GOOD, popular history of science

@ali_boyle Re good popular histsci, there's Richard's book of course!


@aaronswright while it's on my mind: bbc doc. on ros. franklin http://bbc.in/bw2OPh

@aaronswright it's a great series: cbc "ideas" has some other sci shows in the arc. Also Susuki: http://bit.ly/9J4lrz http://bit.ly/doNOY7

@aaronswright Diane Paul controlling human heredity. Misa Leonardo to the Internet is host of tech. Good but skip last chapter

@aaronswright galison's einstein's clocks is semi-pop. So is Sarah Igo the averaged american

@aaronswright CBC radio series "how to think about science" free podcasts on web or itunes


@DrStuClark Cheeky suggestion: my own book The Sun Kings. Lots of Greenwich in the later chapters. http://bit.ly/aptCb4 :)


@montejon also Arthur Koestler's 'Sleepwalkers' (at the complex end of 'popular'). 'Coral' by Steve Jones is very enjoyable too.

@montejon I found Science: A History 1543 - 2001 by John Gribbin a good grounding when I was studying #histsci with the OU...



@kelltrill No problem. Some of them chart the history of inventions from the wheel to the atom bomb. Others take a more in depth look at the more involved questions lay people might ask, so they're excellent reference works and are not inaccessible for the everyday person. Check them out on Amazon :)

@kelltrill Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries – Rodney Carlisle & Scientific American; God’s Philosophers – James Hannam

@kelltrill Scientific American: Science Desk Reference – Editors of Scientific American & John Rennie

@kelltrill The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing – Richard Dawkins; Seeing Further – Bill Bryson


@CEMcFarland For a good history of the math behind computer science, see 'The Universal Computer' by Martin Davis.

@CEMcFarland This one comes recommended from a history buff friend. http://twitpic.com/2kpxm4


@chrissasaki Very recent history: Beak of the Finch, Weiner; on the fringe but NB in my "science library": Under the Banner of Heaven, Krakauer

@chrissasaki Fermat’s Enigma/Code Book, Singh; Immortal Life of H. Lacks, Skloot; Reluctant Mr. Darwin, Quammen; Demon in Freezer, Preston


@adam_wu - Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. #histsci


@jonWturney not mine, and some of them weren't, and the series tailed off... but fun while it lasted! USP was authors real historians

@jonWturney Icon's Revolutions in Science (I know...) series, which I edited were all pretty good :) List too long to tweet.



@matthew542 A Short History of Nearly Everything. - Bill Bryson


@darwinsbulldog How 'bout (another I haven't read) A People's History of Science? http://amzn.to/dmbKcV

@darwinsbulldog I haven't read it yet, but what of Steven Johnson's "The Invention of Air"?

@darwinsbulldog Quammen's Reluctant Mr. Darwin, except it keeps notion Darwin was scared of religious backlash, long delay van Wyhe disposes of


@SFriedScientist the unnatural history of the sea and Trawler


@theselflessmeme Excellent! Maybe current political climate will stimulate new approaches to, and uses of, history of science.

@theselflessmeme I think (perhaps naively) that a little presentism is no bad thing. If historians don't do it, someone else (politicians?) will.

@theselflessmeme I think so. Maybe C18 gives licence to be both presentist and historicist (a la Stocking), which is basis of popular history?

@theselflessmeme Theme occurring: something about C18 (nat. phil./early capitalism) that lends itself to popular history writing?

@theselflessmeme Excellent. Well I guess Roy Porter was No. 1 at this. Mike Jay seems to be pretty good at it too.

@theselflessmeme Still seeking recommendations? I love Jenny Uglow's 'The Lunar Men' - academically rigorous but really enjoyable to read.


@alun Holford-Strevens VSI The History of Time for Horology.

@alun Is Anthony Aveni history-ish enough for you or too anthropological? People and the Sky is pretty good.


@LizzyCampbell also, just got home so looking at my shelf - forgot David Bodanis, Uglow's The Lunar Men, & Jardine's book on Hooke. :P

@LizzyCampbell I suspect the interest in his of sic comes from learning about the science - was my route in :)

@LizzyCampbell Simon Singh - Fermat's Last Theorem, Richard Holmes - Age of Wonders, Bryson - Short History..., John Gribbin - Science: a history


@alicebell it was edited by someone with PhD from Manc CHoSTM (& expert in pop sci) with contributions from Agar, Fara, Hughes. Better? :)

@alicebell Steve Fuller might argue this is partly to do with HPS's approach to narrative...? More practically: Icon's "Rev in Sci" series?

@alicebell sorry, I do appreciate you are taking +ve approach here, but lack of reflexivity in STS and HPS outreach really bugs me.

@alicebell would it be rude of me to suggest historians of sci complaining about popularisation just read some of their own stuff on topic?


@Mr_Considerate Man Masters Nature: 25 Centuries of Science, Roy Porter, ed.