As ever, there are so many information-laden books on science and tech, as well as analytical ones, that the selection criteria are a little different. I tried to isolate books that contribute something different or at least provide something beyond their purported remit. Peebles’s book, for example, is far more assumption-questioning than most physics books of its kind, and to me far deeper for it. It demonstrates a way of thinking useful well beyond physics or science. If only there were an easier way to locate such books beyond browsing through many less distinguished books.





The Genesis Machine: Our Quest to Rewrite Life in the Age of Synthetic Biology
Webb, Amy (Author), Hessel, Andrew (Author)
PublicAffairs


The Internet Is Not What You Think It Is: A History, a Philosophy, a Warning
Smith, Justin E. H. (Author)
Princeton University Press



Leibniz on Binary: The Invention of Computer Arithmetic
Strickland, Lloyd (Author), Lewis, Harry R. (Author)
The MIT Press


A Philosopher Looks at Science
Cartwright, Nancy (Author)
Cambridge University Press


Dialogue on the Two Greatest World Systems (Oxford World's Classics)
Galileo (Author), Davie, Mark (Author), Shea, William R. (Author)
Oxford University Press