The best science books: a review. Science, education

Modern people need constant replenishment of their knowledge base, so they often choose for themselves those books that are not only entertaining, but also educational. Such literature today attracts considerable attention. Because of this, the authors try to study the areas of life that are useful for a person more scrupulously and share the data obtained with readers.

It is worth noting that not 100% scientific books are especially popular, but those that are associated with an artistic direction. People are always more interested in watching vivid plot events and simultaneously receiving important information than just getting acquainted with dry facts.

The new popular educational literature contains many features of a wide variety of genres. Thanks to the competent approach of the authors to the combination of elements, real masterpieces are obtained, which as a result become bestsellers.

But in addition to such accessible works, special educational literature is also relevant, which is aimed at displaying a scientific approach and demonstrating important data. Such works contain well-described studies and methodological recommendations that may become useful in a particular professional field.

Scientific literature is also produced for children, only it differs in a somewhat simplified approach to submitting data. Naturally, the child will not perceive and assimilate information displayed in the same style as for adults, therefore, foreign and Russian educational literature for children is adapted to the requirements of kids and allows you to assimilate the information described in the creation.

Works of a fantastic plan can also be called scientific works, because, unlike artistic fantasy, the creations of the aforementioned genre imply the creation of a plot based on real, reliable and verified facts. Due to this feature, the popularity of works in this direction is increasing every year.

Popular medical literature often contains only the best practical and theoretical advice that will contribute to the self-education of a person who wants to gain the necessary knowledge in this area.

Be that as it may, but among modern books, it is not so difficult to find creations of the scientific and educational direction, you just need to visit our portal. A special website was created so that people can download electronic files to their devices or read the works they like online.

Each visitor of the portal can download for free without registration in epub, fb2, pdf, rtf and txt format any work that aroused his interest and seemed very worthy. Thanks to such sites, a person understands that it is easy to develop, you just need to make the right choice.

Subjects from the school curriculum, which many of us mastered under duress, can be as exciting as detective stories. To do this, popularizers of science should take up the cause. They talk about the latest discoveries and achievements of scientists in an accessible language, share entertaining facts and talk about chemistry, physics and biology with such passion that the reader involuntarily becomes infected with their enthusiasm.

We have selected the best books to start your journey into the world of popular science literature.

Nick Lane

Ever since oxygen was discovered in the 1770s, scientists have been hotly arguing about its properties. This dispute continues to this day. Some proclaim oxygen to be the elixir of life - a miraculous tonic, an anti-aging drug, a cosmetic and a promising method of treatment. Others perceive it as a flammable substance and a terrible poison that will eventually destroy us all.

Nick Lane will answer the question: is oxygen our only chance for survival or our worst enemy?

Matt Ridley

Everything is predetermined, but not at all in the way we think. Is it possible to imagine that the eyes were not "designed" to see? Such an ideal mechanism simply cannot arise by itself! Nevertheless, it arose - in small steps it changed and transformed until it became a part of us, allowing us to know the world by 80%.

Matt Ridley, the famous popular scientist, will show you who (or even what!) really rules our world. You will find out what is behind the most significant changes in the economy, morality, genes, and even in the Universe itself.

Matt Ridley

More than 60 years have passed since Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins deciphered the structure of DNA in 1953. During this time, genetics has developed at a cosmic speed, offering researchers discovery after discovery. Diagnosing and treating hereditary diseases that were previously considered incurable, and tracking the history of the human species with the help of genes - all this has become possible thanks to scientists. The author of this book, Matt Ridley, talks with the utmost simplicity about the complex science that has turned our understanding of life upside down, shares information about amazing but unnoticed research that will help defeat cancer and other serious diseases in the future, and also busts the myths surrounding genetics.

Sam Keen

The author of this book calls the periodic table one of the greatest achievements of science. For those who are not related to chemistry and physics by profession, she is a nightmare of school years. To change your mind about it, you should read this popular science work, which tells about the amazing properties of the elements, the history of their discovery and the secrets of science that you will never read in textbooks.

