Have you already asked yourself about the essence of life? Which are the differences between alive and lifeless things? If you want to know the answer for these questions you should read this book. It also presents the theorie of the selfish gene, which says that the unit of evolution is not the species or the individual but the replicator unit itself , the gene. The last chapter introduces the idea of meme, the analog unit of cultural information. A very interesting philosophical speculation...
The blind watchmaker, by Richard Dawkins;
Richard Dawkins starts this book with the following words: This book is written in the conviction that our own existence once presented the greatest of all mysteries, but that it is a mystery no longer becaused it is solved. Darwin and Wallace solved it, ...
With this amazing book Dawkins explain how complexity (life) can develop from simple structures. The Blind watchmaker is one of the most influential books about evolution. You should read it.
Climbing Mount impossible, by Richard Dawkins;
Dawkins goes on explaining evolution.The chapter about the evolution of the eye is just great...This book is a continuation of The Blind Watchmaker.
The River out of Eden, by Richard Dawkins;
See life as a river of genetic information flowing through the geological time. Learn that the genetical code is the same for all living things in this planet. A codon o(a group of 3 chemical bases) codes one aminoacid. Since there are 4 bases you have a total of 64 permutations to code 20 aminoacids. The probability of having the connection of 64 elements to 20 elements 2 times is very low, actually 1 against 10^30. This is the best prove that all living things have one common ancestral . Dawkins talks about the importance of gradualism in evolution arguing that a half eye is better than a half of a half eye and so on ... this puts an end to creationist arguments against evolution.
The chapter about the Mitochondrias Eva is also great (do you know what a mitochondria is?). And there are stories about the evolution of bees and other animals. Francis Crick, nobel prize winner for the discovery of the helicoidal structure of the DNA, said the following words about this book: If you doubt the power of natural selection I urge you, to save your soul, to read Dawkins book .
The fabric of Reality , by David Deutsch
Physicist and Quantumcomputer researcher David Deutsch takes you to a trip through the structure and essence of reality.The book is full of interesting topics, from Quantum Mechanics and its modern interpretation to Darwins evolution theory in its modern shape (the theory of the selfish gene); nature of mathematics; quantum computers; nature of time and even time travel, among others. A very exciting book, you should read it.To know more about this author go to the link above.
The Ghost in the Atom, by Paul Davies.
This book is dedicated to the interpretations problems in quantum mechanics. The book presents the trascription of some interviews with famous physicists carried through BBC. Each one displays and defends the interpretation of quantum mechanics he judges the correct one.
Dreams of a final theorie, by Steven Weinberg;
Nobel preize winner for physics Weinberg speaks about the hottest topic on physics of our times, the unification of physics,the desire to explain all forces of nature in a consistent way (gravity, strong and weak nuclear forces and electromagnetism). In this theory the mass of particles (and all other properties too) should be predicted by the theory itself. Our candidate is the Super String Theory...
Hyperspace:A Scientif Odissey Through Parallel Universes,Time Warps, and The Tenth Dimension, by Michio Kaku.
A Brief History of Time, by Stephen Hawking;
This book is a nice introduction to modern cosmology. The chapters about black holes and origin and fate of the universe are quite nice. It is a pity that this book is indeed so small(less than 200 pages). Because of that,some topics can not be treated in the deepness they deserve. Anyway the book is worth reading. Hawking has a lot of humeur, what makes the reading very funny.
Six easy pieces, by Richard Feynman, nobel preize winner for physics
Relativity and its roots, by Banesh hoffmann;
Banesh Hoffmann was Einstens assistent in Princeton.
If you want to know what the Special and Generall Theory of Relativity are, this book may help you. Hoffmann writes in a way that everybody can understant these very abstract ideas. The book also presents the development of the relativity principle through history, beginning in Greece, than with Copernico, Galileo, Newton and Maxwell leading to Einstens ideas.
Unbounding The Future, by Eric Drexler;
I will be writing some lines about the following books when I have more time:
