In honor ofWorld Book Day , we ’ve gathered reading passport from scientist whose specialties pasture from astrophysics to neuroscience to primatology .
First up is a listing of eight books that Neil deGrasse Tyson think everyone should take and his reasons why . The recommendations are from a 2011Reddit Ask - Me - Anything .
" The Bible " : “ To learn that it ’s sluttish to be told by others what to retrieve and believe than it is to think for yourself . "
" The System of the reality " by Isaac Newton : “ To check that the universe is a knowable place . ”
" On the Origins of Species " by Charles Darwin : “ To learn of our kinship with all other aliveness on Earth . ”
" Gulliver ’s travel " by Jonathan Swift : “ To learn , among other satirical lessons , that most of the sentence humanity are Yahoos . ”
" The Age of Reason " by Thomas Paine : “ To study how the power of rational thought is the primary source of freedom in the existence . ”
" The Wealth of Nations " by Adam Smith : “ To learn that capitalism is an economy of greed , a strength of nature unto itself . ”
" The Art of War " by Sun Tzu : “ To pick up that the deed of killing fellow humans can be raised to an fine art . ”
" The Prince " by Niccolo Machiavelli : “ To ascertain that hoi polloi not in magnate will do all they can to acquire it , and people in power will do all they can to keep it . ”
Check out an assortment of books that other notable scientist recommend :
Jane Goodall : “ Animal Liberation ” by Peter Singer
Michio Kaku : " The Foundation Trilogy " by Isaac Asimov
Oliver Sacks : “ The Mind of a Mnemonist ” by Aleksandr R. Luria
Steven Pinker : " 1984 " by George Orwell , " The Selfish factor " by Richard Dawkins
Sean Carroll : " One , Two , Three … eternity " by George Gamow
Steve Jones : " Farthest North " by Fridjtof Nansen
Jared Diamond : " Child of the Jungle " by Sabine Kuegler
Max Tegmark : " Permutation City " by Greg Egan
Adam Riess : " inter-group communication " by Carl Sagan , " The Fountains of Paradise " by Arthur C. Clarke
Steven Strogatz : " The Andromeda Strain " by Michael Crichton
Ainissa Ramirez : " Parable of the Sower " by Octavia E. Butler
Sarah Blaffer Hrdy : " The Beak of the Finch " by Jonathan Weiner , " Genome : The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters " by Matt Ridley
Melvin Konner : " Why Zebras Do n’t Get Ulcers " by Robert M. Sapolsky , " Descartes ' Error : Emotion , Reason , and the Human Brain " by Anthony Damasio
Keith Thomson : " The Fly in the Cathedral " by Brian Cathcart
Hat Tip : [ New Scientist , Goodreads , Huffington Post , American Scientist ]
