Books

The best popular science books, according to hackers

50 popular science books recommended in Hacker News comments over the past year, ranked by how many separate people recommend each one.

• Most recommendedGödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas Hofstadter47 people recommend it
• Least regretThinking in Systems by Donella Meadows17 recommend, 0 criticize

All popular science books

• Gödel, Escher, Bach by Douglas HofstadterRecommended for its playful exploration of self-reference, logic and consciousness. Common caveat: it is digressive and some find it slow going.47recommend
• Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel KahnemanWidely recommended for changing how you think about decisions and biases; critics say many of its studies, especially on priming, have failed to replicate.17recommend
• Thinking in Systems by Donella MeadowsPeople recommend it for changing how they see cause and effect, with names for patterns and a clear split between stocks and flows.17recommend
• The Selfish Gene by Richard DawkinsRecommended for teaching how evolution works from the gene's view and building evolutionary thinking. Critics say its story is detached from how systems survive change.14recommend
• Cosmos by Carl SaganRecommended for making the universe vivid and accessible in both book and TV form, though one critic calls it popular rather than scientific.13recommend
• A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach WeinersmithRecommended as a realistic, clear-eyed look at the many hard challenges of building permanent Mars settlements, written with humor. Common caveat: critics say it strawmans settlers and misses their motives.11recommend
• The Demon-Haunted World by Carl SaganPeople recommend it for teaching scientific thinking, separating science from pseudoscience, and the Baloney Detection Kit, which many say changed how they judge evidence.10recommend
• Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua FoerRecommended as an enjoyable, quick introduction to memory and mnemonics, for readers new to the subject. Some find the memory athlete dialogs boring.9recommend
• Chaos by James GleickRecommended as a good, quick introduction to chaos theory, emergent phenomena and the history of the field.9recommend
• Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared DiamondPeople recommend it as a readable account of why Eurasian societies came to dominate, driven by geography, though critics call its thesis weak and say newer scholarship has overtaken it.7recommend
• Entangled Life by Merlin SheldrakeReaders recommend it as a gentle, fresh introduction to fungi, with the author's narration praised. Critics note the author isn't a research mycologist and call the evidence thin.7recommend
• The Beginning of Infinity by David DeutschPeople recommend it for its thought-provoking ideas on infinite possibilities, its case against finitists, and its many fascinating facts.6recommend
• Dopamine Nation by Anna LembkePeople recommend it as a good, worthwhile book on dopamine and addiction, explaining how pleasure and pain are balanced in the brain.6recommend
• Society of Mind by Marvin MinskyShort one-page essays on intelligence as an emergent property of many simple agents, recommended as AI fundamentals reading. One reader says it has aged well to about 80%.6recommend
• Vehicles: Experiments in Synthetic Psychology by Valentino BraitenbergA short, classic book showing how simple wiring of sensors and motors can produce complex-seeming behavior, recommended by readers as a favorite.6recommend
• Material World by Ed ConwayRecommended for explaining how raw materials and mining shape modern manufacturing and technology, including the semiconductor supply chain.6recommend
• Breath by James NestorReaders recommend it as a readable, practical guide to breathing, with habits that some found had a lasting positive effect. The most common caveat is that parts of it feel like woo.6recommend
• A Brief History of Time by Stephen HawkingRecommended as a clear, approachable introduction to cosmology that sparked careers. Critics call it weaker than other books on the topic.6recommend
• QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard FeynmanPeople recommend it as an approachable, descriptive introduction to quantum electrodynamics that needs no heavy mathematics and suits readers with high school understanding.5recommend
• The Vital Question by Nick LaneRecommended as an accessible introduction to how energy shaped the evolution of complex life, with readers praising its layperson-friendly detail.5recommend
• The Order of Time by Carlo RovelliPeople recommend it as an engaging read that shifts how you think about time, written in a gentle, readable style. One reader found the theories more interesting than the rest of the book.5recommend
• Other Minds by Peter Godfrey-SmithPeople recommend it as a readable, well-regarded book on octopus minds and animal consciousness. No critical quotes appear, so no caveat is recorded.5recommend
