25 Greatest Science Books of All Time

This is one of the 748 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

About this list

Discover Magazine, 25 Books

Discover Magazine staff presents the essential reading list for anyone interested in science.

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
1788 The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin 1839 British English
180 On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin 1859 British English
1015 Principia Mathematica Isaac Newton 1687 British Latin
863 Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems Galileo 1632 Italian Italian
2025 On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres Nicolaus Copernicus 1543 Polish Latin
1449 Corpus Aristotelicum Aristotle -322 Greek Greek
4283 On the Fabric of the Human Body Andreas Vesalius 1543 Belgian Latin
315 Relativity Albert Einstein 1916 German German
2300 The Selfish Gene Richard Dawkins 1976 British English
2357 One Two Three . . . Infinity George Gamow 1947 American English
301 The Double Helix James D. Watson 1968 American English
3279 What Is Life? Erwin Schrödinger 1944 Austrian English
7032 The Cosmic Connection Carl Sagan 1973 American English
6926 The Insect Societies E. O. Wilson 1971 American English
4969 The First Three Minutes Steven Weinberg 1977 American English
162 Silent Spring Rachel Carson 1962 American English
2661 The Mismeasure of Man Stephen Jay Gould 1981 American English
1981 The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Oliver Sacks 1985 British English
2293 Journals Meriwether Lewis, William Clark 1804 American English
1276 The Feynman Lectures on Physics Richard P. Feynman 1963 American English
944 Sexual Behavior in the Human Male Alfred C. Kinsey 1948 American English
6601 Gorillas In The Mist Dian Fossey 1983 American English
6203 Under A Lucky Star Roy Chapman Andrews 1943 American English
4636 Micrographia Robert Hooke 1665 British English
4803 Gaia James Lovelock 1979 British English