Science book recommendations

Do you love reading books and need some inspiration on what to read next?

Browse through the recommendations from scientists and science communicators below, or visit our Book club page to view books we discussed and their short descriptions. You can also find more in our book reviews section. You can share your suggestions with us and submit your own book review.

Professor Ian Frazer, Director, Diamantina Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabollic Medicine:
Science fiction: Iain Banks and Ian Hamilton
Science fact: Memoirs of a Thinking Radish, Peter Medawar
The Beginners Guide to Winning the Nobel Prize, Peter Doherty

Professor Bryan Gaensler, ARC Federation Fellow, School of Physics, University of Sydney:
Pushing Ice, Alastair Reynolds
‘An addictive read, with excellent characters and a horizon way beyond most other sci-fi.’

Pythagoras’ Trousers, Margaret Wertheim
‘A giant wake-up call to science, pointing out that not only are physics & astronomy male-dominated, but even the way we do science is gender-biased.’

The Demon Haunted World, Carl Sagan
‘One of the most elegant exposes on offer on the pitfalls of pseudo-science.’

The Sparrow, Mary Doria Russell
‘Science-fiction is at its best when it acts as a mirror to ourselves. This novel asks the question: If we came as colonisers to a new land in the 21st century, would we still make the mistakes of our 15th and 16th century forebears?’

Professor Richard Head, Director, CSIRO Preventative Health Flagship:
The Florey Biograph
Consilience: The unity of knowledge, E.O. Wilson

The Hon. Michael O’Brien, SA Minister for Agriculture and Fisheries, Forests, Energy, the Northern Suburbs:
The Structure of Scientific Revolution, Thomas Kuhn
Mathematics in Western Culture, Morris Kline
Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham

Sean Williams, author
Top 10 books on the cosmos:
The Five Ages of the Universe,  Fred Adams & Greg Laughlin
The Universe Next Door, Marcus Chown
The Pluto Files, Neil deGrasse Tyson
A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
Hyperspace, Michio Kaku
Cosmos, Carl Sagan
The Big Bang, Simon Singh
The First Three Minutes, Steven Weinberg
Black Holes and Time Warps, Kip Thorne
The Universe in a Mirror, Robert Zimmerman

Robyn Williams, science broadcaster:
Bomb Book and Compass, Simon Winchester
Koala, Ann Moyal
Coral Reef, Steve Jones
The Weather Makers, Tim Flannery
Bad Science, Ben Goldacre
Age of Wonder, Richard Holmes
The Biography of E=MC2, David Bodanis
The Making of Memory, Steven Rose
Hen’s Teeth & Horses Toes, Stephen Jay Gould
The Blind Watchmaker, Richard Dawkins
Longitude, Dava Sobel
The Animal Attraction, Jonica Newby
Pythagoras’s Trousers, Margaret Wertheim
Blank Slate, Steve Pinker

Professor Fiona Wood:
The Selfish Gene, Richard Dawkins
The Brain that Changes Itself, Norman Doidge

Tim Minchin, comedian, actor, and musician:
Cat’s Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut
Bad Science, Ben Goldacre
The Big Bang, Simon Singh

Amanda Barnard, condensed matter physicist and leader of the CSIRO Virtual Nanoscience Laboratory:
QED, Richard Feynman
The Physics of Superheros, James Kakalios

Andrew Denton, comedian, TV presenter and producer:
Pattern Recognition, William Gibson
Farenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
Longitude, Dava Sobel
Jurassic Park, Michael Crichton
Honk If You’re Jesus, Peter Goldsworthy
Hitchiker trilogy in five parts, Douglas Adams
Breakfast Of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut

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