The Royal Society Science Book Prize is an annual £25,000 prize awarded by the Royal Society to celebrate outstanding popular science books from around the world.
History
The Royal Society established the Science Books Prize in 1988 with the aim of encouraging the writing, publishing and reading of good and accessible popular science books. Its name has varied according to sponsorship agreements.
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Years
!Name
!Sponsor
|-
|1990 – 2000
|Rhône-Poulenc Prize for Science Books
|Rhône-Poulenc
|-
|2001 – 2006
|Aventis Prize for Science Books
|Aventis
|-
|2007 – 2010
|Royal Society Prize for Science Books
|none
|-
|2011 – 2015
|Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books
|Winton Group
|-
|2016 – 2022
|Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize
|Insight Investment
|-
|2023 –
|Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize
|Trivedi Foundation
|}
Judging process
A panel of judges decides the shortlist and the winner of the Prize each year. The panel is chaired by a fellow of the Royal Society and includes authors, scientists and media personalities. The judges for the 2016 prize included author Bill Bryson, theoretical physicist Dr Clare Burrage, science fiction author Alastair Reynolds, ornithologist and science blogger GrrlScientist, and author and director of external affairs at the Science Museum Group, Roger Highfield.
All books entered for the prize must be published in English for the first time between September and October the preceding year. The winner is announced at an award ceremony and, , receives £25,000. Each of the other shortlisted authors receives £2,500.
Shortlisted books
1988–2000
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+Royal Society Prizes for Science Books winners, 1988-2000
!Year
!Author
!Title
!Result
|- style="background:#cddeff"
!1988
|British Medical Association Board of Science
|Living with Risk
|Winner
|- style="background:#cddeff"
!1989
|
|Bones of Contention: Controversies in the Search for Human Origins
|Winner
|- style="background:#cddeff"
!1990
|
|'
|Winner
|- style="background:#cddeff"
!1991
|
|Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
|Winner
|- style="background:#cddeff"
!1992
|
|'
|Winner
|- style="background:#cddeff"
!1993
|
|'
|Winner
|- style="background:#cddeff"
!1994
|
|'
|Winner
|- style="background:#cddeff"
!1995
|
|'
|Winner
|- style="background:#cddeff"
!1996
|
|Plague's Progress
|Winner
|- style="background:#cddeff"
!1997
| and Pat Shipman
|'
|Winner
|- style="background:#cddeff"
!1998
|
|Guns, Germs, and Steel
|Winner
|-
|
|Aeons:The Search for the Beginning of Time
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
|
|-
|
|'
|
|-
|
|'
|
|-
|
|'
|
|-
|
|Rivals: Conflict as the Fuel of Science
|
|- style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2003
|
|Right Hand, Left Hand
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Small World
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
|
|-
|
|Reckoning With Risk
|
|-
|
|'
|
|-
|
|'
|
|-
|
|Where Is Everybody?
|
|- style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="7" |2004
|
|'
|Winner
|
|-
|
|In The Beginning Was the Worm
| rowspan="6" |Finalist
|
|-
|
|Magic Universe
|
|-
|
|Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body
|
|-
| and Richard Hollingham
|How to Clone the Perfect Blonde
|
|-
|
|Nature Via Nurture
|
|-
|
|Backroom Boys
|
|- style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2005
|
|Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another
|Winner
|
|-
|
|'
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
|
|-
|
|Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older
|
|-
|
|Matters Of Substance: Drugs - And Why Everyone's A User
|
|-
|
|'
|
|-
|
|'
|
|- style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2006
|
|Electric Universe: How Electricity Switched on the Modern World
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
|
|-
|
|'
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
|
|-
|
|In Search of Memory
|
|-
|
|Lonesome George
|
|-
|
|Homo Britannicus
|
|-
|
|One in Three
|
|- style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2008
|
|Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet
|Winner
|
|-
|
|'
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
|
|-
|
|Gut Feelings
|
|-
|
|Coral: A Pessimist in Paradise
|
|-
|
|Why Beauty is Truth: A History of Symmetry
|
|-
|
|'
|
|- style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2009
|
|'
|Winner
|
|-
|
|What the Nose Knows
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
|
|-
|
|Bad Science
|
|-
|
|We Need To Talk About Kelvin
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
|
|-
| and Jeff Forshaw
|Why Does E=mc2?
