Science Matters! Classic books that have changed the way we see the world

by Robert M. Hazen
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5 books
Science is a way of knowing that explores the diverse and wondrous phenomena and objects of the universe while attempting to understand how the cosmos works. Science differs from other ways of knowing because it seeks independently verifiable conclusions based on reproducible observations and experiments. Here are a few of my favorite books about the evolution of Earth and life.
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The Origin of Species

By Means of Natural Selection Or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
Charles Darwin, 2004
Darwin’s lucid and persuasive presentation of the process of biological evolution is one of the most influential, and in some circles controversial, books ever written. Read it and make up your own mind!

Life on a Young Planet

The First Three Billion Years of Evolution on Earth - Updated Edition
Andrew H. Knoll, 2015
Knoll, a former Harvard Professor and noted paleobiologist, captures the history of life in vivid prose and memorable anecdote. From the origins of life through the rise of complex organisms, Knoll weaves a tale that fleshes out some of the key paleontological details of Darwin’s thesis.

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

Stephen Jay Gould, 1990
How does a paleontologist think? How do fossils reveal the nature of ancient life? Steve Gould wrote dozens of eloquent books, but none better captures the challenges and thrills of field studies than this saga of the famed Burgess Shale of British Columbia.

The Emerald Planet

How plants changed Earth's history
David Beerling, 2017
The emergence of the terrestrial biosphere—land covered with plants—was a relatively recent development in Earth’s history, but it proved to be one of the most pivotal episodes in our planet’s 4.5-billion-year story. Beerling does a masterful job in telling the stories of the scientists who are teasing out this remarkable history.

Your Inner Fish

A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body
Neil Shubin, 2009
Shubin is a natural story teller, whose own discoveries of the earliest amphibian fossils in northern Canada have led him to a vibrant, original narrative of deep human origins. His vision combines fossil and DNA evidence to show the structures of our own bodies reflect hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary change.