Royal Society Prizes for Science Books

The Royal Society Science Books Prize is an annual £25,000 prize awarded by the Royal Society to celebrate outstanding popular science books from around the world.[1] It is open to authors of science books written for a non-specialist audience, and since it was established in 1988 has championed writers such as Stephen Hawking, Jared Diamond, Stephen Jay Gould and Bill Bryson. In 2015 The Guardian described the prize as "the most prestigious science book prize in Britain".[2]

History

The Royal Society established the Science Books Prize in 1988 with the aim of encouraging the writing, publishing and reading of good and accessible popular science books. Its name has varied according to sponsorship agreements.

Years Name Sponsor
1990 – 2000 Rhône-Poulenc Prize for Science Books Rhône-Poulenc
2001 – 2006 Aventis Prize for Science Books Aventis
2007 – 2010 Royal Society Prize for Science Books none
2011 – 2015 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books Winton Group
2016 – 2022 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize Insight Investment[3]
2023 – Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize Trivedi Foundation

Judging process

A panel of judges decides the shortlist and the winner of the Prize each year. The panel is chaired by a fellow of the Royal Society and includes authors, scientists and media personalities. The judges for the 2016 prize included author Bill Bryson, theoretical physicist Dr Clare Burrage, science fiction author Alastair Reynolds, ornithologist and science blogger GrrlScientist, and author and director of external affairs at the Science Museum Group, Roger Highfield.[3] In 2019, the jury consisted of Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Shukry James Habib, Dorothy Koomson, Stephen McGann, and Gwyneth Williams.[4]

All books entered for the prize must be published in English for the first time between September and October the preceding year. The winner is announced at an award ceremony and receives £25,000. Each of the other shortlisted authors receives £2,500.[1]

Shortlisted books

Before 2000
Royal Society Prizes for Science Books winners, 1988-2000[5]
Year Author Title Result
1988 British Medical Association Board of Science Living with Risk Winner
1989 Roger Lewin Bones of Contention: Controversies in the Search for Human Origins Winner
1990 Roger Penrose The Emperor's New Mind Winner
1991 Stephen Jay Gould Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History Winner
1992 Jared Diamond The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee Winner[6]
1993 Steven Rose The Making of Memory Winner
1994 Steve Jones The Language of the Genes Winner
1995 John Emsley The Consumer’s Good Chemical Guide Winner
1996 Arno Karlen Plague’s Progress Winner
1997 Alan Walker and Pat Shipman The Wisdom of Bones Winner
1998 Jared Diamond Guns, Germs, and Steel Winner[6]
1999 Paul Hoffman The Man Who Loved Only Numbers Winner

2000s
Royal Society Prizes for Science Books winners, 2000-2009[5]
Year Author Title Result Ref.
2000 Brian Greene The Elegant Universe Winner
Thomas Dormandy The White Death Finalist
John Naughton A Brief History of the Future
Matt Ridley Genome
Jonathan Weiner Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior
Christopher Wills Children of Prometheus
2001 Robert Kunzig Mapping the Deep Winner
Steve Grand Creation: Life and How to Make It Finalist
George Johnson Strange Beauty
Mark Ridley Mendel's Demon
Paul Strathern Mendeleyev's Dream
Lewis Wolpert Malignant Sadness
2002 Stephen Hawking The Universe in a Nutshell Winner [7]
Martin Gorst Aeons:The Search for the Beginning of Time Finalist
Hannah Holmes The Secret Life of Dust
David Horrobin The Madness of Adam and Eve: Did Schizophrenia Shape Humanity?
Robert M. Sapolsky A Primate's Memoir
Michael White Rivals: Conflict as the Fuel of Science
2003 Chris McManus Right Hand, Left Hand Winner
Mark Buchanan Small World Finalist
Gerd Gigerenzer Reckoning With Risk
Robert P. Kirshner The Extravagant Universe
Steven Pinker The Blank Slate
Stephen Webb Where Is Everybody?
2004 Bill Bryson A Short History of Nearly Everything Winner [8]
Andrew Brown In The Beginning Was the Worm Finalist
Nigel Calder Magic Universe
Armand Marie Leroi Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body
Sue Nelson and Richard Hollingham How to Clone the Perfect Blonde
Matt Ridley Nature Via Nurture
Francis Spufford Backroom Boys
2005 Philip Ball Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another Winner
Richard Dawkins The Ancestor's Tale Finalist
Douwe Draaisma Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older
Griffith Edwards Matters Of Substance: Drugs - And Why Everyone's A User
Richard Fortey The Earth: An Intimate History
Robert Winston The Human Mind
2006 David Bodanis Electric Universe: How Electricity Switched on the Modern World Winner [9]
Jared Diamond Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed^ Finalist [6]
Michio Kaku Parallel Worlds: The Science of Alternative Universes and our Future in the Cosmos
Nick Lane Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life
Arthur I. Miller Empire of the Stars: Friendship, Obsession and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes
Vivienne Parry The Truth About Hormones: What's Going on when We're Tetchy, Spotty, Fearful, Tearful or Just Plain Awful
2007^ Daniel Gilbert Stumbling on Happiness Winner [10]
Robert Henson The Rough Guide to Climate Change Finalist
Eric R. Kandel In Search of Memory
Henry Nicholls Lonesome George
Chris Stringer Homo Britannicus
Adam Wishart One in Three
2008 Mark Lynas Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet Winner [11]
Stuart Clark The Sun Kings: The Unexpected Tragedy of Richard Carrington and the Tale of How Modern Astronomy Began Finalist
Gerd Gigerenzer Gut Feelings
Steve Jones Coral: A Pessimist in Paradise
Ian Stewart Why Beauty is Truth: A History of Symmetry
J. Craig Venter A Life Decoded, My Genome: My Life
2009 Richard Holmes The Age of Wonder Finalist [12]
Avery Gilbert What the Nose Knows Finalist [12][13]
Ben Goldacre Bad Science [12][13]
Jo Marchant Decoding the Heavens [12][13]
Leonard Mlodinow The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives [12][13]
Neil Shubin Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body [12][13]
2010 Nick Lane Life Ascending Winner [14][15]
Marcus Chown We Need To Talk About Kelvin Finalist [16]
Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw Why Does E=mc2? [17]
Frederick Grinnell Everyday Practice of Science: Where Intuition and Passion Meet Objectivity and Logic [18]
James Hannam God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science [19]
Henry Pollack A World Without Ice [20]

