2014 Popular-Science Reading Challenge

2014-pop-sci-reading-challengeThis challenge is simply to read 10 popular-science books over the course of the year. Any popular-science book counts, including biographies or other forms of science history.

Below is the full list of books recommended to me as part of the challenge. I will annotate this list as I read the books.

A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea: the Race to Kill the BP Oil Gusher by Joel Achenbach
The Edge of Physics: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Cosmology by Anil Ananthaswamy
The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum
Thirteen Things That Don’t Make Sense by Michael Brooksread February 2014
A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
Silent Spring by Rachel Carsonread June/July 2014
Sex, Drugs and Rock’n’Roll: the Science of Hedonism and the Hedonism of Science by Zoe Cormierread August 2014
Why Does e=mc2? by Brian Cox
The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins
Smile or Die by Barbara Ehrenreich
Measure of the Earth: the Enlightenment Expedition that Reshaped the World by Laurie Ferreiro
The Shadow of Man by Jane Goodallread June 2014
The Hacker Ethic by Pekka Himanen et al
Emergence by Steven Johnson
How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture and the Quantum Revival by David Kaiser
Sensation: the New Science of Physical Intelligence by Thalma Lobelread September 2014
Decoding the Heavens by Jo Merchant
The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality by Richard Panek
Packing for Mars by Mary Roachread January 2014
Stiff by Mary Roach
Fermat’s Last Theorem by Simon Singh (US title: Fermat’s Enigma)
The Simpsons and Their Mathematical Secrets by Simon Singh – started and abandoned
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Sklootread April/May 2014
A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionised the Cosmos by Dava Sobel – started and abandoned
Backroom Boys: the Secret Return of the British Boffin by Francis Spuffordread December 2014
Woman by Natalie Tangier
Snowball Earth by Gabrielle Walkerread May 2014
The Double Helix by James Watson
Breasts by Florence Williamsread May 2014