Michael's Favourite Science Books

The Rest Is Science

Goalhanger

Science, Physics, Mathematics

4.5 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2026

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What do Bill Bryson, Daniel Wegner and J.R.R. Tolkien have in common? They are all part of Michael's reading recommendations. On this episode of Field Notes we answer one of our most frequent inbox questions... "What do you both read?" Alongside that Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens delve into whether some numbers give off "vibes" and the optimal way to use airflow to rid your car of dog hairs and unwanted smells. A handy list of Michael's books (Hannah's will come in the future)! Sum by David Eagleman A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson The Seven Mysteries of Life by Guy Murchie Thinking Physics: Understandable Practical Reality by Lewis Carroll Epstein The Discovery of Dynamics: A Study from a Machian Point of View of the Discovery and the Structure of Dynamical Theories by Julian Barbour The Outer Limits of Reason: What Science, Mathematics, and Logic Cannot Tell Us by Noson S. Yanofsky Mortal Questions by Thomas Nagel The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size by Tor Nørretranders The Illusion of Conscious Will by Daniel Wegner ------------------- For more information about Cancer Research UK, their research, breakthroughs and how you can support them, visit ⁠⁠https://cancerresearchuk.org/restisscience⁠⁠ Cancer Research UK is a registered charity in England and Wales (1089464), Scotland (SC041666), the Isle of Man (1103) and Jersey (247). A company limited by guarantee. Registered company in England and Wales (4325234) and the Isle of Man (5713F). Registered address: 2 Redman Place, London, E20 1JQ. ------------------- Find The Rest Is Science all over the internet by ⁠⁠clicking here.⁠⁠ ------------------- Video Producer: Adam Thornton + Oli Oakley Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell Assistant Producer: Imee Marriott Producer: Simona Rata Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:01.0	Hello and welcome to The Rest is Science.
0:03.2	I'm Michael Stevens.
0:04.2	And I'm Hannah Fry.
0:05.1	And today is an episode of Field Notes, where we come back, Hannah and I, from the field with some discoveries, some things we want to share.
0:12.9	Sometimes they're objects.
0:14.4	Sometimes they're observations.
0:15.7	I've brought a lot of things.
0:17.5	Look at that stack.
0:18.7	And that's only some of it.
0:20.4	I know I'm finally answering a question
0:22.7	that I get asked all the time and I was sick of not having a good answer. So I put the work in
0:28.1	and I've got an answer to what? You'll find out later. Okay. What I will say is this though.
0:33.1	For those who are listening rather than watching, Michael just turned his camera around and there
0:36.9	was an enormous stack of books. But they were notably clean, which makes me think that he's not
0:42.1	talking about a real field. There was no mud on a single one of them. When I say field,
0:47.8	it can be my living room. And also, I've got the spines turned away. So when I turn the camera to
0:54.0	it, it's just a big stack of paper.
0:56.2	All we know, all we know is that some of them are pretty chunky. And actually just to turn it around
1:00.0	one more time, I want to see how well leafed through they are. Okay. A couple of those are very loved.
1:05.8	Some of them, some of them, listeners, rather than viewers, look like they've only been read in digital form.
1:12.4	And this is the hard copy that sits on his shelf to prove, I'm not sure.
1:16.5	That's interesting that you bring that up because that is not true at all for these books.
	...

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