Science Books of the Year

The shortlist for the 2014 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books has been announced. This prestigious prize celebrates outstanding popular science books from around the world and is open to authors of science books written for a non-specialist audience.

The shortlisted titles are:
Gulp: Adventures of the Alimentary Canal by Mary Roach
Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World by Mark Miodownik
The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine’s Deepest Mystery by George Johnson
The Perfect Theory: a Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity by Pedro G. Ferreira
Seven Elements That Have Changed the World: Iron, Carbon, Gold, Silver, Uranium, Titanium, Silicon by John Browne
Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler by Philip Ball

The winner will be announced at a public award event on November 10th. The author of the winning book will receive £25,000 and £2,500 each is awarded to the authors of the five shortlisted books. Sean Carroll's story of the hunt for the Higgs Boson, The Particle at the End of the Universe, won the award in 2013.