ABSTRACT

Visit any sizable city bookstore these days, and there will be a shelf labelled ‘popular science’. This is an established publishing category, and there has been something of a boom in such books over the past 25 years or so. This is intriguing, for a number of reasons. Books are only one of a number of ways in which the contemporary media package representations of science. But they are extremely versatile, relatively cheap to produce, and are suited to extended exposition in ways that other, more modern media find hard to emulate. Books also have a cultural cachet that attracts writers – and readers – and can lend them influence beyond their immediate audience. The printed book also pre-dates the rise of modern science, so contemporary cultural products invite comparisons with earlier efforts to communicate science. But such comparisons must be approached with caution. The organisation of science, and of science communication, is very different in the modern era, and continues to change, and the same applies to the production and consumption of media. However, the constancy of the book, in one role or another, may illuminate important features of the relationship between science and public that are more difficult to explore through other media. This chapter offers a brief reflection on the idea of ‘popular science’ – a more problematic term than its use by booksellers and publishers may suggest. Then I offer some comments on the history of the book as a vehicle for disseminating scientific ideas, and finally I expand on some of the ways in which science books have been studied, or could be studied.