HAWKING FOR BEGINNERS

I cannot praise the "For Beginners" series highly enough.  They are set out like cartoon books, so they are easy to read, but the cartoons are there to space out the text.  You can rip through something that would be deadly dull otherwise.  Try this one for starters:

 

So everyone knows Stephen Hawking.  He does Physics.  People say he's the cleverest man in the world.  He was at the Paralympics opening ceremony.  He talks through a computer.  He's been on The Simpsons.  But do you know what theory he is famous for?  And if you do, do you understand it?  This book takes you though some of Einstein's theory of General Relativity to the discovery of black holes and then Hawking's reasons for believing that they can evaporate.  It also tells some of the story of Hawking's life.

 

Borrow it from the school library and read it.  I dare you.

The Language of the Genes by Steve Jones

Borrow this book from the school library!  Perhaps it's odd for a Physics teacher to start with a Biology book, but, honestly, you'll really like it!

Steve Jones is a famous Biology professor.  Evolutionary genetics is his specialist subject.  This book was written 20 years ago.  The first bit is a little out of date - as he predicts, the human genome was mapped.  But I was captivated by the rest of the book.  It is an account of the evolution of the human species. I was amazed by ideas such as that which suggests that all Europeans are decended from just 4 females.  I'm after an update on this research now.

 

Borrow the book.  Try it.  If you don't like it, just take it back.  What have you got to lose?