Best writing on science, technology and innovation

March 26, 2019 5:03 AM

I'm looking for the world's best writing on science, technology and innovation. Can be in the form of books, magazines, research articles, long form essays, anything goes.

I'm open to any topic related to sci/tech and can come from any time period. The only criteria is magnificent writing!

(this is a partial follow-up to my previous question)

posted by roolya_boolya to Technology (6 answers total)

Low-hanging fruit: the Best American Science and Nature Writing anthologies.
posted by box at 5:22 AM on March 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

Just go read everything that Ed Yong and Carl Zimmer write. They are both fantastic!
posted by chrisamiller at 5:36 AM on March 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

This is a not exactly on point, but I love the science fiction of John Scalzi. He incorporates new technologies that are beyond anything I could have imagined, but is a totally plausible future state. I started with Locked In then read Old Man's War. Loved them both.
posted by eleslie at 5:49 AM on March 26, 2019

James Gleick, particularly the 3 books Chaos, Genius and The Information.

It's also worth highlighting that the audio versions of some of his books read by Rob Shapiro are, imho, the gold standard for spoken word versions of detailed popular science writing.
posted by protorp at 6:10 AM on March 26, 2019

MIT's Technology Review is several cuts above the normal magazine writing on technology. And they seem way ahead of the game on reporting on emerging trends and deep dives into new technologies that cross disciplines and specialized fields.
posted by caveatz at 8:37 AM on March 26, 2019

Second Ed Tong and also heavily recommend Factfulness by Hans Rosling
posted by jebs at 11:55 AM on March 26, 2019