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As an impressionable 13-year-old, I found Arthur C. Clarke's book of popular science essays, 'Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the Possible

• jasim 8y ago
  Seven Brief Lessons on Physics by Carlo Rovelli. Ultimate Questions by Bryan Magee (more philosophy of knowledge than science per se). The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan. The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski are not essays, but it is one of the finest writings on science I've read. The Art of Doing Science and Engineering by Richard W. Hamming Letters to a Young Scientist by Edward O. Wilson I can't not help mention The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson, which is fiction, but hear me out - it melds natural philosophy, alchemy, maths, history, Newton, Leibniz, The Sun King, British parliament, colonialism, slavery, Egypt, India, war, finance, commerce, revenge, satire and so much more. I've learnt more about the origins of the Royal Society and the early days of modern science from these three books than anywhere else.
  • 0xferruccio 8y ago
    I loved Rovelli's lessons of physics! I didn't know he was known and read outside of Italy too
• abecedarius 8y ago
  Freeman Dyson is excellent. I'd say my favorite of his is Disturbing the Universe, technically a memoir but not so different from his essay collections.