Best 2015, Best Books, Best Year-End, Education, Nonfiction, Science & Nature

The Best Science Books Of 2015 (A Year-End List Aggregation)

January 15, 2016April 1, 2017 by

157 different books were found in the 23 “Best Science” book lists we consulted. Of the 157 books, 40 titles appeared on multiple lists. From memoirs, animals, nature, history, space, and the unknown, 2015’s crop of books had them all. One of our favorite books of the year also appeared on the most lists, which couldn’t make us happier.

We added pictures and links for the top 40 science books that appear on multiple lists. To see our aggregated year-end lists for other categories, follow the links below.

The Best Non-Fiction Books of 2015

The Best Science Fiction & Fantasy of 2015

The Best Cook Books of 2015

The Best Art & Photography Books of 2015

The Best Graphic Novels of 2015

The Best Poetry Books of 2015

The Best Biography & Memoir Books of 2015

The Best History Books of 2015

40) What Stands in a Storm: Three Days in the Worst Superstorm to Hit the South’s Tornado Alley by Kim Cross and Rick Bragg

Appears On: 2 Lists
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The 117 Additional Science Books Appearing on A Single List

13.8: the Quest to Find the True Age of the Universe and the Theory of Everything
60 Degrees North
A is For Arsenic: The Poisons of Agatha Christie, by Kathryn Harkup
A Sense of the Whole: Reading Gary Snyder’s Mountains and Rivers Without End,
edited by Mark Gonnerman
Adventures in Human Being
Adventures in The Anthropocene
Alfred Wegener: Science, Exploration, and the Theory of Continental Drift, Mott T.
Greene
Alien Plants by Clive A Stace
ALL THE WILD THAT REMAINS: EDWARD ABBEY, WALLACE STEGNER, AND THE AMERICAN WEST
ALL THE WRONG PLACES: A LIFE LOST AND FOUND
An Einstein Encyclopedia
Animalium by Katie Scott and Jenny Broom
Applied Minds: How Engineers Think, Guru Madhavan. W.W. Norton
Atmosphere of Hope: Solutions to the Climate Crisis
Badger, Mouse, Goat, Skunk,Swallow
Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader
Bill Oddie Unplucked
Birth of a Theorem: A Mathematical Adventure, Cédric Villani. Bodley Head/Faber and
Faber
Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World
Brain Maker: The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain–for Life
Brief Candle in the Dark
Coastlines
Collecting the New Naturalists by Tim Bernhard and Timothy Loe
Colorado’s Yampa River: Free-flowing and Wild from the Flat Tops to the Green” by
John Fielder and Patrick Tierney
Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life
Concrete Revolution: Large Dams, Cold War Geopolitics, and the US Bureau of
Reclamation, Christopher Sneddon
Cosmosapiens
Counting Lions” by Katie Cotton; illustrated by Stephen Walton
Creatures of the night by Joe Mcdonald and Mary Ann Mcdonald
Cuckoo: Cheating By Nature
Domesticated: Evolution in a Man-Made World, Richard C. Francis
Einstein’s Dice and Schrodinger’s Cat: How Two Great Minds Battled Quantum
Randomness to Create a Unified Theory
Elon Musk: Inventing the Future
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future, Ashlee Vance
Fastest Things on Wings: Rescuing Hummingbirds in HollywoodJun 16, 2015 by Terry
Masear
Few and Far Between: On the Trail of Britain’s Rarest Animals
Field Notes from the Edge
Great Soul of Siberia: Passion, Obsession and One Man’s Quest for the World’s Most
Elusive Tiger, by Sooyang Park
Gut: The Inside Story of Our Body’s Most Underrated Organ
Handbook of the Mammals of the World
Heartland by the Australian Conservation Foundation
Herring Tales
House Guests, House Pests: A Natural History of Animals in the Home by Richard Jone
How Music Got Free: The End of an Industry, the Turn of the Century, and the
Patient Zero of Piracy
How to Raise a Wild Child: The Art and Science of Falling in Love with NatureMar
24, 2015 by Scott D. Sampson
In Pursuit of Butterflies
Infested by Brooke Borel
Infographics: Space –Understand the facts in the blink of an eye by Jennifer Daniel
Inglorious: Conflict in the Uplands
Jimmy Bluefeather” by Kim Heacox
Jonas Salk: A Life by Charlotte DeCroes Jacobs
Junk DNA: A Journey Through the Dark Matter of the Genome
