What are the three best popular-science books?

Steven Weinberg’s The First Three Minutes was the first book I ever read about cosmology, and it was largely responsible for me deciding to work in this field. You might argue that Weinberg has a lot to answer for, but the book is still a masterpiece.

Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris is a hugely enjoyable history of astronomy. Although written by a professional popular-science writer, it treats its readers intelligently and is very thoroughly researched.

When I was at school, my physics teacher warned me off biology (and all other subjects that involved the use of coloured pencils). The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins showed me that there is real intellectual depth to go with the crayons.

What science books are you currently reading?

I am between science books at the moment. I recently finished Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku, which I thought was badly written, misleading and full of historical inaccuracies. By way of compensation, I next plan to investigate Lisa Randall’s Warped Passages.

What else are you reading?

I have just started Simon Schama’s Rough Crossings, which is a fascinating account of why the American Revolution really happened – not to promote individual liberty, but to protect the profits of slave-owners in the face of the British emancipation movement.

Which popular-science book have you never read, but feel you ought to have tackled, and why?

I should read Roger Penrose’s The Road to Reality because the author is such an important figure in science and the scope of the book is so vast. It is over 1000 pages long, however, and I have never summoned up the energy to lift it off my study floor. Still, at least I am not so pretentious as to leave it on the coffee table.