Winter Reading List

Ready for a fun and challenging winter reading list to build your science knowledge? Take our Winter Reading List challenge and be the life of all parties with you newly acquired fast facts and scientific stories.

Grant. J. (2007). Corrupted Science. Facts, Figures, & Fun.

"[Grant] takes us through a rogue's gallery that features faked creatures, paleontological trickery, false psychics, and miracles cures that aren't so miraculous. See how ideology, religion, and politics have imposed themselves on science throughout history, from the Catholic Church's influence on cosmology to Nazi racist pseudoscience to the Bush Administration's attempt to deny climate change. The themes, while entertaining as ever, are serious and timely." -- from publisher  

Nicholls, H. (2018). Sleepyhead: the neuroscience of a good night's rest. Basic Books.

"Whether it's a bout of bad jet lag or a stress-induced all-nighter, we've all suffered from nights that left us feeling less than well-rested. But for some people, getting a bad night's sleep isn't just an inconvenience: it's a nightmare. In Sleepyhead, science writer Henry Nicholls uses his own experiences with chronic narcolepsy as a gateway to better understanding the cryptic, curious, and relatively uncharted world of sleep disorders." -- from publisher 

Numbers, R. L. (2015). Newton's apple and other myths about science. Harvard University Press.
"Newton's Apple debunks widespread belief that science advances when individual geniuses experience "Eureka!" moments and suddenly comprehend what those around them could never imagine. Science has always been a cooperative enterprise of dedicated, fallible human beings, for whom context, collaboration, and sheer good luck are essential elements of discovery." -- from Amazon.

Parker, S. (2015). Evolution: the whole story. Firefly books.

"Evolution provides an in-depth account of evolution, one of the ultimate keystone theories in modern science. Ten experts survey how each of the Earth's major groups of living things diversified and evolved through time. Using visual features that make the story comprehensible, the book gives readers, even those with no previous knowledge of the topic, a clear understanding of evolution and how it brought us to the present day." -- from publisher

Roach, M. (2003). Stiff: the curious lives of human cadavers. W. W. Norton & Co. 

"Stiff is an oddly compelling, often hilarious exploration of the strange lives of our bodies postmortem. For two thousands years, cadavers -- some willingly, some unwittingly -- have been involved in science's boldest strides and weirdest undertakings. In this fascinating account, Mary Roach visits the good deeds of cadavers over the centuries and tells the engrossing story of our bodies when we are no longer with them." -- from publisher