Book-filter: Engaging and technical science writing

February 10, 2016 4:06 PM

I'm looking for books written in an engaging manner about highly technical topics (i.e. don't read like textbooks). What books do you recommend, and what is this category called so I can find more of it?

My husband (an engineer) recently read Feynman's books, has enjoyed books like The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene and The Tao of Physics, and has rekindled his interest in books on highly technical topics written approachably and in an interesting, engaging manner. He wants to learn more about string theory, electrodynamics, quantum theory, etc.

He's looking for recommendations for books like this in general, and especially about electrodynamics and quantum theory.

He has an engineering background, so hard science is TOTALLY okay. He is a global learner so he's looking for story and explanation-based information to integrate into his brain collective and not equations unless they're thoroughly explained and integrated into the text.

So, what do you recommend?

posted by bookdragoness to Science & Nature (16 answers total)

Fermat's Enigma and basically anything else by Simon Singh.
posted by jeffamaphone at 4:12 PM on February 10, 2016

How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog was fun and readable. He also has one on relativity that I have not yet read.
posted by restless_nomad at 4:16 PM on February 10, 2016

Measurement by Paul Lockhart.

I think the general category is popular science writing?
posted by eviemath at 4:41 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

I call the category "popular science". Ian Stewart has some nice books on mathematics.
posted by leahwrenn at 4:44 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.

Pretty much anything by Matt Ridley, although he focuses on biology. Mary Roach is good too.

I also have the feeling he'd really enjoy Godel, Escher Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter.
posted by kindall at 4:46 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Oh: What If by Randall Monroe.
posted by kindall at 4:47 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

This isn't super technical but it unpacks a huge complex system and explains why it is the way it is and I loved it. Whatever Happened to the Metric System? by John Bemelmans Marciano. Along the same lines is Time Lord by Clark Blaise about the invention of worldwide standard time.
posted by jessamyn at 4:56 PM on February 10, 2016

Many people hate Richard Dawkins now, but The Selfish Gene is a real classic of this genre.
posted by town of cats at 5:24 PM on February 10, 2016 [1 favorite]

Mr. Palmcorder also loves this kind of stuff. He is particularly fond of MIT Press's Platform Studies series.

(It's not about quantum theory, but IME, most geeky types will find something in the series to go nuts over. Racing the Beam is a great one to start with.)
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 8:45 PM on February 10, 2016

I would call this "popular science." James Gleick is a master at this. Chaos is a great start; it's about chaos theory.
posted by sockermom at 9:14 PM on February 10, 2016

Exploding the Phone has a lot of background on the history of the phone system and how phone phreakers and other exploited it. Very detailed and very readable, even if you're not a telecom engineer.
posted by mogget at 9:34 PM on February 10, 2016

I loved Ignition! An informal history of liquid rocket propellants. There are PDFs easily found online.
posted by aaronbeekay at 10:23 PM on February 10, 2016

From Eternity to Here by Sean Carroll - looking at time through the lens of thermodynamics. Very interesting book.

Not a book, but maybe relevant - Nima Arkani-Hamed giving a lecture on Why is there a macroscopic universe? Quite technical but accessible and it looks like there is more in the same vein on the Cornell site.
posted by crocomancer at 2:20 AM on February 11, 2016

Simon Winchester writes great books, and his "The Map That Changed the World" is all about the geology of North America. (I am partial to his audiobooks because I love his accent & delivery.)

Has your husband read "The Perfect Storm"? It wasn't what I expected, and contained tons of facts in addition to the narrative of the lost fishermen: for example, it describes -- in sometimes depressing detail -- what happens to a body as it drowns, or how storms develop.
posted by wenestvedt at 6:25 AM on February 11, 2016

I don't have the name handy but there is a book (or three) about the creation and implementation of Babbage's difference engine that were certainly interesting to the engineer inside of me.
posted by RolandOfEld at 8:35 PM on February 11, 2016

I really liked The Theory of Almost Everything. It's fairly meaty, I think. Not too technical, but moreso I think than a lot of popular physics books. It's not a big heavy read either. Fairly easy going, but still gave some insight into the Higgs Boson for example as well as a great explanation on how energy levels/quanta/electron shells (and other similar features) work.
posted by symbioid at 8:41 AM on February 12, 2016