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. It is open to authors of science books written for a non-specialist audience, and since it was established in 1988 has championed writers such as Stephen Hawking, Jared Diamond, Stephen Jay Gould and Bill Bryson. In 2015 The Guardian described the prize as "the most prestigious science book prize in Britain".
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. +YearsNameSponsor1990 – 2000Rhône-Poulenc Prize for Science BooksRhône-Poulenc2001 – 2006Aventis Prize for Science BooksAventis2007 – 2010Royal Society Prize for Science Booksnone2011 – 2015Royal Society Winton Prize for Science BooksWinton Group2016 – 2022Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book PrizeInsight Investment2023 –Royal Society Trivedi Science Book PrizeTrivedi 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. In 2019, the jury consisted of Sir Nigel Shadbolt, Shukry James Habib, Dorothy Koomson, Stephen McGann, and Gwyneth Williams.
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 +Royal Society Prizes for Science Books winners, 1988-2000YearAuthorTitleResult1988British Medical Association Board of Science Living with RiskWinner1989 Bones of Contention: Controversies in the Search for Human OriginsWinner1990 Winner1991 Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of HistoryWinner1992 Winner1993 Winner1994 Winner1995 Winner1996 Plague's ProgressWinner1997 and Pat ShipmanWinner1998 Guns, Germs, and SteelWinner1999 Winner
2000–2010 +Royal Society Prizes for Science Books winners, 2000-2009YearAuthorTitleResult2000 Winner Finalist Genome Time, Love, Memory: A Great Biologist and His Quest for the Origins of Behavior Children of Prometheus 2001 Mapping the DeepWinner Creation: Life and How to Make ItFinalist Strange Beauty Mendel's Demon Mendeleyev's Dream Malignant Sadness2002 Winner Aeons:The Search for the Beginning of TimeFinalist Rivals: Conflict as the Fuel of Science2003 Right Hand, Left HandWinner Small WorldFinalist Reckoning With Risk Where Is Everybody?2004 Winner In The Beginning Was the WormFinalist Magic Universe Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body and Richard HollinghamHow to Clone the Perfect Blonde Nature Via Nurture Backroom Boys2005 Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to AnotherWinner Finalist Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older Matters Of Substance: Drugs - And Why Everyone's A User 2006 Electric Universe: How Electricity Switched on the Modern WorldWinner Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or SucceedFinalist Parallel Worlds: The Science of Alternative Universes and our Future in the Cosmos Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life Empire of the Stars: Friendship, Obsession and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes 2007 Stumbling on HappinessWinner Finalist In Search of Memory Lonesome George Homo Britannicus One in Three2008 Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter PlanetWinner Finalist Gut Feelings Coral: A Pessimist in Paradise Why Beauty is Truth: A History of Symmetry 2009Winner What the Nose KnowsFinalist Bad Science Decoding the Heavens Your Inner Fish: A Journey Into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body2010 Life AscendingWinner We Need To Talk About KelvinFinalist and Jeff ForshawWhy 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 +Royal Society Prizes for Science Books winners, 2010-2019YearAuthorTitleResult2011 Winner Alex's Adventures in NumberlandFinalist Through the Language Glass: How Words Colour Your World Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science 2012 Winner Moonwalking with EinsteinFinalist My Beautiful Genome 2013 Winner Bird SenseFinalist Cells to Civilizations: The Principles of Change That Shape Life Pieces of Light: The New Science of Memory Ocean of Life2014 Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made WorldWinner Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under HitlerFinalist Seven Elements That Have Changed The World: Iron, Carbon, Gold, Silver, Uranium, Titanium, Silicon Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal2015 Adventures in the Anthropocene: A Journey to the Heart of the Planet We MadeWinner Finalist 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 Biology2016 Winner Finalist Cure: A Journey Into the Science of Mind over Body 2017 Testosterone Rex: Unmaking the Myths of Our Gendered MindsWinner Beyond Infinity: An Expedition to the Outer Limits of the Mathematical UniverseFinalist 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 Life2018 Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage BrainWinner Finalist Hello World: How to be Human in the Age of the Machine Liquid: The Delightful and Dangerous Substances That Flow Through Our Lives Exactly: How Precision Engineers Created the Modern World2019 Invisible Women: Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for MenWinner Six Impossible ThingsFinalist Clearing the Air Infinite Powers
Since 2020 +Royal Society Prizes for Science Books winners, 2020–presentYearAuthorTitleResult2020 Explaining HumansWinner Finalist Transcendence2021 Entangled LifeWinner Finalist Breath Science Fictions2022 Winner Finalist 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 Denial2023 WinnerNuts and Bolts: Seven Small Inventions That Changed the World (in a Big Way)Finalist, trans. by Elizabeth de NomaJellyfish Age Backwards: Nature's Secrets to LongevityTaking Flight: The Evolutionary Story of Life on the WingBreathless: The Scientific Race to Defeat a Deadly Virus2024 and Zach WeinersmithWinnerEve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human EvolutionFinalistEverything Is Predictable: How Bayes' Remarkable Theorem Explains the WorldYour Face Belongs to Us: The Secretive Startup Dismantling Your PrivacyWhy We Die: The New Science of Ageing and the Quest for Immortality2025Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist's Patients Taught Him About the BrainWinnerEnds of the Earth: Journeys to the Polar Regions in Search of Life, the Cosmos, and our FutureFinalistMusic as Medicine: How We Can Harness Its Therapeutic PowerThe Forbidden Garden of Leningrad: A True Story of Science and Sacrifice in a City under SiegeVanished: An Unnatural History of ExtinctionYour Life is Manufactured: How We Make Things, Why It Matters and How We Can Do It Better2026WinnerEvery Last Fish: A Deep Dive Into Everything They Do for Us and We Do to Them Finalist, translated by Bronwyn HaslamHidden Guests: Migrating Cells and How the New Science of Microchimerism Is Redefining Human IdentityHow To Change a Memory: One Neuroscientist’s Quest To Alter the PastBad Influence: How the Internet Hijacked Our HealthDespite It All: A Handbook for Climate Hopefuls
References
External links The Royal Society Trivedi Science Book Prize Royal Society Prize at lovethebook