
1. A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking (1988)
It is perhaps the best known book on cosmology by the world’s best known scientist. Since it was first published nearly a quarter of a century ago, A Brief History of Time has been translated into at least 40 different languages and sold some 9 million copies.

2. An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Robert Malthus (1798)
Malthus’s highly controversial Essay was born out of a conversation with a friend about the “general question of the future improvement of society”. Though first published in 1798 to refute the notion of human perfectibility, with our growing population one of the critical issues of the 21st century, his ideas remain influential. Palaeontologist Richard Fortey says, “It will probably be the most important book for this current century.”

3. Black Holes and Time Warps by Kip Thorne (1994)
It began as a back-of-an-envelope calculation for his friend Carl Sagan, who was working on the science fiction story Contact and wanted his heroine to travel through space by taking shortcuts through black holes. But initial curiosity turned into much more for theoretical physicist Kip Thorne. As Sagan later told PBS, “I got back a long letter from Kip with about 50 lines of closely reasoned equations.” That letter grew into Black Holes and Time Warps, which explained how time travel might work in a real physical sense. The book became a bestseller, and Contactdidn’t do too poorly either: in 1997 it was made into a film starring Jodie Foster.

4. Brighter Than a Thousand Suns: A personal history of the atomic scientists by Robert Jungk (1956, first published in German)
The late historian and journalist Robert Jungk was interviewing nuclear scientists for a documentary film about the making of the atomic bomb when he realised he had the makings of an insightful book. As New Scientist Feedback editor John Hoyland points out, Brighter Than a Thousand Suns “massively influenced the anti-nuclear-weapons movement worldwide, and in general, opened the world’s eyes to the onset of the nuclear age and the nuclear arms race”.

5. Chaos: Making a new science by James Gleick (1987)
The first popular science book to tackle the emerging field of chaos theory, journalist James Gleick’s Chaos earned the author a Pulitzer prize. Not only did the book bring this complex physics to the public, says our features editor Ben Crystall, “It helped kick-start the subject into a host of other fields”.

6. Disturbing the Universe by Freeman Dyson (1979)
A mixture of autobiography, rumination on poetry and philosophy, and exploration of physics and cold war history, Disturbing the Universe is a book unlike any other. As our technology features editor Sally Adee puts it, “Freeman Dyson is the Spiderman of physics: in his autobiography, he makes the case that for scientists in particular, with great power comes great responsibility.”

7. Gaia: A new look at life on Earth by James Lovelock (1979)
Four years before the book was published that introduced the world to his Gaia hypothesis - which holds that everything on and of the Earth is part of a vast interconnected, evolving and self-regulating system - James Lovelock put the idea forward in a feature on the pages of New Scientist. Destroying ecological systems or species, he argued, could undermine the stability of the entire system.

8. Godel, Escher, Bach: An eternal golden braid by Douglas Hofstadter (1979)
Often referred to simply as GEB, Douglas Hofstadter’s Pulitzer prize-winning book looked at the overlapping interests and passions of three brilliant men: mathematician Kurt Godel, graphic artist M. C. Escher and composer and musician Johann Sebastian Bach. “A wonderful integration of science and art,” says Frank Wilczek, who nominated the book for our short list,GEB went on to influence a generation of thinkers. “We need more like this,” Wilczek adds.

9. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond (1997)
Nominated for our list by Steven Pinker, this bestselling book earned University of California, Los Angeles, geographer Jared Diamond a Pulitzer prize. Guns, Germs and Steel examined why modern human societies are so different from each other - with some cultures long relying on industrial processes while others used simpler tools until quite recently. The book is a favourite volume for many public figures, but to Diamond’s recent dismay, they don’t always portray his ideas with the greatest accuracy.

10. On the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin (1859)
More than 150 years ago English naturalist Charles Darwin wrote up his theory of evolution for a general reader. From old ladies to philosophers, “everybody has read Mr Darwin’s book” Thomas Henry Huxley wrote at the time. Though On the Origin of Species fiercely divided opinion, there was no mistake that it inaugurated “a new epoch in natural history”. The 1859 publication changed the way people understood their own origins and marked the foundation of the field of evolutionary biology.

11. Phantoms in the Brain by V. S. Ramachandran and Sandra Blakeslee (1998)
For this bestselling book that has been translated into at least nine languages, neuroscientist V. S. Ramachandran teamed up with science writer Sandra Blakeslee to explore the way that his patients’ unique neurological disorders - from experiencing phantom limb pain to blindsight - can offer clues to how the brain works.

12. Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell (1830-1833)
In Principles of Geology Charles Lyell argued that the Earth’s crust was formed through slow, incremental changes and that these could be understood by examining the geological record they left behind. Widely read and hugely influential, this book was a particular source of inspiration for a young scientist who would go on to have quite a bit of influence himself: Charles Darwin read Lyell’s work while aboard the Beagle.

13. Silent Spring by Rachel Carson (1962)
In part thanks to a series of excerpts published in The New Yorker which spawned numerous newspaper editorials in the months prior to its release, when Rachel Carson’s Silent Springwent on sale on 27 September 1962, tens of thousands of readers had already ordered a copy. It quickly became a bestseller and spurred a heated public debate on the use of chemical pesticides that grew into something far larger, the American environmental movement.

14. The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski (1973)
The book published to coincide with a 13-part television series for the BBC, The Ascent of Man explored and celebrated human ingenuity and inventiveness throughout our history - from the earliest use of tools to breakthroughs in modern science. The work profoundly affected many who read it - including physicistDavid Deutsch, who nominated the title for our list.

15. The Ambidextrous Universe by Martin Gardner (1964)
Of the many books penned by this mathematics and popular science writer, The Ambidextrous Universe, which explores all things symmetrical and asymmetrical, had perhaps the biggest popular impact. A long-time columnist for Scientific American, Gardner’s playful style and infectious enthusiasm for his subjects makes his writing a joy to read.

16. The Double Helix by James Watson (1968)
The Double Helix is the story of uncovering the DNA molecule’s double-helix structure, told by one of its discoverers. Far from idealising the scientific process, the book provides an honest account, sometimes painfully so, of the process of discovery: “The Double Helix was the first popular science book to expose the process of discovery, warts and all,” says our consultantMichael Brooks, who nominated the title.

17. The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose (1989)
Underpinning this exploration of the possibility of "strong" AI - artificial intelligence that surpasses human capabilities - mathematical physicist Roger Penrose penned an extraordinary and eclectic tour of physics, which showed that you needn’t oversimplify complex concepts in popular works. The result is “absolutely inspiring”, according to physicist Jim Al-Khalili.

18. The First Three Minutes by Steven Weinberg (1977)
Nominated by Freeman Dyson, The First Three Minutes was one of the first popular science books to bring physics to the public and set the standard for many works to follow. Steven Weinberg wrote this history of the very early stages of the universe, after the big bang, two years before he was awarded a Nobel prize in physics.

19. The Language Instinct by Steven Pinker (1994)
The capacity for language is innate for and unique to humans, argues Steven Pinker in The Language Instinct, which helped to bring some of the ideas of fellow scholar Noam Chomsky to a broader audience. The contested ideas aimed to do nothing less than blow out of the water common misconceptions about language, and fuelled a debate that continues to this day.

20. The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks (1985)
The iconic title of Oliver Sacks’s compendium of clinical experience belies the care, kind humour and expertise employed in its writing. Providing insightful glimpses into the lives of people with disorders such as autism and Alzheimer’s, The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat explores big questions of identity and the mind.

21. The Mysterious Universe by James Jeans (1930)
Astrophysicist James Jeans brought the then new theory of relativity as well as the perplexing problems of quantum mechanics to the public. Beautifully written, the book made it clear that understanding these difficult concepts wasn’t just for physicists, and was important to everyday life.

22. The Naked Ape by Desmond Morris (1967)
Painting the portrait of humankind as the animals we are, zoologist Desmond Morris caused a stir with his 1967 publication, The Naked Ape. “It was the first attempt to put human behaviour in an evolutionary and biological context,” says Frans de Waal, who nominated the title. “The book shocked many, and opened the way for other shocking comparisons between humans and animals.”

23. The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins (1976)
Richard Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene took evolutionary theory to a new level. He argued that an organism's urge to reproduce is prompted by our genes, which also direct us to favour our relatives, ensuring the survival of shared genes. The work, which has been translated into at least 20 languages and sold millions of copies worldwide, also introduced a now familiar cultural idea:the meme.

24. What is Life? By Erwin Schrödinger (1944)
Though maligned by some for straying from his field of expertise, in What is Life? - based on his public lectures on the topic at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland - physicist Erwin Schrödinger hypothesised a means by which genetic material could be passed on through a chemical structure. It was an idea that proved to be an inspiration for the discoverers of DNA’s double helical structure.

25. Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould (1989)
Evolution is not just about survival fitness, it’s also down to Lady Luck. That was the controversial thesis put forward by Stephen Jay Gould in Wonderful Life. Using the Canadian fossil trove known as the Burgess Shale as the basis, his argued that chance played a role in which creatures became the forebears to modern life. The debate over his theory continues.