Alexander Gromov

The fact that the best examples of popular science literature are created exclusively by foreign authors is a delusion. Alexander Gromov's book about the solar system is proof of that. It systematizes all currently known knowledge of astronomers and astrophysicists about that part of the galaxy where our planet is located. He explains to the layman even such complex things as the physics of stars, explains why Pluto was excluded from the list of planets, and shares a lot of other useful information. The text is accompanied by colorful photographs.

Alan Weisman

Alan Weisman's "The Land Without People" transcends conventional notions of non-fiction. The author does not concentrate on one discipline, but, relying on the knowledge and experience of scientists and researchers, tells what will happen to cities and the environment we are used to as soon as humanity disappears from the face of the Earth. He explains why, in just a few days, the destruction of megacities will begin and how nature will win back space from the stone jungle. In his work, Weisman not only models an alternate reality, but also gives examples of once inhabited places left by people, including Chernobyl and the Korean demilitarized zone.

Ray Kurzweil

In The Evolution of the Mind, the famous American inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil talks about the prospects opened up for humanity thanks to artificial intelligence.

What are self-learning machine learning algorithms? And how can the computer mind change our lives in the near future? You will learn about this and much more in a simple and fascinating book by one of the leaders of Google.

The 10 most popular and interesting scientific books from various fields of human knowledge, of course, will not make you a scientist immediately after reading them. But they will help you better understand how a person works, our whole world, and the rest of the universe.

"Big, Small, and the Human Mind". Stephen Hawking, Roger Penrose, Abner Shimoni, Nancy Cartwright.

The book is based on the Tenner Lectures delivered in 1995 by the famous English astrophysicist Roger Penrose and the controversy they provoked with equally famous English scientists Abner Shimoni, Nancy Cartwright and Stephen Hawking. The range of problems discussed includes the paradoxes of quantum mechanics, issues of astrophysics, theory of knowledge, and artistic perception.

"Big Atlas of Anatomy". Johannes V. Roen, Chihiro Yokochi, Elke Lutyen - Drekoll.

This edition is a worldwide bestseller. The reader is offered: unique photographs of anatomical sections, most accurately conveying the color and structural features of the structure of organs; tutorials that complement and explain the gorgeous color photographs of anatomical sections; didactic material covering the functional aspects of the structure of organs and systems; the principle of studying sections "from external to internal", when parrying in the laboratory and in clinical work; introduction, devoted to the description of modern methods of visualization of structural features of organs and systems of the body. For the convenience of the professional reader, the names of organs and systems are given in Russian and Latin.

"A Brief History of Almost Everything". Bill Bryson.

This book is one of the major popular science bestsellers of our day, a classic of popular science. It contains the Big Bang and subatomic particles, primordial oceans and ancient continents, under its cover giant lizards roam and primitive hunters track down their prey ... But this book is not only about the distant past: it tells in an accessible and fascinating way about the cutting edge of science, about the incredible discoveries made by scientists, about global threats and the future of our civilization.

"Hyperspace. A scientific odyssey through parallel worlds, holes in time and the tenth dimension. Michio Kaku.

Instinct tells us that our world is three-dimensional. Based on this idea, scientific hypotheses have been built for centuries. According to the eminent physicist Michio Kaku, this is the same prejudice as the belief of the ancient Egyptians that the Earth was flat. The book is devoted to the theory of hyperspace. The idea of multidimensionality of space caused skepticism, was ridiculed, but is now recognized by many authoritative scientists. The significance of this theory lies in the fact that it is able to combine all known physical phenomena into a simple structure and lead scientists to the so-called theory of everything. However, there is almost no serious and accessible literature for non-specialists. Michio Kaku fills this gap, explaining from a scientific point of view the origin of the Earth, the existence of parallel universes, time travel, and many other seemingly fantastic phenomena.

"Microcosm. E. coli and the new science of life. Carl Zimmer.