Keeping The Wild: Against the Domestication of Earth, edited by George Wuerthner
Kepler and the Universe: How One Man Revolutionized Astronomy
Lakes, Loughs and Lochs by Brian Moss
Leaving Orbit: Notes from the Last Days of American Spaceflight, Margaret Lazarus
Dean
Lesser Beasts by Mark Essig
Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics, by Richard Thaler
On the Edge: The State and Fate of the World’s Tropical Rainforests, Claude Martin
Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, Robert D. Putnam. Simon and Schuster
PACIFIC: SILICON CHIPS AND SURFBOARDS, CORAL REEFS AND ATOM BOMBS, BRUTAL
DICTATORS, FADING EMPIRES, AND THE COMING COLLISION OF THE WORLD’S SUPERPOWERS
Plankton: Wonders of the Drifting World
Plant Behaviour and Intelligence, Anthony Trewavas
Platypus
Plucked: A History of Hair Removal, by Rebecca Herzig
Pure Intelligence: The Life of William Hyde Wollaston, Melvyn C. Usselman
Rainbow Dust
Relativity: The Special and General Theory, 100thAnniversary Edition
Resurrection Science: Conservation, De-Extinction and the Precarious Future of Wild
ThingsSep 15, 2015 by M. R. O’Connor
Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future, Martin Ford
Rust by Jonathan Waldman
Sapiens: A Brief History of HumankindFeb 10, 2015 by Yuval Noah Harari
Sharing Cities: A Case for Truly Smart and Sustainable Cities, Duncan McLaren and
Julian Agyeman
Spare Parts: Four Undocumented Teenagers, One Ugly Robot, and the Battle for the
American Dream
SuperBetter: A Revolutionary Approach to Getting Stronger, Happier, Braver and More
Resilient–Powered by the…Sep 15, 2015 by Jane McGonigal
Tales from Both Sides of the Brain: A Life in NeuroscienceFeb 3, 2015 by Michael
S. Gazzaniga
Tales from Concrete Jungles.
Tales of Remarkable Birds by Dominic couzens
The Black Mirror: Looking at Life Through Death, Raymond Tallis
THE BLUE WHALE
The Boy Who Played With Fusion
The Brain: The Story of You, David Eagleman
The Brain’s Way of Healing: Remarkable Discoveries and Recoveries from the
Frontiers of Neuroplasticity
THE DEATH OF CANCER: AFTER FIFTY YEARS ON THE FRONT LINES OF MEDICINE, A PIONEERING
ONCOLOGIST REVEALS WHY THE WAR ON CANCER IS WINNABLE—AND HOW WE CAN GET THERE
The Deeper Genome: Why There is More to the Genome than Meets the Eye
The Diet Myth by Tim Spector
The Fish Ladder: A Journey Upstream by Katharine Norbury
The House of Owls, by Tony Angell
The Illustrated Herdwick Shepherd
The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager MissionFeb 24, 2015 by Jim Bell
The Invaders by Pat Shipman
The Man Who Wasn’t There: Investigations into the Strange New Science of the Self,
Anil Ananthaswamy
The Moth Snowstorm
THE OREGON TRAIL: AN AMERICAN JOURNEY
The Patient Will See You Now: The Future of Medicine is in Your HandsJan 6, 2015
by Eric Topol
THE PHYSICIST & THE PHILOSOPHER
The Quantum Age: How the Physics of the Very Small has Transformed Our Lives
The Reason for Flowers by Stephen Buchmann
The Reproach of Hunger: Food, Justice and Money in the 21st Century, David Rieff
The Science of Mom by Alice Callahan
The Secret Lives of Bats: My Adventures with the World’s Most Misunderstood
MammalsOct 20, 2015 by Merlin Tuttle
The Shape of the New: Four Big Ideas and How They Made the Modern World by Scott L.
Montgomery and Daniel Chirot
The Shark and the Albatross
The Shepherd’s Life: A Tale of the Lake District
The Shift: One Nurse, Twelve Hours, Four Patients’ Lives, by Theresa Brown, RN
The Weather Experiment: The Pioneers Who Sought to See the Future by Peter Moore
THE WHITE ROAD: JOURNEY INTO AN OBSESSION
THE WORLD IS ON FIRE: SCRAP, TREASURE, AND SONGS OF APOCALYPSE
This Present Moment, by Gary Snyder
This Side of Wild: Mutts, Mares, and Laughing Dinosaurs” by Gary Paulsen
Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider
Weatherland: Writers and Artists Under English Skies, Alexandra Harris. Thames &
Hudson
What Nature Does for Britain
WHAT TO THINK ABOUT MACHINES THAT THINK
Why Are We Waiting?: The Logic, Urgency, and Promise of Tackling Climate Change,
Nicholas Stern
Wonders of the Plant Kingdom: A Microcosm Revealed by Wolfgang Stuppy, Rob
Kesseler & Madeline Harley
Yorkshire Dales by John Lee

