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

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

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



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

Appears On: 10 Lists
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The Invention of Nature- Alexander von Humboldt's New World


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

Appears On: 6 Lists
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NeuroTribes- The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity


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

Appears On: 5 Lists
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Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs- The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe


4) On the Move: A Life by Oliver Sacks

Appears On: 5 Lists
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On the Move- A Life


5) H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald

Appears On: 4 Lists
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H Is for Hawk


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

Appears On: 4 Lists
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Life on the Edge- The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology


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

Appears On: 4 Lists
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Rain- A Natural and Cultural History


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

Appears On: 4 Lists
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The Hunt for Vulcan- . . . And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe


9) The Vital Question by Nick Lane

Appears On: 4 Lists
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The Vital Question- Energy, Evolution, and the Origins of Complex Life


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

Appears On: 3 Lists
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Do No Harm- Stories of Life, Death, and Brain Surgery


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

Appears On: 3 Lists
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The Invention of Science- A New History of the Scientific Revolution


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

Appears On: 3 Lists
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The Soul of an Octopus- A Surprising Exploration into the Wonder of Consciousness


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

Appears On: 3 Lists
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Thing Explainer- Complicated Stuff in Simple Words


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

Appears On: 3 Lists
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Thunder & Lightning- Weather Past, Present, Future


15) A Beautiful Question by Frank Wilczek

Appears On: 2 Lists
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A Beautiful Question- Finding Nature's Deep Design


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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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Beneath the Surface- Killer Whales, SeaWorld, and the Truth Beyond Blackfish


17) Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel

Appears On: 2 Lists
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Beyond Words- What Animals Think and Feel


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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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Big Science- Ernest Lawrence and the Invention that Launched the Military-Industrial Complex


19) Black Hole by Marcia Bartusiak

Appears On: 2 Lists
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Black Hole- How an Idea Abandoned by Newtonians, Hated by Einstein, and Gambled On by Hawking Became Loved


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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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Forensics- What Bugs, Burns, Prints, DNA and More Tell Us About Crime


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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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Future Crimes- Everything Is Connected, Everyone Is Vulnerable and What We Can Do About It


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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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Headstrong- 52 Women Who Changed Science-and the World


24) How to Clone a Mammoth by Beth Shapiro

Appears On: 2 Lists
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How to Clone a Mammoth- The Science of De-Extinction


25) Landmarks by Robert MacFarlane

Appears On: 2 Lists
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landmarks Robert MacFarlane


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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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Life's Greatest Secret- The Race to Crack the Genetic Code


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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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Scientific Babel- The Language of Science from the Fall of Latin to the Rise of English


28) Seven Brief Lessons on Physics

Appears On: 2 Lists
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Seven Brief Lessons on Physics


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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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Spirals in Time- The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells


30) Spooky Action at a Distance by George Musser

Appears On: 2 Lists
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Spooky Action at a Distance- The Phenomenon That Reimagines Space and Time--and What It Means for Black Holes, the Big Bang, and Theories of Everything


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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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The Age of Sustainable Development


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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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The Cabaret of Plants- Botany and the Imagination


33) The Fly Trap by Fredrik Sjoberg

Appears On: 2 Lists
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The Fly Trap


34) The Intimate Bond: How Animals Shaped Human History

Appears On: 2 Lists
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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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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The Master Algorithm- How the Quest for the Ultimate Learning Machine Will Remake Our World


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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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The Thrilling Adventures of Lovelace and Babbage- The (Mostly) True Story of the First Computer (Pantheon Graphic Novels)


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

Appears On: 2 Lists
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Voices in the Ocean- A Journey into the Wild and Haunting World of Dolphins


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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What Stands in a Storm- Three Days in the Worst Superstorm to Hit the South's Tornado Alley



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 23 “Best Science Book” Year-End Lists Consulted