E. coli, or E. coli, is a microorganism that we encounter almost daily, but which is one of the most important tools of biological science. Many major events in the history of biology are associated with it, from the discovery of DNA to the latest achievements in genetic engineering. E. coli is the most studied living thing on Earth. Interestingly, E. coli is a social microbe. The author draws surprising and disturbing parallels between the life of E. coli and our own life. He shows how this microorganism is changing almost before the eyes of researchers, revealing to their astonished eyes the billions of years of evolution encoded in its genome.

"Earth. Illustrated Atlas. Michael Allaby.

A comprehensive picture of all processes occurring on the Earth, inside and around it. The publication contains: detailed maps of continents and oceans. Impressive colorful photos. Popularly stated complex concepts. Broad overview of environmental issues. An exciting story of life on Earth. Explanatory diagrams and drawings. Reconstruction of geological processes. Terminological dictionary and alphabetical index. The Atlas will become an indispensable reference tool and handbook for readers of all ages.

"History of the Earth. From stardust to a living planet. The first 4,500,000,000 years". Robert Hazen.

The book of the famous popularizer of science, Professor Robert Hazen, introduces us to a fundamentally new approach to the study of the Earth, in which the history of the origin and development of life on our planet and the history of the formation of minerals are intertwined. An excellent storyteller, Hazen from the first lines captivates the reader with a dynamic narrative about the joint and interdependent development of animate and inanimate nature. Together with the author, the reader takes a breathless journey through billions of years: the emergence of the Universe, the appearance of the first chemical elements, stars, the solar system, and, finally, the formation and detailed history of the Earth. The movement of entire continents through thousands of kilometers, the rise and fall of huge mountain ranges, the destruction of thousands of species of terrestrial life and the complete change of landscapes under the influence of meteorites and volcanic eruptions - the reality turns out to be much more interesting than any myth.

"The evolution of man. In 2 books. Alexander Markov.

The new book by Alexander Markov is a fascinating story about the origin and structure of man, based on the latest research in anthropology, genetics and evolutionary psychology. The two-volume book "The Evolution of Man" answers many questions that have long interested Homo sapiens. What does it mean to be human? When and why did we become human? In what are we superior to our neighbors on the planet, and in what are we inferior to them? And how can we better use our main difference and dignity - a huge, complex brain? One way is to read this book thoughtfully. Alexander Markov - Doctor of Biological Sciences, Leading Researcher at the Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. His book on the evolution of living beings, The Birth of Complexity (2010), has become an event in non-fiction literature and has been widely acclaimed by readers.

"The Selfish Gene". Richard Dawkins.

We are created by our genes. We animals exist to preserve them and serve only as machines to ensure their survival. The world of the selfish gene is a world of fierce competition, ruthless exploitation and deceit. But what about acts of altruism seen in nature: bees committing suicide when they sting an enemy to protect the hive, or birds risking their lives to warn a flock of a hawk's approach? Does this contradict the fundamental law of gene selfishness? In no case! Dawkins shows that the selfish gene is also the cunning gene. And he cherishes the hope that the Homo sapiens species - the only one on the entire globe - is able to rebel against the intentions of the selfish gene.
The translation is verified according to the anniversary English edition of 2006.

Pseudoscience and the paranormal. Critical view. Jonathan Smith.

Confidently operating with the data of psychology, physics, logical analysis, history, Jonathan Smith leads the reader through the mysterious territories of the unknown, not letting him get lost among complex scientific concepts and helping to distinguish between incredible truth and plausible deception.

It's no secret that in our pragmatic age, popular science literature is becoming more and more in demand, giving odds to fiction of all stripes. For those who think it's never too late to learn, we've compiled a list of real gems in the sci-pop genre.

