• Question: Is there any ebooks you'd recommend about science???.

    Asked by Bethany is @home! on 12 May 2020.
    • Photo: Jean O'Dwyer

      Jean O'Dwyer answered on 12 May 2020:

      I recently read “There is no Planet B” by Mike Berners-Lee and really enjoyed it. It gives the ‘big picture’ perspective on climate change and environmental issues and is full of facts, but it also very funny at times.

    • Photo: Katherine Benson

      Katherine Benson answered on 12 May 2020:

      I’m not sure about e-books, but the book ‘what if?’ by Randall Munroe is a fun read, and there are some great YouTube channels that promote science like ASAP Science, SciShow and Minute Physics which might be worth a watch.

    • Photo: Chloe Matthews

      Chloe Matthews answered on 12 May 2020:

      Hi Bethany, there’s a journal called Frontiers for Young Minds where you can find loads of different science topics. Scientists write up their work in a more simplified way that’s easier to read and kids “review” their work. It’s not a book but I think it would be helpful 🙂 https://kids.frontiersin.org/

    • Photo: Anna Zakrzewska

      Anna Zakrzewska answered on 12 May 2020:

      I can also recommend “What if” that Katherine mentioned, very nice short stories and challenging questions! I also have “Thing Explainer” by the same author, where he explains numerous concepts in simple terms. Another one that I can recommend is “Women in Science” by Rachel Ignotofsky, great stories and beautiful illustrations. All these books cover various science disciplines, I have hard copies but they may come as e-books or audiobooks (the last one for sure) but you’ll miss amazing illustrations.

    • Photo: James Sullivan

      James Sullivan answered on 12 May 2020:

      Great question –

      for overall Science I’d say “A Brief History of Everything” Bill Bryson,

      for chemistry, two good ones are “Napoleon’s Buttons” Jay Burreson and Penny Le Couteur, and ‘The Disappearing Spoon’ Sam Kean.
      there are really interesting and funny collection of stories in both of those.

      Napoleon’s Buttons starts with a story about the buttons on Napoleon’s army uniforms during their war in Russia – and how they were made of a particular alloy that cracked as the temperature fell in Russia (meaning the soldiers were less able to resist the cold.

      The Disappearing Spoon gives interesting stories about the elements – history and uses etc. The first story is about a conjuring trick where a magician would make a spoon out of gallium metal and it would disappear (melt) when he would stir some tea with it (gallium melts at below 30 °C)

    • Photo: Karen Bacon

      Karen Bacon answered on 12 May 2020:

      Hi Bethany, I really like Bill Bryson’s “A short history of nearly everything”. This gives lots of interesting information on lots of different areas about science and he is a really good writer so easy to read. It’s available as an ebook.

    • Photo: Louise Mc Grath

      Louise Mc Grath answered on 12 May 2020:

      A great read particularly about Chemistry is The Disappearing Spoon. It tells the tales of the different elements in the periodic table of elements! Really funny and easy to read!

    • Photo: Sonia Lenehan

      Sonia Lenehan answered on 12 May 2020:

      Hi Bethany! I loved the books ‘How My Body Works’ I don’t know if you can get them as ebooks or not though. As Chloe mentions Frontiers for Young Minds is a good journal for looking at different science topics. Horrible science were always fun books as well! Also SciShow on youtube is a pretty cool channel to watch! Hope this helps 🙂

    • Photo: Simon Spichak

      Simon Spichak answered on 12 May 2020:

      Hi – I quite enjoyed ‘The Origin of (Almost) Everything’ which has lots of short blurbs about different concepts, from space and the solar system all the way down to belly button lint.

      Another book I enjoyed is called ‘The Aliens are Coming!’ It’s a great book if you’re interested in astrobiology, figuring out what other habitable planets may look like and talking about how life got started on Earth! It provides lots of cool insight about evolution of life on Earth and what it may tell us about life elsewhere in the universe. One of my favorite sections is on communication and language and it talks about how scientists try to understand what other animals on Earth are saying!

    • Photo: Aruna Chandrasekar

      Aruna Chandrasekar answered on 12 May 2020:

      Well, I would suggest the set of books called “How it works”. I read It as a child and even the later editions today are very very good.

    • Photo: Tiffany Slater

      Tiffany Slater answered on 12 May 2020:

      I really enjoyed the book by Alice Roberts called ‘The Incredible Unlikeliness of Being’! It goes over just how unlikely it is that humans evolved. Happy reading!

    • Photo: Dimitar Shterionov

      Dimitar Shterionov answered on 13 May 2020:

      I would recommend some science fiction books 🙂 Although fiction they really boost your imagination in a science-oriented way. Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, Michael Crichton, and many others …

    • Photo: Fiona Malone

      Fiona Malone answered on 21 May 2020:

      Have you heard of the science comic strip xkcd? The creator of xkcd Randall Monroe has some books that explain science in a fun way. What If is particularly funny – and informative!

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