by Joel Achenbach

Carl Sagan: A Life by Keay Davidson

Carl Sagan: A Life in the Cosmos by William Poundstone

The Change in the Weather: People, Weather, and the Science of Climate by William K. Stevens

Deep Time: How Humanity Communicates Across Millennia by Gregory Benford

The Five Ages of the Universe: Inside the Physics of Eternity by Fred Adams and Greg Laughlin

Forces of the Wild by Victoria Coules

The Gendered Atom: Reflections on the Sexual Psychology of Science by Theodore Roszak (foreword by Jane Goodall)

The Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan with Don Davis

Sudden Origins: Fossils, Genes, and the Emergence of Species by Jeffrey H. Schwartz

Tornado Alley: Monster Storms of the Great Plains by Howard B. Bluestien

Voices of the Rocks: A Scientist Looks at Catastrophes & Ancient Civilizations by Robert M. Schoch, Ph. D. with Robert Aquinas McNally

Vulcan's Fury: Man Against the Volcano by Alwyn Scarth

1998


 The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence by Ray Kurzweil

Comets: Creators and Destroyers by David H. Levy

Earth Story: The Shaping of Our World by Simon Lamb & David Sington

Heavenly Knowledge: An Astrophysicist Seeks Wisdom in the Stars by Dr. Fiorella Terenzi

Managing Martians by Donna Shirley with Danelle Morton

Mind Matters: Exploring the World of Artificial Intelligence by James P. Hogan

Other Worlds: the Search for Life in the Universe by Michael D. Lemonick

The Search for Life on Other Planets by Bruce Jakosky

Sharing the Universe: Perspectives on Extraterrestrial Life Seth Shostak

The Substance of Civilization by Stephen L. Sass

This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age by William E. Burrows

Wind: How the Flow of Air Has Shaped Life, Myth, and the Land by Jan DeBlieu

1997


 Are We Unique? A Scientist Explores the Unparalleled Intelligence of the Human Mind by James Trefil

Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan

Countdown: A History of Space Flight by T. A. Heppenheimer

The Dancing Universe: From Creation Myths to the Big Bang by Marcelo Gleiser

Endless Frontier: Vannevar Bush, Engineer of the American Century by G. Pascal Zachary

Fanfare for Earth: The Origin of Our Planet and Life by Harry Y. McSween, Jr.

Goodbye, Descartes: The End of Logic and the Search for a New Cosmology of the Mind by Keith Devlin

Gravity: Tilted Perspectives on Rocketships, Rollercoasters, Earthquakes, and Angel Food by Joseph Lanza

Heisenberg Probably Slept Here: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Physicists of the 20th Century by Richard P. Brennan

How the Mind Works by Steven Pinker

Mars: The Living Planet by Barry E. DiGregorio

Planet Quest: The Epic Discovery of Alien Solar Systems by Ken Croswell

Probable Tomorrows: How Science and Technology Will Transform our Lives in the Next Twenty Years by Marvin Cetron and Owen Davies

Space and the American Imagination by Howard E. McCurdy

Stuff: The Materials the World is Made of by Ivan Amato

Venus Revealed: A New Look Below the Clouds of Our Mysterious Twin Planet by David H. Grinspoon

The Whole Shebang: A State-of-the-Universe(s) Report by Timothy Ferris

1996 AND EARLIER


 Mind Children: The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence by Hans Moravec