1. Eric Kandel. In search of memory.
2. Penny Lecuter, Jay Burreson. Napoleon buttons. Seventeen molecules that changed the world.
3. Chris frit. Brain and soul.
4. Jessica Snyder Sax. Microbes are good and bad. Our health and survival in the world.
5. Armand Marie Leroy. Mutants.
6. Nick lane. Ladder of life. Ten Greatest Inventions of Evolution.
7. Ian Stewart. Truth and beauty. World history of symmetry.
8. Alex Vilenkin. World of many worlds. Physicists in search of parallel universes.
9. Neil Shubin Inner fish. The history of the human body since ancient times ....
10 John Derbyshire Simple obsession. Bernhard Riemann and the Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics.
11. Sean Carroll. Adapt and survive! DNA as a chronicle of evolution.
12. Neil Shubin The universe is within us. What do stones, planets and people have in common.
13. Manjit Kumar. Quantum. Einstein, Bohr and the great controversy about the nature of reality.
14. Mark changizi. Revolution in vision.
15. Matt Ridley. Genome 16. Norman Doidge. Brain plasticity.
17. Michio kaku. The future of the mind 18. N. P. Bekhtereva. The magic of the brain and the labyrinths of life.
19. Richard Dawkins. selfish gene.
20 Stephen Hawking Brief history of time. From the big bang to black holes.
21. Carl Sagan. A world full of demons. Science is like a candle in the dark 22. What we believe but cannot prove. Intellectuals of the XXI century about modern science.
23. Richard F. Feynman. Of course you're joking, Mr. Feynman!
24. Stephen Hawking, Roger Penrose. The nature of space and time.
25. Fridtjof capra. Tao of physics. An exploration of the parallels between modern physics and the mysticism of the East.
26. Mary Roach. Kadavr. How the body serves science after death.
27. Shintan Yau, Steve Nadis. String theory and the hidden dimensions of the universe.
28. Karl Zimmer. Evolution. The triumph of the idea.
29. Oliver Sax. Anthropologist on Mars.
30. Asya Kazantseva. Who would have thought! How the brain makes us do stupid things.
31. Leonard Mlodinov. (Neo) conscious. How the unconscious mind controls our behavior.
32. Albert Einstein. The world as I see it.
33. Philip ball. Critical mass. How one thing gives rise to another.
34. Bill Bryson. A short history of almost everything.
35. Jared diamond. Guns, germs and steel. The fate of human societies.
36. Irina Levontina. Russian with a dictionary.
37. Jack Kelly. Powder. From alchemy to artillery. The story of a substance that changed the world.
38. Masha Gessen. Perfect severity. Grigory Perelman: genius and task of the millennium.
39. David Deutsch. The structure of reality. Science of parallel universes.
40. Stephen Strict. Pleasure from x. an exciting excursion into the world of mathematics from one of the best teachers in the world.
41. Thomas Kuhn. The structure of scientific revolutions.
42. Jim Baggott. Higgs boson. From a scientific idea to a "God Particle".
43. floor helpern. Collider 44. Richard Dawkins. Devil's chaplain. Reflections on hope, lies, science and love.
45. Lisa Randall Knockin 'on Heaven. A scientific view of the structure of the universe.
46. Michio kaku. Hyperspace. A scientific odyssey through parallel worlds, holes in time and the tenth dimension.
47. Stephen Hawking. My short history.
48. Yakov Perelman. Entertaining algebra. Entertaining Geometry 49. Stephen Hawking, R. Penrose, a. Shimoni, N. Cartwright. Big, small and human mind 50. George Johnson. Ten most beautiful experiments in the history of science.

Non-fiction books for children grade 3 surrounding. The fastest book

Ripol has already published three books in the 30 Seconds series, and they are all wonderful. In addition to "Discoveries", these are "Earth in 30 seconds" and "Space in 30 seconds". The principle of the books is simple: each page is one topic that can be mastered in 30 seconds, and a task that can be done in about the same time. In our book - 30 discoveries that turned the world upside down. Scientific theories are presented in historical order, so that the child makes discoveries along with humanity. The book has a lot of infographics, unusual use of color and fonts. She, like the whole series, is focused on modern children and speaks the same language with them. On our website, read also about another book by Mike Goldsmith, Eureka.

What is popular science style?

A feature of the popular science sub-style is the combination of polar stylistic features in it: logic and emotionality, objectivity and subjectivity, abstractness and concreteness. In contrast to scientific prose, popular science literature has much less special terms and other proper scientific means.

