BOOK SPECIAL ...8 books on science Bill Gates wants you to read

8 books on science  Bill Gates wants you  to read   The Microsoft founder has recommended several  books over the years -some about the  environment, some on the cosmos, and some  on diseases.  Here are his picks The Vital Question by Nick Lane Nick Lane might not be a household name, but Gates  wants to change that. The book seeks to resolve unanswered questions about  how life formed on earth, and raises thoughtful  questions about where solutions for disease may come  from. “Even if the details of Nick's work turn out to be wrong,“  Gates said, “I suspect his focus on energy will be seen as  an important contribution to our understanding of where  we come from.“ Sustainable Materials With Both Eyes Open by Julian Allwood and Jonathan Cullen On the heels of the 2015 Paris climate summit,  Gates wrote on his blog that Sustainable Materials  With Both Eyes Open struck him because so few  environmental books talk directly about “how we make  stuff“. The book is a dense, diagram-filled read about the  value in lengthening the shelf life of everyday products  by using materials that can be repurposed and reused. House on Fire: The Fight to Eradicate Smallpox by William Foege Foege is widely credited as the driving force behind the eradication of smallpox in the 1970s. In a 2014 blog  post, Gates remarked on Foege's mentorship to both  him and Melinda as they were getting their start in philanthropy. Foege's 2 012 book recounts how the eradication  began,delves into his personal and professional life as  an epidemiologist, and shares stories of people affected  by the disease. Infections and Inequalities: The Modern Plagues by Paul Farmer One of the world's premier epidemiologists, Paul Farmer, helped bring sustainable health care to millions in Haiti.  Though it came out more than 15 years ago, Infections  and Inequalities has stuck with Gates because it reminds  the public how much deadlier diseases like AIDS, TB,  and malaria can be to people without access to vaccines  or treatment. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari According to Harari, we weren't always the only species  of human beings on Earth. Roughly 100,000 years ago,   there were actually six varieties of people, but homo  sapiens were the only ones who made it to today.  He also looks toward a future in which genetic engineering and artificial intelligence make our definition of “ human“  even more fluid. From Gates: “I would recommend  Sapiens to anyone who's interested in the history and  future of our species.“ The Fever: How Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years by Sonia Shah Malaria has become one of the Gates Foundation's top priorities over the past several years. Gates calls Shah's book “probably the best choice“ if  you only have time to read one book on the subject. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson After a science -fiction dry spell of more than a decade,  in 2016, Gates picked up Seveneves on a friend's recommendation, and he says he's grateful for it.  “The plot gets going in the first sentence, when the  moon blows up,“ he wrote. The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee Genome science can hardly be considered a topic of mainstream interest, but Gates says Mukherjee manages to capture its relevance to people's daily lives. He seeks  to answer big questions concerning our personalities and what makes us, us. Mukherjee is what Gates calls a “quadruple threat“. He's a practicing physician,  teacher,researcher, and author.

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