2010s
Royal Society Prizes for Science Books winners, 2010-2019[5]
Year Author Title Result Ref.
2011 Gavin Pretor-Pinney The Wavewatcher's Companion Winner [21]
Alex Bellos Alex’s Adventures in Numberland Finalist [22]
Guy Deutscher Through the Language Glass: How Words Colour Your World [23]
Sam Kean The Disappearing Spoon
Ian Sample Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science [24]
Jon Turney The Rough Guide to The Future [25]
2012 James Gleick The Information Winner [26][27]
Joshua Foer Moonwalking with Einstein Finalist [28]
Lone Frank My Beautiful Genome [29]
Brian Greene The Hidden Reality [30]
Steven Pinker The Better Angels of Our Nature
Nathan Wolfe The Viral Storm [31]
2013 Sean Carroll The Particle at the End of the Universe Winner [32][33]
Tim Birkhead Bird Sense Finalist [34][35]
Enrico Coen Cells to Civilizations: The Principles of Change That Shape Life [36][35]
Charles Fernyhough Pieces of Light: The New Science of Memory [35]
Caspar Henderson The Book of Barely Imagined Beings [37][35]
Callum Roberts Ocean of Life [38][35]
2014 Mark Miodownik Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World Winner [39]
Philip Ball Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler Finalist [40][41]
John Browne Seven Elements That Have Changed The World: Iron, Carbon, Gold, Silver, Uranium, Titanium, Silicon [42][41]
Pedro G. Ferreira The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity [43][41]
George Johnson The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine's Deepest Mystery [41]
Mary Roach Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal [44][41]
2015 Gaia Vince Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made Winner [2][45]
David Adam The Man Who Couldn’t Stop Finalist [46]
Alex Bellos Alex Through the Looking-Glass: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life
Jon Butterworth Smashing Physics
Matthew Cobb Life’s Greatest Secret
Johnjoe McFadden and Jim Al-Khalili Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology
2016 Andrea Wulf The Invention of Nature: The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt, the Lost Hero of Science Winner [47][48]
Tim Birkhead The Most Perfect Thing: Inside (and Outside) a Bird's Egg Finalist [49]
Thomas Levenson The Hunt for Vulcan: ... and How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe
Jo Marchant Cure: A Journey Into the Science of Mind over Body
Oliver Morton The Planet Remade: How Geoengineering Could Change the World
Siddhartha Mukherjee The Gene: An Intimate History
2017 Cordelia Fine Testosterone Rex: Unmaking the Myths of Our Gendered Minds Winner [50][51]
Eugenia Cheng Beyond Infinity: An Expedition to the Outer Limits of the Mathematical Universe Finalist [52]
Peter Godfrey-Smith Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life
Joseph Jebelli In Pursuit of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimer's
Mark O'Connell To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death
Ed Yong I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
2018 Sarah-Jayne Blakemore Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain Winner [53][54]
Lucy Cooke The Unexpected Truth About Animals Finalist [55]
Daniel M. Davis The Beautiful Cure: Harnessing Your Body’s Natural Defences
Hannah Fry Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine
Mark Miodownik Liquid: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives
Simon Winchester Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World
2019 Caroline Criado Perez Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men Winner [56][57][58]
John Gribbin Six Impossible Things Finalist [59]
Monty Lyman The Remarkable Life of the Skin
Tim Smedley Clearing the Air
Paul Steinhardt The Second Kind of Impossible
Steven Strogatz Infinite Powers

2020s
Royal Society Prizes for Science Books winners, 2020-present[5]
Year Author Title Result Ref.
2020 Camilla Pang Explaining Humans Winner [60][61][62]
Jim Al-Khalili The World According to Physics Finalist [63]
Bill Bryson The Body: A Guide for Occupants
Susannah Cahalan The Great Pretender
Linda Scott The Double X Economy
Gaia Vince Transcendence
2021 Merlin Sheldrake Entangled Life Winner [64][65]
Emily Levesque The Last Stargazers Finalist
James Nestor Breath
Jessica Nordell The End of Bias
Suzanne O'Sullivan The Sleeping Beauties
Stuart J. Ritchie Science Fictions
2022 Henry Gee A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth: 4.6 Billion Years in 12 Pithy Chapters Winner [66][67]
Nick Davidson The Greywacke: How a Priest, a Soldier and a School Teacher Uncovered 300 Million Years of History Finalist [68][69]
Frans de Waal Different: What Apes Can Teach Us About Gender
Jeremy Farrar with Anjana Ahuja Spike: The Virus vs. The People – the Inside Story
Rose Anne Kenny Age Proof: The New Science of Living a Longer and Healthier Life
Peter Stott Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial
2023 Ed Yong An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us Finalist [70]
Nicklas Brendborg, trans. by Elizabeth de Noma Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature’s Secrets to Longevity
Roma Agrawal Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way)
Lev Parikian Taking Flight: The Evolutionary Story of Life on the Wing
David Quammen Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus
Kate Zernike The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science

References
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