1967 ? History? Gozman? Exploration and Empire Gozman, Adventure and Empire.
1978 ? Gender nonfiction? Sagan? The Dragon of Eden (non-literature, the same below) carl sagan's Dragon of Eden.
1979 ? Gender nonfiction? Wilson? On human nature Wilson, human nature.
1980 ? Gender nonfiction? Hofstadter? g？ Del? Escher? Bach hofstadter, a collection of different treasures.
1982 ? Gender nonfiction? Kidd? Kidd, the soul of the new machine, "Building Skyhawk"
1984 ? Gender nonfiction? Starr. Social transformation of American medicine.
1986 ? History? McDougall? ... heaven and earth, Maitogo, everything in the world.
1988 ? History? Bruce? The initiation of modern American science Bruce, the rise of modern American science.
1988 ? Gender nonfiction? Rhodes? The manufacture of atomic bombs, Rod, the manufacture of atomic bombs.
199 1 ? Gender nonfiction? h？ Dobler and Wilson? Ant Hall Daubler and Wilson, ants.
1995 ? Gender nonfiction? Weiner? A bird's beak is a bird's companion.
1998 ? History? Larson? Summer of the gods Larson, summer of the gods.
1998 ? Gender nonfiction? Diamonds? A gun? Germ? And steel, Deul Mann, guns, bacteria and steel: the fate of human society.
1999 ? Gender nonfiction? Mcphee? Former world yearbook.
In the 30 years immediately after the Second World War, almost no popular science books were published. James Finney Baxter's Scientists in the Background of the Times is the first popular science book published after the war, and it is a documentary story about making an atomic bomb. William Gozman's Adventure and Empire describes the story of American exploration in the west. Since 1978, when carl sagan's The Flying Dragon in the Garden of Eden was published, the Pulitzer Prize has been awarded to popular science books every year. These award-winning popular science books are not all books on the history of science. Books related to science appear in Pulitzer Prize-winning non-literature and history books. In the late 1970s, something made popular science books occupy the center of American culture. Science has become one of the focuses of public discussion. Interestingly, this period was also a period of "scientific prosperity". Some new popular science magazines began to appear in the late 1970s and early 1980s. There are also some new science TV programs, such as1973 "nova" science TV series. There are more and more science museums. All these data show that the relationship between science and American culture experienced a process of development and change in the late 1970s. At this stage, science has become an indispensable topic in public cultural discussion.
This public discussion of scientific issues has continued until recent years. Guns, Bacteria and Steel: The Fate of Human Society by De Aymond and The Hours by McAfee are the centers of discussion. The public keen on science has been reading McAfee's books in recent years, and it was not until recently that his books won this national award.
From the following statistics of The New York Times bestsellers, we can see the development model of this popular science book. (pictured)
Although the changes shown in the table are great, we can see that there was an obvious upward trend in the late 1970s. Before that, the number of science books on the bestseller list will not exceed 10 every year. However, after 1978, less than 10 popular science books are listed every year. Sales of popular science books are increasing. Another remarkable phenomenon is that science has become the main part of public discussion. Pulitzer Prize and bestseller list show that the development of popular science books can't be like this without the combination of science and literature.
In order to understand this new phenomenon of cultural discussion, we need to know more about the types of popular science books that appear in bestseller lists. The first category is books with the theme of "science". These books include physics, astronomy, biology and so on. The other, I call it "public science". There are many kinds of such books, such as Sex. However, books about "sex" put "sex" in a scientific perspective. These books are popular science books that discuss "sex" from the perspective of psychological research. There are also many topics about weight loss, health care, fitness and medical treatment from the perspective of scientific research. I don't want to say here that all books are in line with scientific principles. However, it is important for us to see that "popular science" books have won the trust of readers to some extent, because they claim to be scientific authorities. Some people say that science is not valued in our society. I don't agree with this view. These books that claim to have scientific principles can become bestsellers because science is respected in a thoughtful society. The statistics of bestsellers show that science does play a very important role in popular culture and is respected.
Let's take a look at Publishers Weekly's list of science bestsellers after World War II.
(Order: year, ranking, author, title)
1948 4 Kinsey et al? Human male sexual behavior.
1950 5 heyerdahl? Kontiki Haydar, Kontiki
195 1 6 Carson? The ocean around us Carson, the ocean around us.
