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Reading Room

Reading Room

What I would put in a new student’s hands.

Light and matter

Ahmed Zewail, Femtochemistry: Atomic-Scale Dynamics of the Chemical Bond Using Ultrafast Lasers · Nobel Lecture, 1999
The lecture that made watching a chemical bond break in real time an ordinary idea. Everything we do in the lab descends from this.

Donna Strickland and Gérard Mourou, the chirped-pulse amplification lectures · Nobel Lectures, 2018
Why a femtosecond laser can sit on a lab bench at all — including ours.

Anne L’Huillier, The Route to Attosecond Pulses · Nobel Lecture, 2023
Light pulses shorter than the femtosecond — the next frontier down from where we work.

Angela Belcher, Using nature to grow batteries · TED, 2011
I call this talk “mastering nature.” It will expand your horizons.

George Whitesides, Toward a science of simplicity · TED, 2010
The power of simple building blocks that can be used to create extreme complexity.

Ainissa Ramirez, The Alchemy of Us · MIT Press, 2020
The best popular book on materials I know; give it to anyone who asks what a materials scientist does.

Patterns in nature

Philip Ball, The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature · Oxford, 1999 · expanded as the Shapes / Flow / Branches trilogy, 2009
The book I hand people who ask why the same lab photographs galaxies, fracture networks, and dendrites: nature repeats her best ideas.

Ernst Haeckel, Art Forms in Nature · Prestel, 1998
Scientific drawing as art, without losing an ounce of rigor — a standard to aim for in every figure.

György Doczi, The Power of Limits · Shambhala, 2005
Proportion as a constraint that creates rather than restricts — true in nature, art, and experiments.

Marcus du Sautoy, Symmetry, reality’s riddle · TEDGlobal, 2009
Can we learn crystallography better through the art of symmetry? I think so.

Philip Ball, How Life Works · University of Chicago Press, 2023
Ball again — patterns, this time in living matter.

How discovery happens

Richard Hamming, You and Your Research · Bell Communications Research Colloquium, 1986
An excellent talk — the one I reread every year.

Thomas Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions · University of Chicago Press, 1962
Where “paradigm shift” came from, before it became a cliché — read the original.

Jon Gertner, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation · Penguin, 2012
Read it next to Hamming’s talk — same building, same question: what makes a place produce great work?

Frances Arnold, Innovation by Evolution · Nobel Lecture, 2018
Directed evolution as a discovery engine — the mindset behind autonomous materials discovery.

Demis Hassabis, Accelerating Scientific Discovery with AI · Nobel Lecture, 2024
The first Nobel for an AI-enabled scientific breakthrough. Prediction first, then control — the same arc we are trying to walk for materials.

Edward O. Wilson, Letters to a Young Scientist · W. W. Norton, 2013 · and his TED talk, 2012
Go as far as you can.

David Epstein, Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World · Riverhead, 2019
A defense of the winding path — from laser 3D printing to femtochemistry to economic complexity, I am partial to it.

Learning and teaching

Noam Chomsky, The Purpose of Education · Learning Without Frontiers, 2012
What education is for, from someone who never confuses it with schooling.

Ken Robinson, Do schools kill creativity? · TED, 2006
A joyful and inspiring talk about education.

John Seely Brown, Tinkering as a Mode of Knowledge Production · Stanford, 2008
He simply says “I am what I create.” So do as much as you can do, go as far as you can go.

Daphne Bavelier, Your brain on video games · TED, 2012
Is an insidious change in learning possible through engineered games? Definitely — it is why we build virtual laboratories.

Barbara Oakley, Learning how to learn · TEDxOaklandUniversity, 2014
The mechanics of learning, taught honestly — I recommend it to every new student before their first semester.

The craft

William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style · any edition; the 1918 original is free online
A must-have.

William Zinsser, On Writing Well · HarperCollins, 2006
Also a must-have.

George M. Whitesides, Whitesides’ Group: Writing a Paper · Advanced Materials, 2004
The cleanest, fastest introduction to writing a scientific paper.

Marco Rolandi, Karen Cheng and Sarah Pérez-Kriz, A Brief Guide to Designing Effective Figures for the Scientific Paper · Advanced Materials, 2011
This one is about figures.

Edward Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information · Graphics Press, 1983
Read it once and you will never see a cluttered graph innocently again.

Felice Frankel and George M. Whitesides, On the Surface of Things · Harvard University Press, 2007 · with Hofmann’s Scientific Writing and Communication as the broad reference
Where a scientific photograph earns its place as argument, not decoration.

Staying whole

Matt Walker, Sleep is your superpower · TED, 2019 · and Why We Sleep, 2017
Sleep is the cheapest performance enhancer a scientist has.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow · Harper, 2008
One of my favorites.

