Reading Copy Book Blog

A copy of astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus’ masterwork - De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), printed in 1543 - sold for $2.2 million yesterday at a sale of more than rare 300 science books.

The sale also included a phone book for New Haven, Conn., that was issued in 1878, two years after Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone. Auctioneers had expected the phone book to fetch between $30,000 and $40,000, but the price skyrocketed to $170,500 in a bidding war among six collectors.

Queen guitarist, Brian May, was signing copies of Bang! The Complete History of the Universe at an LA bookstore last week.

May, who has a Ph.D in astrophysics, co-wrote the book with Chris Lintott and Patrick Moore (who is also a bit of a rock star as far as astronomers go).

One copy from that signing is available here.

While we are on the favourite books’ bandwagon. New Scientist asks 17 of its kin to discuss their favourite book.

1. Farthest North - Steve Jones, geneticist
2. The Art of the Soluble - V. S. Ramachandran, neuroscientist
3. Animal Liberation - Jane Goodall, primatologist
4. The Foundation trilogy - Michio Kaku, theoretical physicist
5. Alice in Wonderland - Alison Gopnik, developmental psychologist
6. One, Two, Three… Infinity - Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist
7. The Idea of a Social Science - Harry Collins, sociologist of science
8. Handbook of Mathematical Functions - Peter Atkins, chemist
9. The Mind of a Mnemonist - Oliver Sacks, neurologist
10. A Mathematician’s Apology - Marcus du Sautoy, mathematician
11. The Leopard - Susan Greenfield, neurophysiologist
12. Darwin and the Emergence of Evolutionary Theories of Mind and Behavior - Frans de Waal, psychologist and ethologist
13. Catch-22 / The First Three Minutes - Lawrence Krauss, physicist
14. William James, Writings 1878-1910 - Daniel Everett, linguist
15. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep - Chris Frith, neuroscientist
16. The Naked Ape - Elaine Morgan, author of The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis
17. King Solomon’s Ring - Marian Stamp Dawkins, Zoologist

Miffed at the lack of science books in most of year end reviews - Edge posts their list of science books of 2007.