195 1 9 heyerdahl? Kontiki Haydar, Kontiki
1952 4 Carson? The ocean around us Carson, the ocean around us.
1953 3 Jinsai? Sexual behavior in the golden game of human women. Female sexual behavior.
1958 8 heyerdahl? Akua Aku Heyeda, Akua Aku
1966 2 masters and Johnson? Master of human sexual response and Johnson, human sexual response.
1975 4 Bronowski？ The rise of mankind, the rise of mankind.
1976 9 hite? Hite report? Heidi, Heidi report: a national survey of women's sexual quality.
1977 7 Sagan? Sagan, the dragon of Eden, the dragon of Eden.
1980 2 Sagan? Cosmos Sagan, Cosmos
198 1 5 Sagan? Cosmos Sagan, Cosmos
1988 3 hawking? A brief history of time Hawking, a brief history of time.
1989 6 Macaulay? The way things work Macaulay, infinite transformation.
1989 13 hawking? A brief history of time Hawking, a brief history of time.
1992 30+ Sagan? The shadow of the forgotten ancestors Sagan, the shadow of the forgotten ancestors.
1994 24 Preston? Preston, Hot Zone
1994 26 Herrnstein and Murray? Bell curve, Sheenstein and Miller, Bell curve
1995 14 Gorman? EQ German, EQ.
1996 30+ Gorman? EQ German, EQ.
199730+ Mark H. Bierce, Merck Manual Mark H. Bierce, Simulation Manual.
This bestseller list also illustrates the importance of "popular science" books, including "sex" books. Alfred Kinsey and his colleagues wrote and published two books about human sexual behavior in the late 1940s and early 1950s. However, when you read the titles of books, you won't foresee that these books will become bestsellers, because they are boring and belong to pure academic papers. However, the sales ranking seems to indicate that its sales are also good. On the bestseller list, we can also see Heidi's Heidi Report and masters and Johnson's books on human sexual response. Another "popular science" theme is exploration. Many books related to exploration are on the list, for example, Konchiki of Heydar and rachel carson's early work The Ocean Around Us. In fact, Carson was a best-selling author 10 years before the publication of Silent Spring.
There are also some great books, such as The Rise of Man by jacob broom Noszky and The Universe by carl sagan. Perhaps these books are what we call "explaining science with science" (excluding books by Kinsey, masters and Johnson), and they are books that explain scientific thoughts. If we pay attention, we will find that such books also appeared in the 1970s. From 65438 to 0980, carl sagan's Cosmos was the breakthrough point of popular science reading in the new era. There is no doubt that the TV program "Universe" has had a great shocking effect. For a time, the book Universe was well known to all women and children, which promoted the spread of the book. Of course, the book itself is also a best seller. Shortly after the publication of Cosmos, its circulation was very large. The benefits brought by the huge circulation are also huge. Sagan's science fiction novel Contact won a contract of $2 million. At the same time, Sagan also set a historical record of the highest advance payment for science fiction books at the manuscript stage.
Among the bestsellers of "serious science", there is another one worth mentioning, that is, Hawking's A Brief History of Time. Almost everyone buys his books, but nobody reads them. In his preface, he said that he had deleted all the mathematical equations in case of losing readers. However, this book is still difficult to understand. In the first year, the hardcover sales of this book reached 700,000 copies, and in the second year it reached 400,000 copies. This is just the number of hardcover books. This book created new expectations for people's book sales, but also changed the standards of bestsellers at that time, leading to the decline of popular science books. However, Hawking's book has created a new world of book publishing, that is, expanding cultural books into the scientific field. When this situation began to appear, popular science books occupied a separate sales space in bookstores, and publishing agents began to look around for Hannah Holmes (Ms. Hannah Holmes is a scientist and now the author of the natural history of Discovery Channel and Discovery Channel online). The books introduced by domestic translators include popular science books written by writers such as History of Dust and Secret Life of Dust.
To sum up, popular science books occupy an important position in American popular culture. In recent years, the role of popular science is far greater than its early role, even greater than its role in the media.
What are the important functions of popular science books?
Popular science books are of great significance in at least the following four aspects.
