The Royal Society Science Books Prize is an annual £25,000 prize celebrating outstanding popular science books from around the world. It is open to authors of science books written for a non-specialist audience, and over the decades has championed writers such as Stephen Hawking, Jared Diamond, Stephen Jay Gould and Bill Bryson.
The Royal Society Science Books Prize was originally established as the "Science Books Prize" in 1988 with the aim of encouraging the writing, publishing and reading of good and accessible popular science books. From 1990-2000 it was known as the "Rhône-Poulenc Prize for Science Books", from 2001-2006 as the "Aventis Prize for Science Books", from 2007-2010 as the "Royal Society Prize for Science Books", and from 2010-2015 as the "Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books". In 2016, investment management company Insight Investment sponsored the prize in a three-year deal, and the prize became known as the "Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize".
A panel of judges decides the shortlist and the winner of the Prize each year. The panel is chaired by a fellow of the Royal Society and includes authors, scientists and media personalities. The judges for the 2016 prize include author Bill Bryson, theoretical physicist Dr Clare Burrage, science fiction author Alastair Reynolds, ornithologist and science blogger GrrlScientist, and author and director of external affairs at the Science Museum Group, Roger Highfield. All books entered for the prize must be published in English for the first time between September and October the preceding year. The winner is announced at an award ceremony in September and receives £25,000. Each of the other shortlisted authors receives £2,500 each.
Each year's shortlist appears below. A blue ribbon () appears against the winner.
The shortlist was announced on August 4, 2016, and the winner on September 19, 2016.
The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science, Andrea Wulf (John Murray)The Hunt for Vulcan: ... and How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe, Thomas Levenson (Head of Zeus)The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World, Oliver Morton (Granta)The Gene: An Intimate History, Siddhartha Mukherjee (Bodley Head)Cure: A Journey Into the Science of Mind over Body, Jo Marchant (Canongate)The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird's Egg, Tim Birkhead (Bloomsbury)The shortlist was announced on August 5, 2015, and the winner on September 24, 2015.
Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made, Gaia Vince (Chatto & Windus)Life’s Greatest Secret, Matthew Cobb (Profile)Smashing Physics, Jon Butterworth (Headline)The Man Who Couldn’t Stop, David Adam (Picador)Alex Through the Looking-Glass: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life, Alex Bellos (Bloomsbury)Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology, Johnjoe Mcfadden and Jim Al-Khalili (Bantam Press) Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World, Mark Miodownik, (Viking - an imprint of Penguin Books)Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler, Philip Ball (The Bodley Head)Seven Elements That Have Changed The World: Iron, Carbon, Gold, Silver, Uranium, Titanium, Silicon, John Browne (Weidenfeld & Nicolson - an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group)The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity, Pedro G. Ferreira (Little, Brown Book Group)The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine's Deepest Mystery, George Johnson (The Bodley Head)Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal, Mary Roach (Oneworld) The Particle at the End of the Universe, Sean CarrollBird Sense by Tim BirkheadCells to Civilizations: The Principles of Change That Shape Life by Enrico CoenPieces of Light: The New Science of Memory by Charles FernyhoughThe Book of Barely Imagined Beings by Caspar HendersonOcean of Life by Callum Roberts The Information, James GleickMoonwalking with Einstein, by Joshua FoerMy Beautiful Genome, by Lone FrankThe Hidden Reality, by Brian GreeneThe Better Angels of Our Nature, by Steven PinkerThe Viral Storm, by Nathan Wolfe The Wavewatcher's Companion, Gavin Pretor-PinneyAlex’s Adventures in Numberland, Alex BellosThrough the Language Glass: How Words Colour Your World, Guy DeutscherThe Disappearing Spoon, Sam KeanMassive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science, Ian SampleThe Rough Guide to The Future, Jon Turney Life Ascending, Nick LaneA World Without Ice, Henry PollackEveryday Practice of Science: Where Intuition and Passion Meet Objectivity and Logic, Frederick GrinnellGod's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science, James HannamWe Need To Talk About Kelvin, Marcus ChownWhy Does E=mc2?, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw The Age of Wonder by Richard HolmesDecoding the Heavens by Jo MarchantWhat the Nose Knows by Avery GilbertBad Science by Ben GoldacreYour Inner Fish - A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body by Neil ShubinThe Drunkard's Walk - How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet by Mark LynasCoral - A Pessimist in Paradise by Steve JonesGut Feelings by Gerd GigerenzerA Life Decoded - My Genome: My Life by J. Craig VenterThe Sun Kings - The Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of How Modern Astronomy Began by Stuart ClarkWhy Beauty is Truth - A History of Symmetry by Ian Stewart Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel GilbertHomo Britannicus by Chris StringerIn Search of Memory by Eric R. KandelLonesome George by Henry NichollsOne in Three by Adam WishartThe Rough Guide to Climate Change by Robert HensonThis was the first year that the prizes were given by the Royal Society.
