Time for the verdict

... on the best science book ever. Or at any rate the best one on Thursday evening, Oct 19th.

Our (that is the RI and the science communication lot at Imperial College) event is almost upon us. If you come along, you can vote for the top science book. The core list is:

Primo Levi - The Periodic Table
Norman Mailer - A Fire on the Moon
Jim Watson - The Double Helix
Ernst Haeckel - Kunstformen der Natur
Konrad Lorenz - King Solomon's Ring
Peter Medawar - Pluto's Republic

There will be three more titles from the panel, but you won't find out what these are until the night. And we'll try and find a way of letting the audience vote in at least one more for the final run-off.

It is in the Alexander Fleming Lecture Theatre at IC, starting at 6.30, finishing at 8.00. I shall be in the chair (only a minor disincentive I hope), so shall remain strictly neutral - though some further opinions may appear here afterwards.

Oh, and you can hear some discussion on Material World (with Sue Nelson this week) on Radio 4 that afternoon, also (at around the same time) on the book panel on Radio 5 Live, broadcasting from the science museum. And I'm told there's a Guardian science podcast too, though I haven't checked it out. So we already have the most attention to science books there's been for a while, I'd say.