Books written by favorite science revolutionaries can be great reads. And the stories of their lives can be fascinating. Explore their ideas and their lives. Click on the author name to go to sources for their books and most popular quotations. Please add your favorite revolutionary science book to the comment box at the bottom of the page.
Copernicus
Biographies
A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos, by Dava Sobel — published 2011
Copernicus’ Secret: How the Scientific Revolution Began, by Jack Repcheck — published 2007
Six great scientists: Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Marie Curie, Einstein, by J.G. Crowther — published 1995
Book
On The Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres,by Nicolaus Copernicus, Stephen Hawking (Editor), Mikołaj Kopernik — published 1543
Charles Darwin
“It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change”
Biography
Darwin’s Origin of the Species: A Biography, by Janet Browne – published 2007
Books
Voyage of the Beagle : Charles Darwin’s Journal of Researches, by Charles Darwin, Janet Browne (Editor), Michael Neve (Editor) — published 1839
The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin — published 1859
The Descent of Man, by Charles Darwin — published 1871
The Expression of Emotion in Man and Animals, by Charles Darwin — published 1872
The Autobiography of Charles Darwin, 1809-1882, by Charles Darwin, Nora Barlow (Editor) — published 1887
Gregor Mendel
“Hybrids do not represent the form exactly intermediate between the parental strains…”
Biography
The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics, by Robin Marantz Henig – published 2001
Book
Experiments in Plant Hybridisation, by Gregor Mendel, edition with a forward by Paul Mangelsdorf – published 1965
Albert Einstein
“Everything must be made as simple as possible. But not simpler.”
Biographies
E=mc²: A Biography of the World’s Most Famous Equation, by David Bodanis — published 2000
The Great Physicists from Galileo to Einstein, by George Gamow — published 1959
Albert Einstein: A Biography, by Albrecht Folsing, Ewald Osers (Translator) — published 1997
Einstein: A Biography, by Jürgen Neffe — published 2005
Albert Einstein: A Biography, by Alice Calaprice, Trevor Lipscombe — published 2005
Albert Einstein: A Biography, by Milton Meltzer — published 2007
Books
Relativity: The Special and the General Theory, by Albert Einstein — published 1916
The World As I See It, by Albert Einstein — published 1933
The Principle of Relativity (Books on Physics), by Albert Einstein, H. Minkowski — published 1952
Ideas and Opinions, by Albert Einstein, Sonja Bargmann (Translator) — published 1954
The Evolution of Physics: From early concepts to relativity and quanta, by Albert Einstein, Leopold Infeld — published 1967
Warum Krieg? [Why War, in German] by Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud — published 1991
The Quotable Einstein, by Albert Einstein — published 1996
Rachel Carson
“Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth, are never alone or weary of life.”
Biographies
Rachel Carson: Witness for Nature, by Linda Lear — published 1994
The Gentle Subversive: Rachel Carson, Silent Spring, and the Rise of the Environmental Movement, by Mark H. Lytle — published 2007
Rachel Carson, by Marie-Therese Miller — published 2011
Books
The Sea Around Us, by Rachel Carson — published 1951
The Edge of the Sea, by Rachel Carson, Bob Hines (Illustrator) — published 1955
Silent Spring, by Rachel Carson — published 1962
The Sense of Wonder, by Rachel Carson, Charles Pratt, Nick Kelsh (Photographer) — published 1965:
Lost Woods: The Discovered Writing of Rachel Carson, by Rachel Carson, Linda Lear (Introduction) — published 1998
Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (The Manifesto Series), by Alex MacGillivray, Neil Turnbull (Editor), James Petro (Editor) — published 2004
Carl Sagan
Books
The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, by Carl Sagan –published 1978
Broca’s Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science. Ballantine Books, by Carl Sagan –published 1979
Cosmos, by Carl Sagan – published 1980
The Cold and the Dark: The World after Nuclear War, by Carl Sagan – published 1985
Comet, by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan – published 1985
Contact, by Carl Sagan – published 1985
A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race, by Carl Sagan and Richard Turco – published 1990
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are, by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan coauthor, – published 1993
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. Random House, by Carl Sagan – published 1994
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, by Carl Sagan – published 1996
Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium, by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan – published 1997
The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God, by Carl Sagan (writer) & Ann Druyan (editor) – published 1985
Barbara McClintock
“I never thought of stopping, and I just hated sleeping. I can’t imagine having a better life.”
Biographies
A Feeling for the Organism: The Life and Work of Barbara McCLintock, by Evelyn Fox Keller – published 1984
The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock’s Search for the Patterns of Genetics Control, by Nathaniel Comfort – published 2003
Records and Recollections: A New Look at Barbara McClintock, Nobel-Prize-Winning Geneticist, by Lee B. Kass. Published in Genetics, Vol. 164, 1251-1260, 2003
Oliver Sacks
“Waking consciousness is dreaming – but dreaming constrained by external reality.”
Books
The Mind’s Eye, by Oliver Sacks – published 2010
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain, by Oliver Sacks – published 2007
The Island of the Colorblind, by Oliver Sacks – published 1996
An Anthropologist on Mars, by Oliver Sacks – published 1995
Seeing Voices: A Journey into the World of the Deaf, by Oliver Sacks – published 1990
The Man who Mistook his Wife for A Hat, by Oliver Sacks – published 1985
A Leg to Stand On, by Oliver Sacks – published 1984
Awakenings, by Oliver Sacks – published 1973
Jane Goodall
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
Biographies
The Watcher: Jane Goodall’s Life with the Chimps, by Jeanette Winter — published 2011
Jane Goodall, by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen — published 2008
Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man, by Dale Peterson — published 2006
Jane Goodall: 40 Years at Gombe, by Goodall Institute— published 1999
Books
Jane Goodall: 50 Years at Gombe, by Jane Goodall — published 2010
Hope for Animals and Their World: How Endangered Species Are Being Rescued from the Brink, by Jane Goodall — published 2009
Harvest for Hope: A Guide to Mindful Eating, by Jane Goodall, Gail Hudson, Gary McAvoy — published 2005
The Ten Trusts: What We Must Do to Care for The Animals We Love, by Jane Goodall, Marc Bekoff — published 2003
Africa in My Blood : An Autobiography in Letters, by Jane Goodall, Dale Peterson (Editor) — published 2000
Reason for Hope: A Spiritual Journey, by Jane Goodall, Phillip Berman — published 1998
Through a Window, by Jane Goodall — published 1990
My Life with the Chimpanzees, by Jane Goodall — published 1988
In the Shadow of Man, by Jane Goodall, Hugo Van Lawick (Photographer) — published 1971
A list like this can’t be complete without Microbe Hunters by Paul de Kruif. This 1926 classic book (still in print) is a collection of biographies of the greatest minds in microbiology: Leeuwenhoek, Pasteur, Koch, Metchnikoff, Walter Reed, and more. These are not dry academic biographies; they’re “storified”, dramatized, and eminently entertaining to read.