Diana Nyad, Never, ever give up · TED, 2013
Persistence, at sixty-four, in open water.

William Kamkwamba, How I harnessed the wind · TED, 2009
A wind turbine from scrap and a library book. No excuses after this one.

Angela Duckworth, Grit: the power of passion and perseverance · TED, 2013 · and the book, 2016
Check her book too.

Rahaf Harfoush, How burnout makes us less creative · TED, 2020
The case for rest as part of the work, not a break from it.

The Full Shelf

Talks

  1. Noam Chomsky, The Purpose of Education, Learning Without Frontiers Conference, London, 2012.
  2. Jaron Lanier, How we need to remake the internet, TED, 2018.
  3. Diana Nyad, Never, ever give up, TED, 2013.
  4. William Kamkwamba, How I harnessed the wind, TED, 2009.
  5. John Seely Brown, Tinkering as a Mode of Knowledge Production, Stanford, 2008.
  6. Tony Wagner, Play, passion, purpose, TEDxNYED, 2012.
  7. Sara Goering, Philosophy for Kids: Sparking a Love of Learning, TEDxOverlake, 2011.
  8. Paola Antonelli, Design and the Elastic Mind, TED, 2007. We will see more art in science and more science in art.
  9. Richard W. Hamming, You and Your Research, Bell Communications Research Colloquium, 1986.
  10. Ken Robinson, Do schools kill creativity?, TED, 2006.
  11. Education Nation 2.0: Redefining K-12 Education in America, Stanford round table, 2011.
  12. Waiting for “Superman”, dir. Davis Guggenheim, 2010.
  13. Ken Robinson, The World We Explore, Zeitgeist Americas, 2012.
  14. Daphne Bavelier, Your brain on video games, TED, 2012.
  15. Alan Alda, Helping the Public Get Beyond a Blind Date with Science, SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2012.
  16. Sheryl Sandberg, Why we have too few women leaders, TED, 2010. More women are needed in the workforce to make a better world. We know what men are capable of.
  17. George Whitesides, Toward a science of simplicity, TED, 2010.
  18. Henry Markram, A brain in a supercomputer, TED, 2009.
  19. Stephen Wolfram, Computing a theory of everything, TED, 2010.
  20. Angela Belcher, Using nature to grow batteries, TED, 2011.
  21. Donald Sadoway, The missing link to renewable energy, TED, 2012. Also a very good teacher; see his solid-state chemistry class on MIT OCW.
  22. Mitchell Joachim, Don’t build your home, grow it!, TED, 2010.
  23. Bang Wong, Keynote on Communicating Science Visually, VIZBI, 2010.
  24. Marco Rolandi and Karen Cheng, Designing Scientific Figures, webinar, 2012; see their paper in the writing section.
  25. Tristram Stuart, The global food waste scandal, TED, 2012. Check his book, too.
  26. Amy Cuddy, Your body language may shape who you are, TED, 2012. (A note from a scientist: the “power posing” effect later failed to replicate — itself a lesson worth keeping on this list.)
  27. Brené Brown, The power of vulnerability, TED, 2010.
  28. Eric Whitacre, A virtual choir 2,000 voices strong, TED, 2011.
  29. Aimee Mullins, It’s not fair having 12 pairs of legs, TED, 2009.
  30. Larry Smith, Why you will fail to have a great career, TEDxUW, 2011.
  31. Edward O. Wilson, Advice to young scientists, TED, 2012.
  32. Aubrey de Grey, interview, The Science Network, 2012 (video no longer online).
  33. Filiz Garip, Inflection Points, TurkishWIN Talks, 2013.
  34. Ann Woodworth, Acting for Your Life, TEDxEducationCity, 2012.
  35. Marcus du Sautoy, Symmetry, reality’s riddle, TEDGlobal, 2009.
  36. Britta Riley, A garden in my apartment, TEDxManhattan, 2011.
  37. David McCandless, The beauty of data visualization, TEDGlobal, 2010.
  38. James B. Glattfelder, Who controls the world?, TEDxZurich, 2012.
  39. Adam Savage, How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries, TED-Ed, 2012.
  40. Julian Treasure, Why architects need to use their ears, TEDGlobal, 2012.
  41. Barbara Oakley, Learning how to learn, TEDxOaklandUniversity, 2014.
  42. Josh Kaufman, The first 20 hours — how to learn anything, TEDxCSU, 2013.
  43. Filipe Castro Matos, How waking up every day at 4:30 am can change your life, TEDxAUBG, 2015.
  44. Sal Khan, Let’s teach for mastery — not test scores, TED, 2015.
  45. Kandice Sumner, How America’s public schools keep kids in poverty, TEDxBeaconStreet, 2015.
  46. Hans and Ola Rosling, How not to be ignorant about the world, TED, 2014. Hans is great.
  47. Marisa Peer, To reach beyond your limits by training your mind, TEDxKCS, 2015.
  48. Robert Grant, Beautiful minds are free from fear, TEDxOrangeCoast, 2013.
  49. Matt Walker, Sleep is your superpower, TED, 2019.
  50. Stephen Duneier, How to achieve your most ambitious goals, TEDxTucson, 2017.
  51. Angela Lee Duckworth, Grit: the power of passion and perseverance, TED, 2013.
  52. Wendy Suzuki, The brain-changing benefits of exercise, TED, 2018.
  53. Murat Dalkılınç, Why sitting is bad for you, TED-Ed, 2015.
  54. Laura Schmidt, Why we can’t stop eating unhealthy foods, TEDMED, 2016.
  55. Ruben Meerman, How breathing and metabolism are interconnected, TEDxBundaberg, 2019.
  56. Rahaf Harfoush, How burnout makes us less creative, TED “The Way We Work,” 2020.
  57. Howard Gardner, What does it mean to be intelligent?, The Royal Institution, 2020.
  58. Michael Shellenberger, Why renewables can’t save the planet, TEDxDanubia, 2019.
  59. David Epstein, How falling behind can get you ahead, TEDxManchester, 2020.
  60. Curated TED playlists on education and sustainability.

