The Beachside Book List for Science Educators

As you recharge over the summer on the beach, let us bring some intriguing science-themed reads to your beach blanket.

Our curated list of 'beach reads' for this summer will whisk you away into a world where wildlife teaches us about resilience ("Tenacious Beasts"), where bioelectricity sparks new medical breakthroughs ("We Are Electric"), and where digital twins (digital replicas of humans) revolutionize our lives ("Virtual You").

That's just a glimpse – below are titles that promise to make your summer reading sizzle with exciting science insights!

1. Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think about Animals. An inspiring look at wildlife species that are defying the odds and teaching important lessons about how to share a planet. [read more]
2. We Are Electric: Inside the 200-Year Hunt for Our Body's Bioelectric Code, and What the Future Holds. Science journalist Sally Adee breaks open the field of bioelectricity—its misunderstood history, and why new discoveries will lead to new ways around antibiotic resistance, cleared arteries, and new ways to combat cancer. [read more]
3. Virtual You: How Building Your Digital Twin Will Revolutionize Medicine and Change Your Life. This book describes the revolutionary efforts underway to build virtual humans - from cells and organs to whole bodies and populations. Virtual human technology has extraordinary potential, but also poses enormous computational challenges. Digital doppelgangers of patients will be able to usher in an era of truly personalized medicine. [read more]
4. Life in Science: Stories, Opinions and Advice for a New Generation of Scientists (2023). A collection of stories, reflections and advice written by proficient scientists who address the question of what doing science means to them, and describe attitudes and working practices that have proved effective and rewarding. The book is aimed at young people who are considering making science their long-term profession. [read more]
5. Grunt: The Curious Science of Humans at War. Washington Post writer, Mary Roach, tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries―panic, exhaustion, heat, noise―and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. [read more]
6. How We Teach Science: What’s Changed, and Why It Matters. A former Wisconsin high school science teacher traces enormous pedagogical shifts, the aspirations behind them and why matters so much today. [read more]
7. Gastrophysics: The New Science of Eating (emerging science). Gastrophysics is the new area of sensory science pioneered by Oxford professor Charles Spence. In this book, he dives deep into this new science of eating. [read more]
8. Powerful Teaching: Unleash the Science of Learning. Cognitive scientist Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D., and veteran K–12 teacher Patrice M. Bain, Ed.S., decipher cognitive science research and illustrate ways to successfully apply the science of learning in classrooms settings. [read more]
9. Breaking the Mold: Changing the Face of Climate Science. Celebrated author Dana Alison Levy profiles 16 people, all studying different elements of the earth’s landscape, animals, and climate, who defy stereotypes of who can be a scientist. From analytical chemists to volcanologists, from global experts to recent graduates, these scientists share what they were like as young people, how they got where they are now. [read more]

Enjoy the dog days of summer and share your favorite science beachside reads with us on Instagram!

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