Books like Bad Science

01

Bad Pharma

Ben Goldacre · Health

Bad Pharma is Ben Goldacre's sustained indictment of the pharmaceutical industry's manipulation of clinical trial evidence, and of the regulatory and academic institutions that have failed to stop it.

Both dig into evidence-based medicine.

02

The Checklist Manifesto

Atul Gawande · Health

The Checklist Manifesto is Atul Gawande's argument that the single most underused tool for preventing catastrophic failure in complex fields is also the simplest: a well-designed checklist.

A kindred science read.

03

Thinking, Fast and Slow

Daniel Kahneman · Psychology

Thinking, Fast and Slow is Daniel Kahneman's account of the two cognitive systems that govern human thought.

A kindred science read.

04

The Demon-Haunted World

Carl Sagan · Science

The Demon-Haunted World is Carl Sagan's argument that science is not just a body of knowledge but a way of thinking — one that humanity needs badly and uses far too rarely.

A kindred science read.

05

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry

Neil deGrasse Tyson · Science

Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is Neil deGrasse Tyson's deliberately compact introduction to the biggest ideas in modern astrophysics.

Both dig into scientific literacy.

06

Fast Food Nation

Eric Schlosser · Science

Eric Schlosser's Fast Food Nation is one of the most consequential pieces of American investigative journalism of the early twenty-first century.

Both dig into public health.

07

Salt Sugar Fat

Michael Moss · Science

Michael Moss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist, spent four years inside the processed food industry to produce Salt Sugar Fat.

Both dig into public health.

08

Spillover

David Quammen · Science

Spillover is David Quammen's exhaustive investigation into zoonotic disease — illness that jumps from animals to humans — and the ecological and evolutionary logic behind why such spillover events happen.

Both dig into public health.

09

The Art of Statistics: How to Learn from Data

David Spiegelhalter · Science

David Spiegelhalter is one of Britain's most prominent statisticians, and this book is his attempt to translate statistical thinking for a general audience without dumbing it down.

Both dig into statistics.

10

The Book of Why

Judea Pearl · Science

The Book of Why is Judea Pearl's argument that the dominant tradition in statistics — which insists on correlations and avoids causal claims — is a fundamental intellectual mistake, and that building a proper science of causality is the most important unsolved problem in both science and artificial intelligence.

Both dig into statistics.

11

The Coming Plague

Laurie Garrett · Science

The Coming Plague, published in 1994, is Laurie Garrett's argument that the era of conquest over infectious disease declared in the 1960s was a dangerous illusion, and that the conditions for catastrophic new pandemics were already in place.

Both dig into public health.

12

Anatomy of an Epidemic

Robert Whitaker · Health

Anatomy of an Epidemic is Robert Whitaker's investigation into a paradox: as the use of psychiatric medication in the United States has increased dramatically over the past half-century, the number of people on disability due to mental illness has risen in parallel.

Both dig into public health.