# The Eighth Day of Creation by Horace Freeland Judson

5 Hacker News commenters recommended The Eighth Day of Creation by Horace Freeland Judson and 0 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a history of the makers of the revolution in biology, built from interviews with its leading scientists, and called possibly the best history of science ever written.

## Why people recommend it

- Built from interviews with leading scientists (1 comments): "Constructed from interviews the author had with the great biologists and chemists of the era." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45853318))
- Excellent beyond its DNA structure chapters (1 comments): "which is amazing book beyond the part that covers the elucidation of the structure of DNA" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45850926))
- Called possibly the best history of science (1 comments): "possibly the best history of science ever written" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45852632))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [The Dawn of Everything by David Graeber and David Wengrow](https://hackerapproved.com/p/dawn-of-everything.md): 23 recommend
- [Cadillac Desert by Marc Reisner](https://hackerapproved.com/p/cadillac-desert.md): 18 recommend
- [The Box by Marc Levinson](https://hackerapproved.com/p/box.md): 16 recommend
- [Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari](https://hackerapproved.com/p/sapiens.md): 13 recommend
- [Chip War by Chris Miller](https://hackerapproved.com/p/chip-war.md): 13 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140178007?tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)
- [Bookshop.org](https://bookshop.org/a/130825/9780140178005) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "The Eighth Day of Creation by Horace Freeland Judson", https://hackerapproved.com/p/eighth-day-of-creation/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).