Best Science Book Ever

This is one of the 759 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

the Royal Institution of Great Britain, 23 Books

On 19 October 2006, the Royal Institution of Great Britain named the 1975 short story collection The Periodic Table, by Primo Levi, the best science book ever. After taking nominations from many scientists in various disciplines, authors, and other notable people (such as the Archbishop of Canterbury), the Royal Institution compiled a shortlist of books for consideration. This shortlist was presented to the public at an event held at Imperial College and the audience voted to determine which book was "the best."

This list was originally published in 2006 and was added to this site over 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
958 The Periodic Table Primo Levi 1975 Italian Italian
2219 King Solomon's Ring Konrad Lorenz 1949 Austrian German
2290 Arcadia Tom Stoppard 1993 British English
2307 The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins 1976 British English
304 The Double Helix James D. Watson 1968 American English
2422 Galileo Bertolt Brecht 1938 German German
9087 Pluto's Republic Peter B. Medawar 1982 British English
1728 The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin 1839 British English
3282 The Blank Slate Steven Pinker 2002 American English
9284 A Leg To Stand On Oliver Sacks 1984 British English
2292 Consciousness Explained Daniel Dennett 1991 American English
10504 Shadows Of The Mind Roger Penrose 1994 British English
2368 On Growth and Form D'Arcy Wentworth Thompson 1917 British English
7045 Invention Norbert Wiener 1948 American English
1387 Gödel, Escher, Bach Douglas Hofstadter 1979 American English
9563 Mathematics, Form And Function Saunders Mac Lane 1986 American English
2418 A Mathematician's Apology G. H. Hardy 1940 British English
1987 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks 1985 British English
11504 How To Build A Time Machine Paul Davies 2002 British English
1443 Mason & Dixon Thomas Pynchon 1997 American English
2870 Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman! Richard P. Feynman 1985 American English
3231 The Strategy Of Conflict Thomas Schelling 1960 American English
2673 Microbe Hunters Paul de Kruif 1926 American English