The Best Science Books Of 2015 (A Year-End List Aggregation)

Top 40 Science Books of 2015

1) The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science by Andrea Wulf

2) Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve ­Silberman

3) Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe by Lisa Randall

4) On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks

5) H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

6) Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology by Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe McFadden

7) Rain: A Natural and Cultural History by Cynthia Barnett

8) The Hunt for Vulcan: How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe

9) The Vital Question by Nick Lane

10) Do No Harm: Stories of Life, Death and Brain Surgery By Henry Marsh

11) The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution by David Wootton

12) The Soul of an Octopus: A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness by Sy Montgomery

13) Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words by Randall Munroe

14) Thunder & Lightning: Weather Past, Present, Future

15) A Beautiful Question by Frank Wilczek

16) Beneath the Surface: Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish by John Hargrove and Howard Chua-Eoan

17) Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

18) Big Science: Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex by Michael Hiltzik

19) Black Hole by Marcia Bartusiak

20) Forensics: What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA and More Tell Us About Crime by Val McDermid

21) Future Crimes: Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It by Marc Goodman

22) Galileo’s Middle Finger: Heretics, Activists, and the Search for Justice in Science

23) Headstrong: 52 Women Who Changed Science—and the World by Rachel Swaby

24) How to Clone a Mammoth by Beth Shapiro

25) Landmarks by Robert MacFarlane

26) Life’s Greatest Secret: The Race to Crack the Genetic Code by Matthew Cobb

27) Scientific Babel: The Language of Science from the Fall of Latin to the Rise of English by Michael Gordin

28) Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

29) Spirals in Time: The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells by Helen Scales

30) Spooky Action at a Distance by George Musser

31) The Age of Sustainable Development by Jeffrey D. Sachs

32) The Cabaret of Plants: Botany and the Imagination by Richard Mabey

33) The Fly Trap by Fredrik Sjoberg

34) The Intimate Bond: How Animals Shaped Human History

35) The Master Algorithm: How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World by Pedro Domingos

36) The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins

37) The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World

38) The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage: The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer by Sydney Padua

39) Voices in the Ocean: A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins by Susan Casey

40) What Stands in a Storm: Three Days in the Worst Superstorm to Hit the South’s Tornado Alley by Kim Cross and Rick Bragg

The 117 Additional Science Books Appearing on A Single List

The 23 “Best Science Book” Year-End Lists Consulted

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2) Neurotribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity by Steve Silberman