I'm not a physicist but "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" was life-changing. A sweeping view of the baton-passing of ideas over decades that lead to a climatic event.<p>Both personal, and highly detailed, it is an absolute masterpiece and a must read for anyone pursuing a scientific career.
The inclusion of Vonnegut's _Cat's Cradle_ is bizarre --- it posits an impossible substance, with bizarre properties, and examines society in a way I have trouble relating to, and its commentary on science such as it is, is if anything, discouraging.<p>_Dune_ for its role in inspiring the study of ecology would seem more fitting.<p>It's unfortunate that a didactic text such as H. Beam Piper's novella "Omnilingual" couldn't be considered instead.
Bad title for the list. The books by Feynman, Weinberg, Sagan, Steinbeck, McPhee, and Levi didn't shape science. At best they are good descriptions of what happened in the century.
The field of science is too broad to capture in just 100 books without feeling like something is missing. E.g, one of the most important scientific achievements in my biased view would relate to computing (/ telecommunications) - but I do not immediately spot books related to this.<p>Edit: I missed one on technology that is listed. Still feels meager in comparison to others. But again I am biased :)
A bit of a strange list. I.e. I'm not sure that "The Hubble atlas of galaxies" by Allan Sandage is that influential really.
Also I went there to check if the Jaynes's Probability Theory book was there or not, but it is not.
This just made me realize that we're 10 years past the 100th anniversary of Einstein publishing about general relativity. Which made me realize that we're a quarter of the way through the 21th century...<p>Also, I think a list made today would have to include some of the early work on deep learning that happened in the 20th century. Which goes to show that sometimes you don't know what's important until much later on.
In line with some other comments: The list is finite, and curated, so I will add some not included: GEB (As FuriouslyAdrift said), and The Eighth Day of Creation. The latter is a collection of first-hand interviews with the biologists who shaped the rapid expansion of the field in the 20th century.