This guidebook introduces 18 science classics that have captured the hearts of today's engineering students! Science is a cutting-edge field, brimming with equations and theories. Yet, why do these classics, written decades or even centuries ago, capture the hearts of engineering students? Hidden within these classics are stories of unseen gems, from the humane stories of scientists to the momentous discoveries that shaped our world.


The author, who is well aware of the difficulties of reading scientific classics, meticulously explains 18 scientific books to avoid readers experiencing the same confusion as he did.
It provides detailed information about the author and historical background of the book being introduced, as well as explanations of scientific terms and concepts that may seem difficult.
You can also feel the bold and fresh ideas of engineering students.
Readers of this book, guided by a friendly engineering student, will not only acquire the vast scientific knowledge that shaped the world we live in today, but will also be able to glimpse into the fascinating world of scientists.

Scientific classics are like different planets, each containing the amazing ideas and discoveries of some scientist.
Each book is an adventure that transcends time, charting the course of a discovery.
Some books tell the story of discoverers who uncovered what happened inside cells over hundreds of millions of years, while others tell the story of an amateur scientist who, before the turn of the 19th century, foresaw in detail a future very similar to our own.
The fact that you can navigate the great scientific discoveries that shaped the world we live in through just one book.
That you can admire it.
It is an experience that only a science classic can provide, something that other books cannot.
… Every scientific classic tells us how a scientific claim overcame the opposition and conflicts it faced to reach its current position, and how scientists went through the trials and failures to arrive at a conclusion.
Therefore, we who read scientific classics may have to give up comfortable reading and read the book as if we were scientists.
But the intellectual experience this reading provides is simply amazing.
--- From the author's note

In this way, death is also a way of adaptation for living things.
When we encounter the wisdom of nature, which does not waste even the last bit of life, the foolishness of humans seems even greater.
Humans are heading towards their own destruction, ignorant of the impact they are having on the ecosystem.
Humans are the only animals like that.
Therefore, understanding the process of death and how nature reuses the resources obtained during this process is more important than any other knowledge we have today.

--- p.34, from 'Meeting Nature's Cleaners: From Life to Life'

[#232] ...
I became quite curious.
… Let’s talk about science for a moment while pondering the meaning of the lyrics.
First, let's talk about mold.
Penicillium is one of the most important bacterial strains to humans.
Because he is a major contributor to the discovery of the first antibiotic.
In the past, when there was no other way to treat a wound than to disinfect it, and additional bacterial infection could easily lead to death, the advent of antibiotics opened up new possibilities for wound treatment.
Do you know Alexander Fleming, the British bacteriologist who extracted penicillin, the first antibiotic, from blue mold?
But the important thing is that Fleming's discovery of the antibiotic from blue mold was purely accidental.

--- p.47, from 'The Hidden Scientific Code in BTS [Serendipity]'

Everyone learns science in regular classes starting in elementary school, but the science we learn in school doesn't always lead to interest.
He wanted to see if people who had been away from science for a long time could find enjoyment in it again, become masters of the knowledge they had gained through study, and pass that knowledge on to others.
This is why he began to study science in earnest by visiting scientists, reading books by science writers, and searching professional academic journals.
This book may have been written to introduce the process of an ordinary person 'reuniting' with science.
Let's take a closer look at the book.
As befitting a seasoned writer, Bill Bryson opens with an intriguing question.
The question is this:
'How do scientists find out scientific facts?'
--- p.55, from 'Science through the eyes of a traveler: A History of Nearly Everything'

Feynman's life, as told in his autobiography, is full of humor and pranks.
He was once invited to the Manhattan Project, a project to create an atomic bomb, and lived under the surveillance of the US Department of Defense. Whenever he had time, he would play around by finding out the safe's password.
He also did not hesitate to commit dangerous pranks, such as forging letters exchanged with his wife as if they were top-secret documents, thereby confusing Ministry of National Defense officials.
There was even a rumor that a warning was circulated saying, "Be careful when Feynman visits."
If the rumors were true, Feynman himself would have received them with great delight.
--- pp.63~64, from 'The Joy of Discovery: An Invitation from an Eccentric Scientist'

I think the "qualification" of a scientist that Hope Jahren talks about in her book is the ability to ask questions.
To scientists, the world is full of questions.
It cannot be denied that the willingness to get lost in the midst of countless questions and, ironically, to ask questions again is one of the greatest joys in a scientist's life.
--- p.96, from 'The Path of a Scientist's Creation, 'Lab Girl'

We were all once someone's first love.
And many of the great science fiction writers were once engineering students.
This fact is a pretty strong point of excitement.
Nevertheless, there is a rumor that engineering students are not good at writing.
Preconceptions like 'engineering students are far from books' are no longer surprising.
Are you saying that engineering students only need to be good at math?

--- p.136, from 'Engineering students can't write?'