Read more about the 2012 Royal Society Winton Prize, arguably a summary of the best popular science books published in 2011.

We have a winner for the prize! Best books of 2011? You decide…

Winner

• The Information – James Gleick

Shortlist

• Moonwalking with Einstein – Joshua Foer
• My Beautiful Genome – Lone Frank
• The Hidden Reality – Brian Greene
• The Better Angels of Our Nature – Steven Pinker
• The Viral Storm – Nathan Wolfe

Longlist

• The Two Kinds of Decay – Sarah Manguso
• The 4% Universe – Richard Panek
• The Address Book – Tim Radford
• Pricing the Future – George G Szpiro
• Race? Debunking a Scientific Myth – Ian Tattersall and Rob DeSalle
• The Folly of Fools – Robert Trivers

and here are our favourites that didn’t make the long list:

• Brain Bugs – Dean Buonomano
• Discoverers of the Universe – Michael Hoskin
• From Eternity to Here – Sean Carroll
• Incognito – David Eagleman
• Inflight Science – Brian Clegg
• The Edge of Physics – Anil Ananthaswamy
• The God Species – Mark Lynas

Read more about the 2010 Royal Society Prize, arguably a summary of the best popular science books published in 2009. Here are the results:

Winner

Life Ascending – Nick Lane

Shortlist

• A World Without Ice – Henry Pollack
• Everyday Practice of Science – Frederick Grinnell
• God’s Philosophers – James Hannam
• We Need to Talk About Kelvin – Marcus Chown
• Why does E=mc²? – Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw

Longlist

• Complexity – a guided tour – Melanie Mitchell
• Darwin’s Island – Steve Jones
• In Search of the Multiverse – John Gribbin
• The Master and his Emissary – Iain McGilchrist
• Storms of My Grandchildren – James Hansen
• Why Evolution is True – Jerry A. Coyne

and here are our favourites that didn’t make the long list:

• 13 Things that Don’t Make Sense – Michael Brooks
• Atomic – Jim Baggott
• Before the Big Bang – Brian Clegg
• Dazzled and Deceived – Peter Forbes
• Heatstroke – Anthony Barnosky
• Microcosm – Carl Zimmer
• Science: a four thousand year history - Patricia Fara

Read more about the 2009 Royal Society Prize, arguably a summary of the best popular science books published in 2008. Here are the results:

Winner

The Age of Wonder – Richard Holmes

Shortlist

• Bad Science – Ben Goldacre
• Decoding the Heavens – Jo Marchant
• The Drunkard’s Walk – Leonard Mlodinow
• What the Nose Knows – Avery Gilbert
• Your Inner Fish – Neil Shubin

Longlist

• Ice, Mud and Blood – Chris Turney
• Living with Enza – Mark Honigsbaum
• Microcosm – Carl Zimmer
• Physics for Future Presidents – Richard A. Muller
• Quantum – Manjit Kumar
• Strange Fruit – Kenan Malik
• The Universe is a Mirror – Robert Zimmerman

and here are our favourites that didn’t make the long list:

• The Buzz about Bees – Jurgen Tautz
• Cosmic Imagery – John D. Barrow
• Trick or Treatment – Simon Singh and Edzard Ernst
• The Trouble with Physics – Lee Smolin

Read more about the 2008 Royal Society Prize, arguably a summary of the best popular science books published in 2007. Here are the results:

Winner

Six Degrees – Mark Lynas

Shortlist

• A Life Decoded – Craig Venter
• Coral – Steve Jones
• Reckoning with Risk – Gerd Gigerenzer
• The Sun Kings – Stuart Clark
• Why Beauty is Truth – Ian Stewart

Longlist

• Better Looking – John Emsley
• How to Fossilize Your Hamster – Mick O’Hare
• Making Up Your Mind – Chris Frith
• The Stuff of Thought – Steven Pinker
• Why the Lion Grew its Mane – Lewis Smith
• Yes! – 50 Secrets from the Science of Persuasion – Noah Goldstein et al

and here are our favourites that didn’t make the long list:

• 10 Questions Science Can’t Answer Yet – Michael Hanlon
• Digging up the Dead – Druin Burch
• The Equation that couldn’t be Solved – Mario Livio
• Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You – Marcus Chown
• The Tiger that Isn’t – Michael Blastland & Andrew Dilnot
• The Time Traveller – Ronald Mallett & Bruce Henderson

The six books selected by the Junior Prize judging panel are:

Ask Dr K Fisher about Animals by Claire Llewellyn, illustrated by Kate Sheppard (Kingfisher)
The judges said: “A wonderfully novel approach to delivering science. Written in the style of a problem page Ask Dr Fisher about Animals offers guidance to concerned animals on appearance, growing up, dating and diet.”

