Saturday, April 14, 2012

Six top books about science and tech

Jon Gertner grew up in Berkeley Heights, New Jersey—just a few hundred yards away from Bell Labs. He has been a writer for the New York Times Magazine since 2004 and is currently an editor at Fast Company magazine.

His new book is The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation.

One of Gertner's six favorite books about science and technology, as told to The Week magazine:
Collapse by Jared Diamond

Mayan culture, Easter Island, the Soviet Union. Diamond ranges far and wide across global history in this profoundly sobering book about what happens when societies enter periods of rapid decline — and how some have averted disaster by making wise choices.
Read about the other books on the list.

Collapse appears on a list of nine books Bill Gates thinks you should read, Andrew Ellson's critic's chart of "cash crashes", and the Guardian's list of the best books on global warming.

Gertner's The Idea Factory is one of the Barnes & Noble Review's five top books on innovation.

--Marshal Zeringue