|
|-
|
|Everyday Practice of Science: Where Intuition and Passion Meet Objectivity and Logic
|
|-
|
|God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science
|
|-
|
|'
|
|}
2011–2019
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible"
|+Royal Society Prizes for Science Books winners, 2010-2019
|-
|
|Alex's Adventures in Numberland
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
|
|-
|
|Through the Language Glass: How Words Colour Your World
|
|-
|
|'
|
|-
|
|Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science
|
|-
|
|'
|
|-style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2012
|
|'
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Moonwalking with Einstein
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
|
|-
|
|My Beautiful Genome
|
|-
|
|'
|
|-
|
|'
|
|-
|
|'
|
|-style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2013
|
|'
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Bird Sense
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
|
|-
|
|Cells to Civilizations: The Principles of Change That Shape Life
|
|-
|
|Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
|
|-
|
|Seven Elements That Have Changed The World: Iron, Carbon, Gold, Silver, Uranium, Titanium, Silicon
|
|-
|
|'
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
| rowspan="5" |
|-
|
|Alex Through the Looking-Glass: How Life Reflects Numbers and Numbers Reflect Life
|-
|
|Smashing Physics
|-
|
|Life's Greatest Secret
|-
| and Jim Al-Khalili
|Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology
|-style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2016
|
|'
|Winner
|
|-
|
|'
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
| rowspan="5" |
|-
|
|'
|-
|
|Cure: A Journey Into the Science of Mind over Body
|-
|
|'
|-
|
|'
|-style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2017
|
|Testosterone Rex: Unmaking the Myths of Our Gendered Minds
|Winner
|
|-
|
|Beyond Infinity: An Expedition to the Outer Limits of the Mathematical Universe
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
| rowspan="5" |
|-
|
|Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life
|-
|
|In Pursuit of Memory: The Fight Against Alzheimer's
|-
|
|To Be a Machine: Adventures Among Cyborgs, Utopians, Hackers, and the Futurists Solving the Modest Problem of Death
|-
|
|I Contain Multitudes: The Microbes Within Us and a Grander View of Life
|-style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2018
|
|Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain
|Winner
|
|-
|
|'
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
| rowspan="5" |
|-
|
|Six Impossible Things
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
| rowspan="5" |
|-
|
|'
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
| rowspan="5" |
|-
|
|'
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
|-
|
|Breath
|-
|
|'
|-
|
|'
|-
|
|Science Fictions
|- style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2022
|
|'
|Winner
|
|-
|
|'
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
| rowspan="5" |
|-
|
|Different: What Apes Can Teach Us About Gender
|-
| with Anjana Ahuja
|Spike: The Virus vs. The People – the Inside Story
|-
|
|Age Proof: The New Science of Living a Longer and Healthier Life
|-
|
|Hot Air: The Inside Story of the Battle Against Climate Change Denial
|- style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2023
|
|
| Winner
|
|-
|
|Nuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way)
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
| rowspan="5" |
|-
|, trans. by Elizabeth de Noma
|Jellyfish Age Backwards: Nature's Secrets to Longevity
|-
|
|Taking Flight: The Evolutionary Story of Life on the Wing
|-
|
|Breathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus
|-
|
|
|- style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2024
|Kelly Weinersmith and Zach Weinersmith
|A City on Mars: Can We Settle Space, Should We Settle Space, and Have We Really Thought This Through?
|Winner
|
|-
|Cat Bohannon
|Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
| rowspan="5" |
|-
|Tom Chivers
|Everything Is Predictable: How Bayes' Remarkable Theorem Explains the World
|-
|Kashmir Hill
|Your Face Belongs to Us: The Secretive Startup Dismantling Your Privacy
|-
|Gísli Pálsson
|The Last of Its Kind: The Search for the Great Auk and the Discovery of Extinction
|-
|Venki Ramakrishnan
|Why We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality
|-
|- style="background:#cddeff"
! rowspan="6" |2025
|Masud Husain
|Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist's Patients Taught Him About the Brain
|Winner
|
|-
|Neil Shubin
|Ends of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and our Future
| rowspan="5" |Finalist
| rowspan="5" |
|-
|Daniel Levitin
|Music as Medicine: How We Can Harness Its Therapeutic Power
|-
|Simon Parkin
|The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under Siege
|-
|Sadiah Qureshi
|Vanished: An Unnatural History of Extinction
|-
|Tim Minshall
|Your Life is Manufactured: How We Make Things, Why It Matters and How We Can Do It Better
|}
References
External links
- The Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize
- Royal Society Prize at lovethebook