Books

  1. Judith S. Zawojewski, Heidi Diefes-Dux and Keith J. Bowman (Eds.), Models and Modeling in Engineering Education, Sense Publishers, 2008.
  2. Douglas Thomas and John Seely Brown, A New Culture of Learning, 2011.
  3. Douglas R. Hofstadter, Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, Penguin, 1979.
  4. Philip Ball, The Self-Made Tapestry, Oxford, 1999; and Shapes, Flow, Branches, Oxford, 2009.
  5. Michael S. Gazzaniga, The Social Brain, Basic Books, 1987.
  6. Felice Frankel and Angela H. DePace, Visual Strategies, Yale, 2012.
  7. Felice Frankel and George M. Whitesides, On the Surface of Things, Harvard, 2007; and No Small Matter, Harvard, 2009.
  8. Edward Tufte, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, Graphics Press, 1983.
  9. Ergun Türkcan, Dünya’da ve Türkiye’de Bilim, Teknoloji ve Politika, 2009.
  10. Emre Kongar, 21. Yüzyılda Türkiye, 1999.
  11. Al Seckel, Masters of Deception, Sterling, 2004.
  12. William H. Cropper, Great Physicists, Oxford, 2004. A good way to learn thermodynamics.
  13. Edward O. Wilson, Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge, Vintage, 1999; and Letters to a Young Scientist, W. W. Norton, 2013.
  14. Stefano E. D’Anna, The School for Gods, University of Buckingham Press, 2009.
  15. Timothy Gowers et al. (Eds.), The Princeton Companion to Mathematics, Princeton, 2008.
  16. Hermann Hesse, Demian (1919) and Steppenwolf (1927).
  17. Richard Dawkins (Ed.), The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing, Oxford, 2008.
  18. Ernst Haeckel et al., Art Forms in Nature, Prestel, 1998.
  19. Tuncay Deniz, Türk Uçak Üretimi — Turkish Aircraft Production, 2004.
  20. Thomas S. Kuhn, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, University of Chicago Press, 1962.
  21. Maura Cullen, 35 Dumb Things Well-Intended People Say, Morgan James, 2008.
  22. Richard Florida, The Rise of the Creative Class, Basic Books, 2002.
  23. John L. Heilbron (Ed.), The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science, Oxford, 2003.
  24. Özer Ozankaya, Dünya Düşünürleri Gözüyle Atatürk ve Cumhuriyeti, İş Bankası Kültür Yayınları, 2000.
  25. Taylan Özbay, Susulacak Zaman mı? (2011) and Atatürkçülüğün Kurtuluş Savaşı (2012), İlkim Ozan Yayınları.
  26. Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain (1979) and Drawing on the Artist Within (1986).
  27. Colin Beavan, No Impact Man, Macmillan, 2009.
  28. Tristram Stuart, Waste: Uncovering the Global Food Scandal, W. W. Norton, 2009.
  29. Ken Robinson, Out of Our Minds (2011); with Lou Aronica, The Element (2009); and The Arts in Schools (1982).
  30. John Hagel III, John Seely Brown and Lang Davison, The Power of Pull, Basic Books, 2010. One of my favorites.
  31. György Doczi, The Power of Limits, Shambhala, 2005.
  32. Steven Vogel, Cats’ Paws and Catapults, W. W. Norton, 1998.
  33. Richard A. Muller, Physics for Future Presidents, W. W. Norton, 2008.
  34. Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin and Monique Sternin, The Power of Positive Deviance, Harvard Business Press, 2010.
  35. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, Harper, 2008. One of my favorites.
  36. Daniel H. Pink, Drive, Riverhead, 2009.
  37. Carol Dweck, Mindset, Ballantine, 2008.
  38. Tony Wagner, The Global Achievement Gap, Basic Books, 2010.
  39. Angela Duckworth, Grit, Scribner, 2016.
  40. Jeff Olson, The Slight Edge, Greenleaf, 2013.
  41. Harold Liebowitz (Ed.), Fracture: An Advanced Treatise, Academic Press, 1968–1972. Still the fracture reference on my shelf.
  42. Thomas Piketty, Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Harvard, 2014.
  43. Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences, Basic Books, 2006.
  44. Abraham H. Maslow, Motivation and Personality, Harper & Row, 3rd ed. 1987.
  45. John J. Medina, Brain Rules: 12 Principles for Surviving and Thriving at Work, Home, and School, Pear Press, 2008.
  46. Ainissa Ramirez, The Alchemy of Us, MIT Press, 2020.
  47. Philip Ball, How Life Works, University of Chicago Press, 2023.
  48. Ahmed Zewail, Voyage Through Time: Walks of Life to the Nobel Prize, American University in Cairo Press, 2002.
  49. Jon Gertner, The Idea Factory, Penguin, 2012.
  50. David Epstein, Range, Riverhead, 2019.
  51. Vaclav Smil, How the World Really Works, Viking, 2022.
  52. Melanie Mitchell, Artificial Intelligence: A Guide for Thinking Humans, FSG, 2019.
  53. Matthew Walker, Why We Sleep, Scribner, 2017.