First of all, popular science books play an important role in the research and development of science itself. Even if the readers of some best-selling books and award-winning books are the general public, they regard scientific groups as their own readers, or in other words, these books also play an important role in scientific groups. We should not be surprised by this. As far as the concept of "the scope of scientific communication" is concerned, it emphasizes the mutual feedback between different modes of communication, and the circular exchange of information connects various communication channels together.
The second function of popular science books is to attract public interest in science. This function is different from the purpose of many websites and the activity plan organized by groups. If popular science books are part of public cultural discussion, then the functions of books should be the same as those of other activities in culture.
The third function of popular science books is difficult to express in English. In French, it means "culture scientifique", which means that the mainstream ideas in daily culture have been injected with scientific connotation. If you say "science and culture" in English, it seems that the meaning is different from that of French-speaking countries. This concept expresses that popular science books are the combination of science and culture in our daily life.
The ultimate function of popular science books is that some scientific problems will become one of the topics discussed by the public. Popular science books will become the foothold or focus of public discussion.
A. Let me give you an example to illustrate the impact of the award-winning book on science itself. Like Wilson's sociology. Part of the purpose of writing this book is for enthusiastic readers of science and elite knowledge groups. However, this book also expresses the views of science itself. This paper expounds Wilson's complete and complete sociological viewpoint. However, the views in the book are only scattered in various papers and only circulated in professional groups. Wilson's book elaborates on his views.
I once read a textbook, and I can also see the function of this popular science book in this book, which is Gene and Molecular Biology written by james watson in 1965. This book summarizes the knowledge in the field of molecular biology, and there is no such textbook before. In order to teach this book, a whole set of courses was created. This sudden course is called "social biology", which is a new course based on Wilson's sociology and combined with biology. Especially at the end of Wilson's book, the chapter on human beings played an important role in the creation of this course. This book has also become an integral part of public discussion on human nature.
Another example is Joseph Wiesenbaum's The Power of Computers and Human Reason. This book is an important teaching material of artificial intelligence science. At the same time, it is also the role of computers in society, the working principle of human brain and the content of related topics that people often talk about.
James gleick's Chaos is also very interesting. The author originally intended to write this book as a popular science reading, but it also played an academic role in the scientific community. This is a book that explains some problems in science based on interviews with journalists. This book also plays a role in summarizing and combining knowledge in complex and chaotic fields, which no one has done before. If you look at the related books published recently, you will find that they are all talking about Gerecke's books, connecting all the people concerned, and then making them suddenly realize that they are talking to each other. Public discussion also promotes the discussion among scholars through books.
B. attracting public participation in science. Some popular science books are often said, "I became a scientist because I read that book." The Microbial Hunter by Paul de Kruff is a typical book of this kind (although this book was published decades before I realized its influence (first published in 1926), its influence has been going on for several years). This book became a frequently mentioned work by senior biologists in 1930s, 40s and 1950s. They said that the book Microbial Hunters made them biologists.
James watson's Double Helix is a very difficult book, but it still has the same influence in the 1960s and 1970s, even in the 1980s. If you ask people who are still engaged in the frontier research of biotechnology, many people will tell you that they read this book when they were graduate students. They will also say, "This is what I want to be! I want to make achievements that can win the Nobel Prize. "
If you want to know why scientists in astronomy or physics are engaged in science, you will find that the "universe" has the same function (whether it is TV programs or books). Many people will buy a copy of Cosmos after reading it. Carl sagan's book has the same power as Watson's book: "Why do you want to be an astrophysicist or astronomer?" The answer is: "Because I have seen carl sagan's' Cosmos' TV program." Or, "I've read the universe."
C. cultural science.
The third function of popular science books is to help form scientific and cultural concepts. If you want to be a "literate person", you must read some books. The books of Asimov, Stephen Jay Gould and Bronowski are all "required reading" (although these books are all good books worth recommending, there may be fewer people reading Asimov's books than when he was alive). If you haven't read lewis thomas's articles on medicine, or Dawa Suo Beier Baer's Longitude: The True Story of a Lonely Genius Solving the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time, you can't say that you are a literate person. Not all these books contain a lot of "science". For example, Thomas's articles are more about diseases from a philosophical perspective, and Suo Beier's books are more about adventure stories than scientific knowledge, but you are still willing to read these books. Among the public who are keen on science, many people like to read excerpts published in The New Yorker.