Popular science books on history. Popular science books on the history of a country or period

A little detour for overclocking
As a child (like many) I was a bright and promising child. And I really, really liked to read "adult" books, trying to understand them, and I got great pleasure from these difficulties. I remember that at the age of 6-7 I took up Tolstoy's "Peter 1st" and my mother's school history of the Middle Ages. And after all, I overcame and enjoyed it! According to this logic, I would grow with age, develop and switch to reading professional historians in the original language. But no - from the age of 15 she began to read fairy tales en masse, and then gradually switched to pop-science.
But in fact, this is all a saying, and the fairy tale will just be about historical science fiction, namely books (and films) on long periods of the history of the country (s) - in the wake of disappointment with Akunin’s “History”, I want to collect a list of those stories from different countries that the participants liked communities. I want a combination of interest, emotions and undistorted (or at least minimally distorted) scientific facts. And also - the show and history in general - the feudal system there, capitalism is emerging, they began to print books, and personalities. Because in order for the story to be interesting, you can’t go anywhere without personalities, and you don’t want to read without them, and it’s impossible to remember which king followed which one. And let professional historians throw stones at me, but for me, bad-good ratings do not make a history book unusable.
* My favorite is Churchill's History of the English-speaking Peoples, or rather the first two volumes of 4. With the third volume, too much party struggle between Whigs and Tories begins for my taste. This, of course, is close to the author, but I feel like a schoolboy who is flooded with political information about the next congress of the CPSU.
* Druon's "Paris from Caesar to Saint Louis" would also be good, but the book is too short. I wouldn’t get tired of reading before De Gaulle, well, before Napoleon III for sure, but I won’t demand too much, but why didn’t the author of Damned Kings tell about the Hundred Years War ?!
* Barbara Merz - two books on the history of Ancient Egypt and a book on the history of Rome. Here, by the way, about personality in books. Alas, there is little left of the memories of personalities from Ancient Egypt, even about such interesting ones as Hatshepsut or Akhenaten. But besides the ancient Egyptians, there are those who study them, so whoever read Merz will not forget about Petri.
* If not about books, but about films, then I really like Saiman Shama's History of Britain, David Starkey's History of Scotland with Neil Oliver and Monarchy, and Kings of France, 15 centuries of history, if worse, then not much .
* Slightly behind in my personal rankings are Deitch's Metronome and Mauroy's History of France. Moreover, I read it for the 1st time - I liked everything very much, but love, as you know, is checked by a 2nd glance, and a book - by re-reading. As for "Wonderful Greece" by Gasparov, I am clearly unfair. It's just that the history of ancient Greece is less interesting to me than medieval and Renaissance Europe. But I read the book with interest.
I forgot, forgot, foolishly suddenly forgot: Turnbull "Samurai. Military History". Not exactly what I would like - too much "war", too little "peace" (mores, customs and life in general), but I still liked it

A Brief History of Time (subtitled From the Big Bang to Black Holes) is a non-fiction book written by noted physicist Stephen Hawking, first published in 1988 by the American publishing house Bantam Books. . The book talks about the emergence of the Universe, the nature of space and time, black holes, superstring theory and some mathematical problems, but on the pages of the publication you can find only one formula E=mc². The book has become a bestseller since its release, as it is written in a living language and is designed for the average reader. Over 10 million copies have been sold in 20 years.

1988 - First edition with a foreword by Carl Sagan.
1996 - revised, expanded and illustrated edition.
1996 - paperback release with a few charts added.
2005 - A Brief History of Time is released, which is a revised edition of A Brief History of Time. Serious changes have been made to the text regarding the scientific discoveries of recent years. The physicist Leonard Mlodinov helped Hawking write the book.

In 1991, American director Errol Morris made a documentary of the same name. Although the film and book have the same title, the film tells about the life, outlook and scientific achievements of a British scientist and is not an adaptation of Hawking's book.
The 1993 album Chronologie by Jean-Michel Jarre was influenced by the book A Brief History of Time.
The book makes cameo appearances in J. Safran Foer's book Creepy Loud and Incredibly Close, the films Donnie Darko (2001), Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (2004), Total Bummer (2006), Love Through Time (2014).

