Gallery: 14 Essential Sources for Getting Up to Speed in Science

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    Warner Bros. Pictures/Everett Collection
    01

    ff-cultlit-1-scicanon-gravity

    *[Gravity](https://youtu.be/OiTiKOy59o4)* | Great, now humans feel just as petrified—and just as inspired—by the awesome fragility of space travel as they did in the 1960s.
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    02

    Chaos

    *[Chaos: Making a New Science](http://www.amazon.com/Chaos-Making-Science-James-Gleick/dp/0143113453)* | No one explains a tricky concept better than James Gleick. Here he shows how researchers have tamed wild randomness in everything from stocks to storms.
  • Image may contain Clothing Apparel Human Person Shirt Tie Accessories Accessory and Neil deGrasse Tyson
    Peter Yang
    03

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    *[Cosmos](https://youtu.be/bzS39oghcnY)* (’80) and *[Cosmos](https://youtu.be/Fm4UV5_HsPA)* (’14) | Even devoted Sagan fans see the beauty in Neil deGrasse Tyson’s reincarnation—but you can’t beat the awesomely cruddy production values of the original.
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    04

    ff-cultlit-1-scicanon-Spillover

    *[Spillover](http://amzn.com/0393346617)* | Many diseases originally leapt to humans from animals, and David Quammen went to the places where they arose. Spoiler: Stay away from bats.
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    05

    ff-cultlit-1-scicanon-biowars

    *[Biowars](http://www.biowars.com/comic/issue-1/)* | Anthropomorphized immune and nervous system cells in mortal combat? Yes please! Perfect for converting kids from comic nerds to science nerds.
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    Everett Collection
    06

    ff-cultlit-1-scicanon-magicschoolbus

    *[The Magic School Bus](https://youtu.be/BTjXdzxhc_w)* | The one where Ms. Frizzle and her gang shrink to fly through the human body inspired a whole generation of doctors—probably even yours.
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    07

    man who mistook his wife for a hat

    *[The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat](http://amzn.com/1491514078)* | Oliver Sacks is the godfather of popular neuroscience writing. This collection was one of the first to introduce you to humans who think differently.
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    Courtesy of Maker Media
    08

    ff-cultlit-1-scicanon-makers

    *[Maker Faire](http://makerfaire.com/)* | Like a Renaissance faire but from the future, with (slightly) more steampunk, more stuff to build, and more technology to explore.
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    09

    ff-cultlit-1-scicanon-doublehelix

    *[The Double Helix](http://amzn.com/074321630X)* | James Watson’s memoir is shamelessly arrogant—and essential to understanding the most important biological finding of the 20th century.
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    BBC
    10

    ff-cultlit-1-scicanon-connections

    *[Connections](https://youtu.be/re1ZLwb1jLw)* | James Burke’s classic Brit docuseries shows how every major discovery started with some other major discovery.
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    11

    immortal-life

    *[The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks](http://amzn.com/1400052181)* | Rebecca Skloot’s incredibly reported story of the cell line that underpins modern cancer research—and the woman whose death made it possible.
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    12

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    *[The Theory of Island Biogeography](http://amzn.com/0691088365)* | Civilization is a rising sea surrounding islands of nature. This 1967 book explains what happens as creatures huddle on and hopscotch between the shrinking fragments.
  • Portal | The videogame that gets you thinking about alternate dimensions instead of just saying you146re in one.
    Valve
    13

    ff-cultlit-1-scicanon-portal

    *[Portal](https://youtu.be/TluRVBhmf8w)* | The videogame that gets you thinking about alternate dimensions instead of just saying you’re in one.
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    14

    ff-cultlit-1-scicanon-making

    *[The Making of the Atomic Bomb](http://amzn.com/1451677618)* | The grand soap opera/secret reality show that turned Feynman into the trickster god of physics and Oppenheimer into the destroyer of worlds.