• Annals of the Former World by John McPheeA long, lyrical anthology about North American geology that makes the deep history of the land readable and vivid, and inspires readers to look at rock formations on their travels.5recommend
• Who We Are and How We Got Here by David ReichRecommended for being scientifically rigorous and terminologically precise; one critic says it discounts complexity in neighboring fields.5recommend
• Systemantics by John GallPeople recommend it as a realistic, honest view that systems always fail, and as a book system designers read closely and find well worth reading.5recommend
• Pale Blue Dot by Carl SaganRecommended by readers as one of the greatest books ever written, and its famous excerpt is shared often. No recurring criticism appeared in the quotes.4recommend
• A New Kind of Science by Stephen WolframRecommended as a clear, worthwhile read for people interested in its subject; critics find it repetitive, overhyped, and short on practical use cases.4recommend
• Ultra-Processed People by Chris van TullekenPeople recommend it as a readable, scientifically careful overview of ultraprocessed food research, covering the obesity research community and the history of the theory.4recommend
• Algorithms to Live By by Brian Christian and Tom GriffithsPeople recommend it as a read beyond the article under discussion, though the quotes give few specific reasons and no criticism appears.4recommend
• A Brief History of Intelligence by Max BennettRecommended as an accessible book on how intelligence and the brain evolved, and one that changes how readers think about AI and AGI.4recommend
• Why We Sleep by Matthew WalkerRecommended for changing views on sleep and drinking. Critics cite statistical errors and alarmism some readers took from it.4recommend
• The Code Book by Simon SinghRecommended as an excellent introduction to cryptography and the history of ciphers; the same author's other books are also praised.4recommend
• The Emperor's New Mind by Roger PenrosePeople cite it as Roger Penrose's argument that machines cannot be conscious, written by a leading physicist.3recommend
• Endure by Alex HutchinsonRecommended for asking whether human endurance limits are physical or psychological, and for anyone interested in human performance.3recommend
• Artificial Life by Steven LevyRecommended for its lasting impact on readers, with one reader calling it a formative experience they first read as a teenager.3recommend
• The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter WohllebenPeople recommend it for its brilliant storytelling and digestible writing. No criticism appeared in the discussions.3recommend
• Sync by Steven StrogatzRecommended as a lighter but still fascinating introduction to Kuramoto oscillators and synchronization.3recommend
• The Machinery of Life by David GoodsellPeople recommend it for its illustrations and its patient, visual explanations of how the cell's molecular machines work.3recommend
• Behave by Robert SapolskyReaders say it helps them understand themselves and others, and its punishment chapter stays with them. No critics raised a recurring complaint.3recommend
• The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything by Peter BrannenReaders recommend it as an engaging tour of Earth's geochemistry, showing the power and scope of CO2 over millions and billions of years.3recommend
• The Song of the Cell by Siddhartha MukherjeePeople recommend it as an accessible starting point on cell biology and describe it as an enjoyable read. No recurring criticism appeared.3recommend
• A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill BrysonReaders recommend it as a great read that shows how scientists missed what was under their noses.3recommend
• An Immense World by Ed YongRecommended for its vivid animal chapters, such as those on bats and eels. The most common caveat is that it is not an easy or fun read.3recommend
• How Not to Study a Disease by Karl HerrupReaders recommend it as a well-argued, readable account of why Alzheimer's research has made little progress, and say it is really good.3recommend
• How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike BrownPeople recommend it to scientists and general readers alike for its humor, good writing, and clear account of the Pluto debate.3recommend
• 101 Amazing Sights of the Night Sky by NeurohackPeople who looked inside say it looks great, and one says it recalls an old astronomy book they loved as a child.3recommend
• Darwin's Cathedral by David Sloan WilsonPeople recommend it as a readable account of group selection and how humans came to cooperate, and say it synthesizes more rigorous work on the subject.2recommend
• The Case for Mars by Robert ZubrinRecommended as a serious, well-researched case for Mars exploration, written by an aerospace engineer with extensive research into the topic.2recommend
• Cell Biology by the Numbers by Ron Milo and Rob PhilipsRecommended for building intuition about cell sizes, measurements and processes through order-of-magnitude calculations.2recommend
• Brain Energy by Chris PalmerRecommended by readers who found its brain energy theory of mental illness, including depression, compelling and sensible.2recommend