Stephen Hawking "Three Books on Space and Time"

This is a collection of three bestselling books by a British theoretical physicist. "A Brief History of Time" is the first work of a scientist devoted to the origin of the Universe and the cosmos. Black Holes and Young Universes is a collection of philosophical essays and autobiographical notes written by Hawking from 1976 to 1992. The third book, The Theory of Everything, consists of 7 lectures by the scientist, in which he tries to combine several disparate physical theories into one comprehensive one.

Michio Kaku "Physics of the Impossible"

Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku is one of the key popular science authors of our time. The Physics of the Impossible, released in 2008, became a bestseller and gave readers a new perspective on technologies that seem incredible now, but may soon become an integral part of people's lives. The author considers the possibilities of creating a teleporter, super-development of robots and telepathy, as well as time travel and the creation of a perpetual motion machine.

Other books by Michio Kaku are also of interest - "Hyperspace" and "The Future of the Mind". The first is about the multidimensionality of space and time travel; the second is about empowering people through technology.

1. Yuval Harari. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind

An international bestseller written by an Israeli medievalist historian and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The book was published in 2011 and quickly conquered bookstores in many countries of the world. By 2016, it had already been translated into 30 languages.

Among the devoted fans of the book is Mark Zuckerberg, who encouraged everyone to read this work and included it in his project. "Year of Books", and Bill Gates, who admitted that he would take her with him to a desert island.

The book of Harari is a book about how man got his dominant position on this planet. This is a story about the development of human societies from small tribes of hunter-gatherers to modern states with a complex bureaucratic apparatus, and about the main inventions of mankind, to which the author refers agriculture, religion, money economy, science, and, above all, the ability to create fictions. A great continuation of the tradition of large-scale and exciting non-fiction in the spirit of Jared Diamond.

Other animals that ended up at the top of the pyramid - lions, sharks - went to this for millions of years, and a person got to the top almost instantly. Many historical catastrophes, including devastating wars and ecosystem violence, stem from our overly hasty rise to power. Mankind is not a pack of wolves that suddenly took possession of tanks and atomic bombs, but rather we are a herd of sheep, which, due to an incomprehensible whim of evolution, has learned to make and use tanks and missiles. And armed sheep are much more dangerous than armed wolves.

2. Frank Wilczek The beauty of physics. Comprehending the structure of nature

The book by the famous physicist and Nobel Prize winner tells how people comprehended the Universe throughout history, and what we know about its structure thanks to modern scientific discoveries. Wilczek starts with the ideas of Pythagoras and Plato, stops at the discoveries of Newton and Maxwell, and then, through Einstein, approaches the physical theory of the late 20th century.

In this narrative, scientific theories are intertwined with reflections on the beauty of the cosmos, the universe and the process of scientific research.

The complex and multifaceted narrative that turned out as a result will give each reader something of his own. The text is complemented by beautiful illustrations that make the book an even more interesting example of popular science literature. It is important that the author does not simply try to convey some scientific truth to us, but makes assumptions and seeks to make the reader an accomplice in his thoughts.

Recent advances in cosmology suggest that the part of the universe that we can currently explore with even the most powerful instruments is just a small part of the multiverse, the distant parts of which could look completely different. If this became known for sure, it would reinforce the idea that has repeatedly sounded before: the "world" given in the sensations of each person is only one of billions of the same (at least one per person); Earth is only one of the planets of our Sun; our Sun is just one of the billions of stars in our Galaxy called the Milky Way; our galaxy is just one of billions in the visible universe.

3. Paul Kalanithi When breath dissolves into air

The autobiography of a neurosurgeon who died of cancer at the age of 37, who continued to observe the course of the disease for the last two years of his life, to study, work, improve and write penetrating notes, which are included in this book. It quickly reached number one on The New York Times bestseller list, was translated into 37 languages, and was a revelation to many readers.

Kalanithi's book is a brilliant story about the everyday life and everyday tragedies of a neurosurgeon, a sincere and deep story about how our sense of self changes on the eve of death. It can hardly be called a popular science work, although science is present in it. Rather, it is a reflection on the meaning of life, felt from one's own experience and in style balancing somewhere on the verge between the works of Montaigne and Oliver Sachs.