Big book of science things to make and do by Rebecca Gilpin and Leonie Pratt (Usborne)
The judges said: “A good doing’ book. With so many practical activities to engage children they won’t be able to put this book down!”

How the incredible human body works by the Brainwaves , by Richard Walker and illustrated by Lisa Swerling and Ralph Lazar (Dorling Kindersley)
The judges said: “Impressively explanatory, this book is a novel way of drawing children into science. The art work and detail are superb.”

It’s Elementary! Putting the crackle into chemistry by Robert Winston (Dorling Kindersley)
The judges said: “We thought it was difficult to present chemistry in an engaging way but this book succeeds splendidly.”

Serious Survival: How to Poo in the Arctic and other essential tips by Marshall Corwin (HarperCollins)
The judges said: “A science by the back door approach but which still manages to include a great wealth of information that will keep children captivated.”

Why is Snot Green? Science Museum Question and Answer Book , by Glenn Murphy (Macmillan)
The judges said: “This book is fundamentally what science is about. A good why’ book for children with inquisitive minds.”

Read more about the 2007 Royal Society Prize, arguably a summary of the best popular science books published in 2006. Here are the results:

Winner

Stumbling on Happiness – Daniel Gilbert

Shortlist

• Homo Britannicus – Chris Stringer
• In Search of Memory – Eric Kandel
• Lonesome George – Henry Nicholls
• One in Three – Adam Wishart
• The Rough Guide to Climate Change – Robert Henson

Longlist

• A Mind of its Own – Cordelia Fine
• Bang! The Complete History of the Universe – Patrick Moore, Brian May, Chris Lintott
• Francis Crick – Matt Ridley
• Giant Leaps – Jack Challoner & John Perry
• The Goldilocks Enigma – Paul Davies
• The Science of Doctor Who – Paul Parsons

and here are our favourites that didn’t make the long list:

• Broken Genius – Joel Shurkin
• Children of the Sun – Alfred Crosby
• Meta Math! – Gregory Chaitin
• No Two Alike – Judith Rich Harris
• The Egypt Code – Robert Bauval
• The God Effect – Brian Clegg
• The Long Tail – Chris Anderson
• Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You – Marcus Chown

The six books selected by the Junior Prize judging panel are:

• Can You Feel the Force? by Richard Hammond (Dorling Kindersley; ISBN 1405315431)
• How Nearly Everything Was Invented By The Brainwaves, by Lisa Swerling and Ralph Lazar (Dorling Kindersley, ISBN 1405313293)
• It’s True! Space Turns You Into Spaghetti by Heather Catchpole and Vanessa Woods, (Allen & Unwin, ISBN 1741146259)
• KFK Natural Disasters by Andrew Langley (Kingfisher, ISBN 0753413051)
• My Body Book by Mick Manning and Brita Granström (Franklin Watts, ISBN 0749663804)
• Science Investigations – Electricity by John Farndon (Wayland, ISBN 0750234733)

Read more about the 2006 Aventis (Royal Society) Prize, arguably a summary of the best popular science books published in 2005. Here are the results:

Winner

Electric Universe – David Bodanis

Shortlist

• Collapse – Jared Diamond
• Empire of the Stars – Arthur I. Miller
• Parallel Worlds – Michio Kaku
• Power, Sex and Suicide – Nick Lane
• The Truth about Hormones – Vivienne Parry

Longlist

• Elements of Murder – John Emsley
• Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis – Dan Rockmore
• The Fruits of War – Michael White
• The Gecko’s Foot – Peter Forbes
• The Silicon Eye – George Gilder
• Venomous Earth – Andrew Meharg

and here are our favourites that didn’t make the long list:

• 1491 – Charles C. Mann
• Fred Hoyle’s Universe – Jane Gregory
• Q&A: Cosmic Conundrums – Robert Matthews
• Space Race – Deborah Cadbury
• Strange Angel – George Pendle
• The Knife Man – Wendy Moore
• The Little Book of Scientific Principles – Surendra Verma