{"id":84200,"date":"2016-12-12T12:00:25","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T12:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=84200"},"modified":"2016-12-09T15:54:24","modified_gmt":"2016-12-09T15:54:24","slug":"the-greatest-science-books-of-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/12\/the-greatest-science-books-of-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"The Greatest Science Books of 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\"><em>From the sound of spacetime to time travel to the microbiome, by way of polar bears, dogs, and trees.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I have long believed that E.B. White\u2019s abiding wisdom on children\u2019s books \u2014 <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/2015\/02\/26\/e-b-white-writing-for-children\/\" ><em>\u201cAnyone who writes down to children is simply wasting his time. You have to write up, not down.\u201d<\/em><\/a> \u2014 is equally true of science books. The question of what makes a great book of any kind is, of course, a slippery one, but I recently endeavored to synthesize my intuitive system for assessing science books that write up to the reader in a <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/2016\/10\/26\/explainer-elucidator-enchanter-great-writing\/\" >taxonomy of explanation, elucidation, and enchantment<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/enchanters.jpg\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-84201 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/enchanters-300x229.jpg\" width=\"300\" height=\"229\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/enchanters-300x229.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/enchanters.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Gathered here are exceptional books that accomplish at least two of the three, assembled in the spirit of my annual <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/tag\/best-of\/\" >best-of reading lists<\/a>, which I continue to consider Old Year\u2019s resolutions in reverse \u2014 not a list of priorities for the year ahead, but a reflection on the reading most worth prioritizing in the year being left behind.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.brainpickings.org\/2016\/12\/07\/best-science-books-2016\/?utm_source=Brain+Pickings&amp;utm_campaign=c7e5d16b78-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_06&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_179ffa2629-c7e5d16b78-237757261&amp;mc_cid=c7e5d16b78&amp;mc_eid=c271d0450e\" >To continue reading this excellent post Go to Original \u2013 brainpickings.org<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the sound of spacetime to time travel to the microbiome, by way of polar bears, dogs, and trees.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84200\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}