The morning was coming to an end and I was washing my hands before my last operation. Suddenly I was terrified. Am I doing this for the last time? Maybe it is so. I looked at the soapy water dripping from my hands into the sink. A few minutes later he entered the operating room, dressed in surgical clothes and covered the patient, leaving the operating field. I wanted this operation to be perfect.

4. Frans de Waal. Are we smart enough to judge the intelligence of animals?

A new book by an ethologist and primatologist, who has earned recognition both for his research and experiments, and for his remarkable popular science works (his Origins of Morality and Politics in Chimpanzees have already been translated into Russian). This is a thoughtful and engaging story about how we differ from animals and whether these differences are really as great as we sometimes think.

Even Charles Darwin wrote that "however great the difference in the mental abilities of man and higher animals, it undoubtedly lies in quantity, and not in quality."

Frans de Waal's book draws on the results of modern research to shed new light on this claim. To what extent are animals capable of experiencing emotions? Do they have friendship, love and hate, politics, enmity and cooperation? Through a story about the evolution of animal cognitive abilities, observations and experiments, the author answers these questions and leads us to a new understanding of what it means to be human.

Yes, we are smart enough to appreciate other species, but it took hundreds of facts, initially completely rejected by science, to break through our stubbornness. The reasons why we got rid of excess prejudice and anthropocentrism are to be found in what we have learned and rethought in the past. In evaluating these changes, I inevitably bring in my own point of view, which favors the integrity of evolution at the expense of traditional dualism.

5. Lisa Randall. Dark matter and dinosaurs. The amazing interconnection of events in the universe

Lisa Randall is a professor at Harvard University, a theoretical physicist and science communicator. Her hypothesis that the death of dinosaurs 66 million years ago is associated with the passage of dark matter through the disk was put forward back in 2014 and received conflicting assessments. The opinion of scientists boils down mainly to the following: it looks plausible, but there is not enough evidence. However, the book deserves attention not only because of this hypothesis.

In fact, "Dark Matter and Dinosaurs" is a fascinating introduction to modern ideas about cosmology, the solar system and the development of biological species, in which astrophysics is intertwined with particle physics, geology and even biology. Scattered across disciplines, scientific knowledge and theories need to be brought together if we are to better understand our place in this universe.

I would like to show the variety of incredible interconnections, as a result of which we appeared and were able to understand what is happening now. […] As I began to ponder the conceptual ideas of the book, I was struck not only by the extent of current knowledge about our environment (on Earth, in the solar system, in the galaxy, and in the universe), but also by how much we hope to eventually understand based on on the bits of knowledge gained here on Earth.

6. Simon Singh, Edzard Ernst. No wallet, no life. Alternative medicine under investigation

A book by eminent British experts on alternative medicine, published with the support of the Evolution Foundation, talks about whether acupuncture, homeopathy, herbalism and other similar practices really help to cope with diseases. Edzard Ernst had been a homeopath himself for a long time, but abandoned these methods when he began to understand how they work. Thanks to this experience, the book not only retained its scientific authenticity, but also added depth and brightness to the material.

"No wallet, no life" will introduce the reader to the basics of scientific medicine. How are medicines and medical practices tested? What is double blind method? Which doctor's statements can be trusted, and which ones should you stay away from? In addition to answering these questions, the book contains a small guide to non-traditional therapies, from anthroposophic medicine to Bach's flower therapy.

Vaccination eradicated deadly infections. Diseases that affect millions of people and were previously considered incurable - appendicitis, diabetes and many others - are now treatable. Child mortality has dropped significantly. Pain can be controlled in most cases. And in general, we live longer and enjoy a better quality of life. And all this thanks to the application of the scientific method in health care and medicine. Alternative medicine, on the other hand, is by its very nature a relic of the Middle Ages.

7. Asya Kazantseva. Someone is wrong on the internet

In the latest book by renowned science communicator and Illuminator Award winner, you'll find out what the latest scientific research has to say about these important questions: Is the theory of evolution correct? Does homeopathy work? Are GMOs Dangerous? Is it good to be a vegetarian?