Scientific writing

  1. William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style, any edition. A must-have.
  2. William Zinsser, On Writing Well, HarperCollins, 2006. Also a must-have.
  3. George M. Whitesides, Whitesides’ Group: Writing a Paper, Advanced Materials 16, 1375–1377 (2004).
  4. Marco Rolandi, Karen Cheng and Sarah Pérez-Kriz, A Brief Guide to Designing Effective Figures for the Scientific Paper, Advanced Materials 23, 4343–4346 (2011).
  5. Michael F. Ashby, How to Write a Paper, University of Cambridge, 2005. Search for it — a short, widely shared guide.
  6. Thomas M. Annesley et al., Guide to Scientific Writing, a paper series in Clinical Chemistry (2010–2011).
  7. Angelika H. Hofmann, Scientific Writing and Communication, Oxford, 2010. My favorite — broad, and covers everything from basics to review, posters, and talks.

Career and craft

  1. Philip E. Agre, Networking on the Network, 2004 (archived). Just read it.
  2. Peter J. Feibelman, A PhD Is Not Enough, Basic Books, 2011. Read this short book to understand what you are in, if you are doing a PhD.
  3. Stephen R. Covey, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Free Press, 2004. (Take only the good stuff.)
  4. Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit, Random House, 2012.
  5. Peter S. Fiske, Put Your Science to Work, AGU, 2001.
  6. Richard M. Reis, Tomorrow’s Professor, Wiley-IEEE Press, 1997.
  7. Julia M. Vick and Jennifer S. Furlong, The Academic Job Search Handbook, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2008.
  8. Peg Boyle Single, Demystifying Dissertation Writing, Stylus, 2009.
  9. Steven M. Cahn, From Student to Scholar, Columbia University Press, 2008.

Websites

  1. Mühendishane, Malzeme Mühendisliği Akademisi.
  2. Materials Research Society.
  3. ted.com.
  4. phys.org.
  5. imechanica.org.
  6. asknature.org and the Biomimicry Institute.
  7. insidehighered.com.
  8. DoITPoMS, University of Cambridge.
  9. Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseWare, Coursera, and edX.
  10. opensourceecology.org.
  11. nanohub.org.
  12. processing.org.
  13. twistedsifter.com, for fun.
  14. Colossal.
  15. My Modern Met.
  16. gizmodo.com.
  17. engineering.com.

Random things

  1. The Pythagorean theorem, visualized.
  2. THE GAP by Ira Glass. Never give up.
  3. Chèvres en équilibre, goats on sheet metal.
  4. Which is the killer, current or voltage?, by Mehdi Sadaghdar.
  5. Henri Cartier-Bresson, The Decisive Moment (the old upload is gone — search YouTube for a current one).
  6. Juana Knits the Planet — the world’s smallest comic.

Curated September 2026 · the full shelf above is the complete collection, 2009–2026.