Q&A: Science Books For Everyone (A List)

Q  Would you put together a recommended reading list for a world citizen in 2013 to be in a good position to judge political and moral claims in the light of science today?


A  I have not read books that I feel really meet your expectations, but I have found some suggestions, I just haven't read them.

1.  The 5 Elements of Effective Thinking by Edward B. Burger and Micheal Starbird
http://www.amazon.com/dp/0691156662
This is a book about working through problems logically which is essential to science education.

2.  The Science of Science Policy by Kaye Husbands Fealing, Julia I. Lane, John H. Marburger III, and Stephanie S. Shipp
http://www.sup.org/book.cgi?id=18746
This book looks promising, but I'm not sure how much it would apply to the world as a whole or if it only focuses on American policy.

3. BEYOND SPUTNIK – U.S. Science Policy in the 21st Century
http://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Sputnik-Science-Policy-Century/dp/0472033069
It is geared towards the US policy, but is supposed to be an intellectually challenging read.

I realize this is only three books, but I'm hoping this helps. 

A few others I would Recommend but may not be what you are looking for

Flatland http://www.amazon.com/Flatland-Romance-Dimensions-Thrift-Editions/dp/048627263X
QED http://www.amazon.com/QED-Strange-Theory-Light-Matter/dp/0691024170
Really I would consider anything by Richard Feynman a suggestion
Also, Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Brain Greene write wonderfully for the public.

This is a small fraction of the books out there of course, let me know if you feel I left out something huge.
Alison

Amazing Project

Tonight I came across the most amazing thing.  It's called Zooniverse.  I saw a link on facebook sharing the Andromeda Project (about), where you can actually go through the images of the Andromeda Galaxy and label star clusters, distant galaxies and picture errors for the astronomers. 

For those who have been out at the observatory with me, you probably know that Open Clusters are my favorite deep sky objects. This is my personal favorite that I've observed:

NGC 2362:  Located in the constellation of Taurus, the first time I found this open cluster the beauty actually took my breath away.  This image cannot fully convey the wonder, but few images could ever attempt to replace looking through a telescope yourself.

The point is to go through the images and help label clusters and points of interest or irregularities for the scientists.  The tutorial was quick and fairly easy, they also have an added guide to help with tricky identifications and a forum (called Talk) to connect with other users.

I'm excited about this projects because of my passion for clusters, but also because it helps me give back to the researchers.

On the Zooniverse website they have 13 different science projects that you can choose to help.  A majority of the projects are Astronomy based, but they also have 4 biology (3 nature, 1 health), 2 Climate and 1 Humanities projects.  Also they have 3 different lab projects, 2 space and one humanities.  Although one of the space one is about marine life, so it's a mix.
I plan on trying out each one and reporting back to you. 

Also if you would like see what I've done in the Zooniverse suite, I have claimed the user name AskAlisonScience.  I'm not sure exactly what the mechanisms are for looking at user profiles yet, but if you join and can look me up, that's my name.

Keep Learning!
Alison