Electric Universe: How Electricity Switched on the Modern World by David BodanisPower, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life by Nick LaneEmpire of the Stars: Friendship, Obsession and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes, by Arthur I. MillerParallel Worlds: The Science of Alternative Universes and our Future in the Cosmos, by Michio KakuCollapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, by Jared DiamondThe Truth About Hormones: What's Going on when We're Tetchy, Spotty, Fearful, Tearful or Just Plain Awful, by Vivienne ParryIt was Jared Diamond's third nomination for the prize, having won twice previously. The 2006 prize was the last one to be sponsored by the Aventis Foundation.
Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another by Philip Ball ISBN 0-374-28125-4The Ancestor's Tale by Richard DawkinsWhy Life Speeds Up As You Get Older by Douwe DraaismaMatters Of Substance: Drugs - And Why Everyone's A User by Griffith EdwardsThe Earth: An Intimate History by Richard ForteyThe Human Mind by Robert Winston A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill BrysonIn The Beginning Was the Worm by Andrew BrownMagic Universe by Nigel CalderMutants by Armand Marie LeroiNature Via Nurture by Matt RidleyBackroom Boys by Francis SpuffordHow to Clone the Perfect Blonde by Sue Nelson and Richard Hollingham Right Hand, Left Hand by Chris McManusSmall World by Mark BuchananReckoning With Risk by Gerd GigerenzerThe Extravagant Universe by Robert P. KirshnerThe Blank Slate by Steven PinkerWhere Is Everybody? by Stephen Webb The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen HawkingAeons - The Search for the Beginning of Time by Martin GorstThe Secret Life of Dust by Hannah HolmesThe Madness of Adam and Eve: Did Schizophrenia Shape Humanity? by David HorrobinA Primate's Memoir by Robert M. SapolskyRivals - Conflict as the Fuel of Science by Michael White Mapping the Deep by Robert KunzigCreation: Life and How to Make It by Steve GrandStrange Beauty by George JohnsonMendel's Demon by Mark RidleyMendeleyev's Dream by Paul StrathernMalignant Sadness by Lewis Wolpert The Elegant Universe by Brian GreeneThe White Death by Thomas DormandyA Brief History of the Future by John NaughtonGenome by Matt RidleyTime, Love, Memory by Jonathan WeinerChildren of Prometheus by Christopher Wills(1999) The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, Paul Hoffman(1998) Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond(1997) The Wisdom of Bones, Alan Walker and Pat Shipman(1996) Plague’s Progress, Arno Karlen(1995) The Consumer’s Good Chemical Guide, John Emsley(1994) The Language of the Genes, Steve Jones(1993) The Making of Memory, Steven Rose(1992) The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee, Jared Diamond(1991) Wonderful Life, Stephen Jay Gould(1990) The Emperor's New Mind, Roger Penrose(1989) Bones of Contention, Roger Lewin(1988) Living with Risk, British Medical Association Board of Science