Asimov's book is an interesting example in the famous popular science book list. In fact, Asimov's most famous book is science fiction. More than 400 books he wrote are listed on Amazon. Com, 285 are science fiction books. His "Fundamentals" series is among the top 65,438+0,000 famous science fiction books listed on Amazon. Some of his non-fiction books rank in the top 50 thousand. His first science book was Atoms: A Journey to the Subatomic Universe (Atoms? A journey through the subatomic universe), this book was included in 50,000 popular science books, ranking 26th.
Another noteworthy thing in Asimov's works is that he praises the scientific world outlook, which is the core of scientific and cultural books. To illustrate this point, let me give a personal example. In the late 1980s, I wrote an article for a weekly magazine named Scientists, and the object of the article was scientists. In that article, I talked about what I called "the arrogance of popular science". Let me ask a question: who is the object of popular science? In my opinion, many popular science magazines published at that time were not well distributed, many of them failed to operate, and no one was willing to transfer them. The reason for the failure is not that the magazine itself is not good, but that they all speak from a scientific point of view, without thinking from the reader's point of view at the beginning, without considering the reader's situation, interest and disgust. In my opinion, too many magazines are addicted to elite scientific views. Asimov was a little angry at my point of view. He once wrote a letter to an editor. I am proud that I asked Asimov to write to an editor. He said in the letter, I don't understand what this Lewenstein madman is talking about. Because, he said that if people are fools, then I should write according to their requirements. This is too much. He roared: "In the name of Newton" (not in the name of God-the author), "I swear, I would rather be arrogant than be a fool."
D. public discussion.
The ultimate function of popular science books is to arouse public discussion or various public opinions. Books not only provide knowledge, but also please the public. In fact, the function of some popular science books is to cause controversy. Rachel carson's Silent Spring is the most typical example. It triggered a debate about the influence of chemical products on our society, so this book is widely called the basic document of environmental movement. However, this view was controversial at that time. Carson's book was attacked not only by chemical companies, but also by popular science writers. 1963, a man named lawrence lessig won the Grady-Stark Prize of the American Chemical Society. In his acceptance speech, he described Carson's book as "a biased and extremely emotional paper". His speech mainly attacked Silent Spring. This example shows that many people feel the need to express their views to some extent.
Another example with the same significance is Evelyn Fox Keller's Feeling of Organization, which is barbara mcclintock's autobiography. Some of them are about the nature of science and the difference between women's studies and men's studies. Did mcclintock write about alternative science? Does the factual information she uses to write about women have nothing to do with men? The viewpoint put forward by Fox Keller is still an integral part of people's debate on related issues. Many people question the technical details in Fox Keller's book. However, the important point we want to make is that Keller's book brought Barbara mcclintock into public discussion. Richard Heanstein and Charles Moeller's Bell Curve have the same effect: many people question the science involved in the book, and they doubt whether the book accurately expresses the research results or uses the data accurately. However, the important thing we care about is that this book has become a topic of public discussion. Bell curve has become one of the books frequently mentioned in public discussion, magazine debate articles, newspaper articles and policy discussions. This is a typical example to illustrate the role of books in promoting public discussion.
The role of popular science books in public discussion
At the simplest level, this is because books are an indispensable part of the media that affects our culture. Although we mainly use the Internet and other new media now, we should not forget that there are other ways to spread science. From a deeper level, books have many functions of disseminating information, so they can effectively promote the participation of laymen and experts in the discussion and drive the general public to participate in the discussion.
Popular science books can create a new perspective of scientific understanding. When we think about the communication function of science and technology, we should not forget the book Chaos. James Gray, a journalist, collected the views of scientists from different fields through this book. We should also think about the role of popular science books in stimulating public discussion. Not only lewis thomas's books will make us happy, but also Richard Sheenstein's and Charles Moeller's books will arouse our discussion. This function shows the mode of public participation and public expression.
Last but not least, popular science books can create our new social culture. This culture is a combination of scientific culture and wider popular culture. When we examine this culture, we will find that science is inseparable from modern culture. In the terminology of our sociology of science, it is "joint production". Science and society cannot exist alone. Popular science books provide an example of the interaction between reality and material ways. If we think about the interaction between science and society embodied in popular science books, then we can see that people engaged in popular science are using other activities in the "best way to spread science to the public", which not only solve some special problems, but also play a role in creating scientific culture, that is, culture scientifique.