Fond Books
Archive Collection

Royal Society Science Book Prize Winners

1988–2025

The Royal Society Science Book Prize celebrates the very best in popular science writing, awarded annually since 1988 to books that make science accessible and engaging to general readers.

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Year Title & Author Historical Context
2025 Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist's Patients Taught Him About the Brain by Masud Husain Husain, a practising clinician with over thirty years of experience, wrote his first book at sixty; the prize was renamed the Royal Society Trivedi...
2024 A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith The authors used their research into space law and biology to warn that we must become "wise" before we can successfully go to the stars.
2023 An Immense World by Ed Yong With this win, Yong joined the group of two-time winners. The book is a plea for sensory modesty and environmental protection.
2022 A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth by Henry Gee Gee, a long-time editor at "Nature," was praised for condensing the entire history of the biosphere into a punchy, provocative narrative.
2021 Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake Sheldrake showed that fungi are not just mushrooms but the essential glue and digestive system of the planet's ecosystems.
2020 Explaining Humans by Camilla Pang Pang's win was a milestone for neurodiversity; she used "molecular thermodynamics" to make sense of often-irrational human social cues.
2019 Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez The book proved that "neutral" data often excludes female biology and needs, leading to life-threatening consequences for women globally.
2018 Inventing Ourselves by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore Blakemore advocated for understanding "teenage rebellion" as a necessary and productive stage of neural reorganization.
2017 Testosterone Rex by Cordelia Fine Fine used neurobiology and social science to argue that human behavior is far more "plastic" and less determined by hormones than popularly believed.
2016 The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf Wulf argued that Humboldt was the "lost father" of environmentalism, influencing everyone from Darwin to John Muir.
2015 Adventures in the Anthropocene by Gaia Vince Vince was the first woman to win the prize as a solo author, focusing on global innovation in the face of the climate crisis.
2014 Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik Miodownik is a materials scientist who wrote the book to show that every object in our lives is a triumph of molecular engineering.
2013 The Particle at the End of the Universe by Sean Carroll Carroll explained the "Standard Model" of physics to a public fascinated by the massive machine and the international effort under Switzerland.
2012 The Information by James Gleick Gleick explored how information became a physical property of the universe and how humanity is struggling to survive the resulting data glut.
2011 The Wave Watcher's Companion by Gavin Pretor-Pinney The author was the founder of the "Cloud Appreciation Society"; his win recognized the beauty of universal patterns in everyday phenomena.
2010 Life Ascending by Nick Lane Lane used biochemistry to argue that the origin of complex life was a freak accident involving the merging of two simple bacteria.
2009 The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes Holmes argued that the "Second Scientific Revolution" was driven by the same spirit of wonder that fueled the Romantic literary movement.
2008 Six Degrees by Mark Lynas The book mapped climate "tipping points," such as the melting of permafrost, serving as a critical warning for global policy makers.
2007 Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert A foundational text for understanding how the mind "fills in" details of the future that aren't actually there, leading to chronic dissatisfaction.
2006 Electric Universe by David Bodanis Bodanis focused on the human drama and obsessive personalities behind the telegraph, the lightbulb, and the computer.
2005 Critical Mass by Philip Ball Ball applied physics models to social science, suggesting that individual freedom often gives way to predictable collective "physics".
2004 A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson Bryson, a travel writer, spent years "translating" science into a best-selling narrative that became the prize's most famous winner.
2003 Right Hand, Left Hand by Chris McManus McManus explored "situs inversus" and the evolutionary advantages (and stigmas) associated with left-handedness.
2002 The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking A visual successor to "A Brief History of Time," Hawking suggested that the vast laws of the universe could be understood by the human mind.
2001 Mapping the Deep by Robert Kunzig Kunzig was praised for turning "earth science" into a narrative adventure, revealing the ocean floor as the most volcanic and active place on Earth.
2000 The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene Greene used the metaphor of vibrating violin strings to make the complex mathematics of Calabi-Yau shapes accessible to a general audience.
1999 The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman Hoffman popularized "Erdős numbers," highlighting the social and collaborative nature of mathematical discovery.
1998 Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond With this win, Diamond became the first person to win the prize twice (following his 1992 win).
1997 The Wisdom of the Bones by Pat Shipman & Alan Walker The authors provided evidence that early humans had modern body proportions long before they developed modern-sized brains.
1996 Plague's Progress by Arno Karlen Karlen accurately predicted that the 21st century would be defined by "emerging viruses" facilitated by our globalized environment.
1995 The Consumer's Good Chemical Guide by John Emsley Emsley fought against "chemophobia," explaining that "natural" is not inherently safe and "synthetic" is not inherently dangerous.
1994 The Language of Genes by Steve Jones Jones famously used genetic data to prove there is more variation within a single African village than in the rest of the world combined.
1993 The Making of Memory by Steven Rose Rose was a critic of genetic determinism, emphasizing the "plasticity" of the brain and how it is constantly reshaped by the environment.
1992 The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond Diamond argued that humans are essentially a third species of chimpanzee, setting the stage for his later work on geographic determinism.
1991 Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould Gould introduced the "replaying the tape of life" thought experiment, arguing that if Earth started over, humans likely wouldn't exist.
1990 The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose Penrose used "Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem" to challenge "Strong AI," suggesting that quantum physics is required to understand human thought.
1989 Bones of Contention by Roger Lewin Lewin exposed the ego-driven side of science, particularly the heated clashes between the Leakey and Johanson families over discoveries like "Lucy".
1988 Living with Risk by British Medical Association The inaugural winner. It established the prize's early mission to highlight books that translate complex data into public safety and policy awareness.