New Issue: Orbital Catastrophe Ahead? Read Now

December 1, 2009

2 min read

Google Logo Add Us On GoogleAdd SciAm

Recommended: Science Coffee Table Book Holiday Gift Ideas

Books and recommendations from Scientific American

By Kate Wong

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

Feast your eyes and feed your brain with our favorite science books worthy of the coffee table. Topping our list are volumes commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 400th anniversary of the invention of the telescope.

Galápagos: Preserving Darwin’s Legacy
edited by Tui de Roy. Firefly Books, 2009
Editor and principal photographer Tui de Roy documents life on the islands that helped inspire Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection. Essays by 30 experts cover such topics as the social behavior of the Galápagos hawk (above) and efforts to restore tortoise populations.

Far Out: A Space-Time Chronicle
by Michael Benson. Abrams, 2009
Journalist Michael Benson leads readers from our own Milky Way back in time and space to the earliest galaxies with this glorious collection of astronomical images from the finest ground- and space-based telescopes, as well as a few amateur astrophotographers.

On supporting science journalism

If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.

The Heart of the Great Alone: Scott, Shackleton, and Antarctic Photography
by David Hempleman-Adams, Emma Stuart and Sophie Gordon. Bloomsbury, 2009

No Small Matter: Science on the Nanoscale
by Felice C. Frankel and George M. Whitesides. Harvard University Press, 2009

BIOGRAPHIES Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century
by Masha Gessen. A biography of Grigory Perelman. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009

The Passage to Cosmos: Alexander von Humboldt and the Shaping of America
by Laura Dassow Walls. University of Chicago Press, 2009

Jacques Cousteau: The Sea King
by Brad Matsen. Pantheon, 2009

Grace Hopper and the Invention of the Information Age
by Kurt W. Beyer. MIT Press, 2009

OTHER NONFICTION The Faith Instinct: How Religion Evolved and Why It Endures
by Nicholas Wade. Penguin Press, 2009

Green Intelligence: Creating Environments That Protect Human Health
by John Wargo. Yale University Press, 2009

Dinosaur Odyssey: Fossil Threads in the Web of Life
by Scott D. Sampson. University of California Press, 2009

Mathletics: How Gamblers, Managers, and Sports Enthusiasts Use Mathematics in Baseball, Basketball, and Football
by Wayne L. Winston. Princeton University Press, 2009

Elephants on the Edge: What Animals Teach Us about Humanity
by G. A. Bradshaw. Yale University Press, 2009

EXHIBITS Traveling the Silk Road: Ancient Pathway to the Modern World.
November 14, 2009–August 15, 2010, at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City.

The Accidental Mummies of Guanajuato.
October 10–April 11, 2010, at the Detroit Science Center.

Note: This article was originally printed with the title, "Recommended."

Kate Wong is an award-winning science writer and was formerly senior editor for features at Scientific American, where she focused on evolution, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, paleontology and animal behavior. She is fascinated by human origins, which she has covered for nearly 30 years. Recently she has become obsessed with birds. Her reporting has taken her to caves in France and Croatia that Neandertals once called home to the shores of Kenya’s Lake Turkana in search of the oldest stone tools in the world, as well as to Madagascar on an expedition to unearth ancient mammals and dinosaurs, the icy waters of Antarctica, where humpback whales feast on krill, and a “Big Day” race around the state of Connecticut to find as many bird species as possible in 24 hours. Wong is co-author, with Donald Johanson, of Lucy’s Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins. She holds a bachelor of science degree in biological anthropology and zoology from the University of Michigan. Follow her on Bluesky @katewong.bsky.social

More by Kate Wong
Scientific American Magazine Vol 301 Issue 6This article was published with the title “Science in Pictures Ocean Icon Silk Road Sojourn” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 301 No. 6 (), p. 100
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican122009-3hwLMfuNKwUWYiBGW2P1x0
View This Issue

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American

Subscribe