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Popular Science Collection: Home

UC San Diego Library's Popular Science Collection

On the 2nd floor of the West Wing in the Geisel Library Building, the Popular Science (PopSci) Collection houses many of our popular and general-interest science books. Rather than scatter them throughout the collection, we have shelved them together to provide a richer browsing and discovery experience.

There are more than 500 titles in the collection, all available for faculty, staff, graduate students, undergraduates to check out. You can also browse the latest books added to the collection and what has been ordered.


If you have questions about this collection or guide, contact Teri Vogel

For purchase suggestions, please use our purchase recommendation form and indicate you are recommending this for the Popular Science Collection.

The New Books list and rotating book covers on this page will give you an idea of what to find in this collection. We limit ordering to books published in the last 2-3 years. Topics include, but aren't restricted to the list below. Books that don't fit in this collection may still be good candidates for the regular collection. 

  • Current and/or "hot" topics: space exploration, climate change, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, robotics, big data. biotechnology, renewable energy, etc.
  • Science and popular culture
  • Futurism, forecasting
  • Underrepresented groups in STEM 
  • Anthologies of science essays (Best of...)
  • Biographies and science history, including graphic novels
  • Science trivia
  • Puzzles and brain-twisters
  • Science and politics
  • Science literacy
  • Historical, philosophical or sociological aspects of science
The End of Astronauts: Why Robots Are the Future of Exploration
The Best Writing on Mathematics 2021
Astrotopia: The Dangerous Religion of the Corporate Space Race
A Little Book about the Big Bang
Nature's wild ideas : how the natural world is inspiring scientific innovation
The Evolution of Charles Darwin: The Epic Voyage of the Beagle That Forever Changed Our View of Life on Earth
An Anthropogenic Table of Elements : Experiments in the Fundamental
Physics in Crisis: From Multiverses to Fake News
The Biggest Ideas in the Universe: Space, Time, and Motion
Elusive: How Peter Higgs Solved the Mystery of Mass
Dinner on Mars: The Technologies That Will Feed the Red Planet and Transform Agriculture on Earth
Proving Ground: The Untold Story of the Six Women Who Programmed the World’s First Modern Computer
A Divine Language: Learning Algebra, Geometry, and Calculus at the Edge of Old Age
Unwell Women: Misdiagnosis and Myth in a Man-Made World
Tales from a Robotic World: How Intelligent Machines Will Shape Our Future
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2022
The Forgotten Botanist: Sara Plummer Lemmon's Life of Science and Art
30 Animals That Made Us Smarter: Stories of the Natural World That Inspired Human Ingenuity
The Milky Way: An Autobiography of Our Galaxy