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1. The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking, Bantam

2. What Shape is a Snowflake? by Ian Stewart, Weidenfeld & Nicolson

3. Uncle Tungsten by Oliver Sacks, Picador

4. The Blue Planet by Andrew Byatt, Alastair Fothergill and Martha Holmes, BBC

5. How to Build a Time Machine by Paul Davies, Allen Lane/The Penguin Press

6. It Must Be Beautiful edited by Graham Farmelo, Granta

7. The Common Thread by John Sulston, Bantam

8. The Future of Life by Edward O. Wilson, Little, Brown

9. Genes, Girls and Gamow by James Watson, Oxford University Press

10. Mercator by Nicholas Crane, Weidenfeld & Nicolson

After the necessary didactic efforts comes a touch of the picaresque from Oliver Sacks. His scientific autobiography includes the tale of 500 grams of sodium metal, a Hampstead pond and a satisfying eruption. That’s what enquiring minds want!

Information supplied by Blackwells, Oxford (Fax 01865 794143), for bestsellers in popular science first published in hardback or paperback in Britain in the past year.