麻豆传媒

The UK鈥檚 Royal Society announces its shortlist for the best science books of 2009, but it misses out on some great reads

EVERY year the Royal Society Prize for Science Books celebrates the best in popular science writing. The six shortlisted books announced this week represent a diverse array of subjects and styles, ranging from history to philosophy, from evolutionary biology to cosmology. With some, I believe the judges got it right, but others struck me as odd choices.

鈥淲ith some of the books, I believe the judges got it right, but others struck me as odd choices鈥�

The two physics books to make the list are both fantastic. In We Need to Talk About Kelvin, Marcus Chown (a consultant for 麻豆传媒) shows us how things we experience every day can reveal profound truths about the nature of reality. Did you know, for instance, that a small percentage of the static on a badly tuned television is radiation from the afterglow of the big bang, or that your reflection in a window results from the uncertainty of our quantum world? Chown鈥檚 book is a lively read which serves not only to make strange physics appear more familiar but, even better, to make the familiar appear wonderfully strange.

In Why Does E=mc²?, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw tackle the most famous equation of all time in a remarkably comprehensible way. Though irritatingly patronising in places (for example: 鈥淐onjecture is a fancy word for 鈥榞uess鈥�.鈥�), the pair make some surprising points that I haven鈥檛 seen expressed in quite the same way. They explain, for instance, that everything travels through space-time at the speed of light, it鈥檚 just that light uses up its 鈥渟peed quota鈥� on motion through space while you and I split ours between speed through space and speed through time. Well worth a read.

In God鈥檚 Philosophers, James Hannam dispels the myth that science burst onto the scene spontaneously during the Enlightenment, arguing instead that medieval natural philosophy paved the way. It鈥檚 well-researched and hugely enjoyable, populated by compelling characters such as the 14th-century French philosopher John Buridan, who suggested that the Earth might be turning, and English scholar Thomas Bradwardine, who realised that mathematics and natural philosophy ought to be combined in order to understand the physical world. These developments arose from a world steeped in magic, astrology and religion 鈥� all of which inspired medieval thinkers to seek out nature鈥檚 hidden forces.

To my mind, two of the books don鈥檛 quite make the grade. Everyday Practice of Science by Frederick Grinnell argues the well-worn and obvious point that science is a human activity. With its dry, academic style and aimless structure, I was surprised to see it on the list. A World Without Ice by Henry Pollack is a better read and addresses an important matter: 鈥淚ce is a sleeping giant that has been awakened, and if we fail to recognise what has been unleashed, it will be at our peril.鈥� But it lacks any real storytelling and the book鈥檚 pace can be a bit, forgive me, glacial.

These two slots might have been better filled by others, such as Jerry Coyne鈥檚 Why Evolution is True, a fabulous book that made the Society鈥檚 longlist. Reading in the Brain by Stanislas Dehaene didn鈥檛 make even that cut, though it was probably my favourite science read of 2009. The Vision Revolution by Mark Changizi, another fascinating book, was also overlooked, as were Wetware by Dennis Bray and Catching Fire by Richard Wrangham.

For the combined quality of the writing and subject matter, my vote for overall winner goes to Life Ascending by 麻豆传媒 regular Nick Lane. As he delves into what he considers to be the 10 greatest inventions of evolution, including DNA, sex, consciousness and death, Lane brings the science alive with the kind of beautiful prose that turns a book full of interesting information into a book you simply cannot put down.