Books Journalist’s Trade

Books Every Science Writer Should Read

September 15, 2002

Share this article

Science Journalism
Those who report on science have never been better prepared to do so, according to Los Angeles Times science and technology writer Robert Lee Hotz, whose insights open our section on science journalism. But as Hotz also observes, the challenges these reporters confront have never been larger: Newsroom cutbacks mean the reporters “are stretched to cover increasingly complex science stories ….” And their task is made harder by the dearth of impartial sources, forcing them “to look as hard at the scientists as we look at the science itself.” – Melissa Ludtke, Editor
Read Issue
This list of recommended books has been assembled by Boyce Rensberger, director of the Knight Science Journalism Fellowships program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It represents only a start on background reading and is not meant as an exhaustive compilation.

Classics

  • The Origin of Species, Charles Darwin

  • Relativity, Albert Einstein

  • The Nature of the Chemical Bond, Linus Pauling

  • Microbe Hunters, Paul de Kruif

  • Silent Spring, Rachel Carson

  • Chance and Necessity, Jacques Monod

  • The Mountain Gorilla, George B. Schaller

  • The Lives of a Cell, Lewis Thomas

  • What is Life?, Erwin Schrödinger


Books That Teach

  • A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking

  • On Human Nature, Edward O. Wilson

  • The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Richard P. Feynman

  • The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins

  • Annals of the Former World, John McPhee (Includes four of McPhee’s books: Basin and Range, In Suspect Terrain, Rising from the Plains, and Assembling California.)

  • Chaos, James Gleick

  • Genome, Matt Ridley

  • Five Kingdoms, Lynn Margulis and Karlene V. Schwartz

  • The Whole Shebang, Timothy Ferris

  • The Insect Societies, Edward O. Wilson

  • The First Three Minutes, Steven Weinberg

  • In the Shadow of Man, Jane Goodall


Outstanding Modern Books

  • Gun, Germs, and Steel, Jared M. Diamond

  • Gödel, Escher, Bach, Douglas R. Hofstadter

  • The Hot Zone, Richard Preston

  • The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins

  • The Beak of the Finch, Jonathan Weiner

  • The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker

  • The Society of Mind, Marvin Minsky


Biography, History, Memoir

  • The Double Helix, James D. Watson

  • Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!, Richard P. Feynman

  • The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Richard Rhodes

  • A  Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold

  • Ever Since Darwin, Stephen Jay Gould

  • Naturalist, Edward O. Wilson

  • The Eighth Day of Creation, Horace Freeland Judson


Science and Society, Analysis or Philosophy of Science

  • Science, the Endless Frontier, Vannevar Bush

  • The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas S. Kuhn

  • The Art of the Soluble, Peter B. Medawar

  • The Logic of Scientific Discovery, Karl Popper

  • The Two Cultures, C.P. Snow

  • Science and Human Values, Jacob Bronowski

Science Journalism
Those who report on science have never been better prepared to do so, according to Los Angeles Times science and technology writer Robert Lee Hotz, whose insights open our section on science journalism. But as Hotz also observes, the challenges these reporters confront have never been larger: Newsroom cutbacks mean the reporters “are stretched to cover increasingly complex science stories ….” And their task is made harder by the dearth of impartial sources, forcing them “to look as hard at the scientists as we look at the science itself.” – Melissa Ludtke, Editor
Read Issue

Related

Image for “You Must Stand Up”: Amanda Becker on Chronicling the Fallout of Roe v. Wade’s Reversal

Books | Interview

“You Must Stand Up”: Amanda Becker on Chronicling the Fallout of Roe v. Wade’s Reversal

In her new book, Becker reports on the personal and political ramifications of Roe’s end, and the fight to preserve abortion access across the U.S.

Megan Cattel

Image for ‘A Mad, Headlong Poverty-Stricken Rush’ Across South America

Books

‘A Mad, Headlong Poverty-Stricken Rush’ Across South America

A new book about expat journalists in Brazil details Hunter S. Thompson’s early career.

Stephen G. Bloom

Image for The Changing Tides of Olympic Sports Coverage with Helene Elliott

Journalist’s Trade

The Changing Tides of Olympic Sports Coverage with Helene Elliott

The veteran sportswriter and longtime columnist for the Los Angeles Times discusses the Paris Games, women in sports, and how Olympic coverage has evolved.

Megan Cattel