People can argue passionately on these and other topics, but very rarely use the right arguments.

Kazantseva's book not only answers the questions posed, but also helps to understand where to take these arguments. It begins with an analysis of the main thinking errors that constantly mislead us, and ends with a "Short Course in the Search for Truth." The main advantage of the book is not even that it presents scientific facts in a fascinating and accessible way, but that it helps the reader get rid of prejudices, learn to think critically and independently.

My ambitions as a writer are mostly not to force a set of correct memes on you, to convince you that homeopathy does not work, GMOs are safe, and so on. I have another main task: to cut down the branch on which I sit, to make the reader less dependent on a scientific journalist in the search and analysis of information. In this case, it is not even the question of whether homeopathy works that matters to me. It is more important to show exactly how I arrived at the answer.

8. Sergey Kavtaradze. Anatomy of architecture. Seven Books on Logic, Form and Meaning

This book by a Russian art historian, dedicated to how to understand, study and love architecture, was published a year ago, but this year it attracted our attention: in 2016, the author was awarded the Enlightener Prize for it in the Humanities nomination . The book appeals not to a specialist, but to the widest readership: it will acquaint you with the history of the development of architecture on a global scale and teach you to see meaning where only forms were seen before.

We all live among and within architecture, but we rarely think about what that means. How did architectural canons change, what values do architects put into their works? How does architecture evoke feelings in us and even serve as a way to connect with God? The book combines the author's narration, images and photographs, as well as quotations from important writings on architecture. For those who want to learn more about this topic, it will serve as an excellent introduction.

No art has power over people like architecture. Architecture can imperceptibly issue commands, effectively controlling human behavior, forcing him to move not only in certain directions, but also in a certain rhythm, at the desired pace and even in the right manner. And that is not all. Architecture has power over both feelings and thoughts.

9. Ian Tattersall Skeletons in the closet. Dramatic human evolution

The book of one of the world's largest experts in paleoanthropology is the result of more than half a century of work on the study of the origins of mankind from ancient people and primates. Like Wilczek's The Beauty of Physics, this book is written in the genre of intellectual history: Tattersall tells how our ideas about the origin and nature of man have changed from Aristotle to the present day.

This story is full of facts and stories from the workshop of paleoanthropologists, in which the author spent most of his life. How did people learn to ask new questions? How did the discovery of scientific methods and tools like radiocarbon dating come about? The author offers the reader not only a presentation of the theoretical foundations of his discipline, but also gives him the opportunity to immerse himself in the process of scientific knowledge - with all its contradictions, subtleties and details.

The science of human evolution continues to be oppressed by the past, our ideas of yesterday have a huge impact on what we think today. [...] This is a strange and confusing story of paleoanthropology, showing how every new fact about human evolution calls into question everything we knew before, even if there are often many convincing counterarguments against it.

10. Maria Konnikova. The psychology of distrust. How not to get scammed

A well-known American psychologist of Russian origin, columnist for The New Yorker and Scientific American wrote a book about the principles that underlie trust and deceit and why we sometimes believe false promises so easily. We may think that we will easily expose fraud if we encounter it in our lives. This book proves that it is not necessary to be so self-confident: we are all deceived, and very often we do not even notice it.

Scientific narrative at times flows into a detective story. How do scammers pull off their scams by playing on our fears, hopes and doubts? How not to succumb to deception and notice traps even before you fall into them? The reasons for lying lie in our relentless need to believe in something, to feel empathy, and to lie to ourselves when it seems right or useful to us. These are the reasons behind not only individual cases of deceit, but also behind the manipulation of public opinion.

It does not matter what we are dealing with - a financial pyramid or falsification of data, information stuffing or deliberately false information, artistic forgery or a dubious diagnosis, an unreliable presentation of the past or dubious promises for the future. At a fundamental level, it all boils down to trust - or rather, abuse of it.

In the design of the article, Boris Kustodiev’s painting “Maslenitsa” (1916) was used.