The Alchemy of Air: A Jewish Genius, a Doomed Tycoon, and the Scientific Discovery That Fed the World but Fueled the Rise of Hitler by Thomas Hager (2009). If you like this book, continue reading on topic by picking up a copy of Hell’s Cartel: IG Farben and the Making of Hitler’s War Machine by Diarmuid Jeffreys (2010). This book details how the industrial Haber-Bosch process that I refer to above played a big part in the industrialization and economic growth of Hitler’s Germany, and how IG Farben’s business leaders were tried after the war for mass murder and the exploitation of slave labor.
Mass starvation was also widely anticipated to occur at the end of World War II. How do you safely and effectively supply food to people who have been starving? Efforts in the U.S. to figure out how to combat this impending problem forms the basis of The Great Starvation Experiment: The Heroic Men Who Starved So That Millions Could Live by Todd Tucker (2006).
There are many books that capture how brilliant scientists made key discoveries that resulted in a wide variety of healthcare breakthroughs (see the antibiotic discovery books above). Unfortunately, not all scientists and doctors worked in an ethical fashion while pursuing their scientific interests, and this has led to some fine exposés that shine a spotlight on the guilty. Here are three well-written examples: Bad Blood: The Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment by James H. Jones (1992) is a searing historical account of how doctors in the American south wanted to study the effects of advanced syphilis, but failed to treat their black patients with effective drugs when they became available. Unethical treatment of prisoners of war in Word War II Japan is the subject of Factories of Death: Japanese Biological Warfare, 1932-45 and the American Cover-Up by Sheldon Harris (2002). Think a similar thing could never happen in the good ‘ole USA? Check out Against Their Will: The Secret History of Medical Experimentation on Children in Cold War America by Allen M. Hornblum, Judith Lynn Newman, and Gregory J. Dober (2013). Finally, read how inmates at a notorious Pennsylvania prison were coerced by doctors and jailers into participating in a long-running series of painful experiments from the 40s through the 70s in Acres of Skin: Human Experiments at Holmesburg Prison, also by Hornblum (1999).
Looking for some science reads written in a lighter vein? Try Charlatan: America’s Most Dangerous Huckster, the Man Who Pursued Him, and the Age of Flimflam by Pope Brock (2009). It focuses on the career of a “doctor” who earns a fortune by transplanting goat testicles into older men in order to restore their sexual function. Sort of like the first sildenafil (Viagra), except that there was no evidence the technique worked, and lots of men (not to mention goats) were injured or killed by the surgery. Follow this one up with a tale of a teenager whose quest to impress his girlfriend leads him to pull off the theft of the world’s most valuable rocks in Sex on the Moon: The Amazing Story Behind the Most Audacious Heist in History by Ben Mezrich (2012). Finally, check out the accurately titled What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe (2014), which will tickle your funny bone while simultaneously expanding your brain.
Best humorous science writer? My vote is for Mary Roach, whose books never fail to leave a smile on my face. Ms. Roach combines her natural curiosity on a wide variety of topics with strong science reporting with a personal spin. Start with Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex (2009), then move on to Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void (2010) and then Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers (2004).
If you’re mathematically oriented, check out The Improbability Principle: Why Coincidences, Miracles, and Rare Events Happen Every Day by David J. Hand (2014). If you enjoy this one, follow it up with Super Crunchers: Why Thinking-By-Numbers is the New Way to be Smart by Ian Ayres (2008). If you’re looking for explanations about the mathematically challenged, check out The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail — but Some Don’t by Nate Silver (2012) or Innumeracy: Mathematical Illiteracy and its Consequences by John Allen Paulos (2001).
Are you a big fan of CSI and its various spinoffs? Check out The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum (2011). This is where all of the cool scientific detective work began.
Looking for some books that will scare the crap out of you? Put aside those Stephen King novels, which are so yesterday. You’ve got more important things to worry about than rabid St. Bernards or prom queens that have mastered psychokinesis. Try Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic by David Quammen (2012) about deadly emerging viruses, Command and Control: Nuclear Weapons, the Damascus Accident, and the Illusion of Safety by Eric Schlosser (2013), which documents how lucky we are that there haven’t been more nuclear accidents (and that the ones that did occur didn’t do more damage), or The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History by John M. Barry (2005). Don’t read these at bedtime: you may have difficulty going to sleep, followed by nightmares if
