Science Day in Russia: what about popular science literature?

Today, on the Day of Science, the Publishing House "Peter" raises an important topic about the place occupied by the segment of popular science literature in the modern book market. The topic is opened by Yulia Sergienko, head of the editorial office of Computer and Popular Science Literature.

The USSR was called the country of the winning scientific aid. Can we now claim such a title?

Let's remember the story. You must admit that now it is strange for us to find out that in a country that survived World War II, the publication of popular science literature made up 36% of the total volume of book production. The 90s hit hard on popular science literature, only by the end of the 2000s, this trend began to revive again. Andrei Vaganov spoke very interestingly about the history of popular science literature in his book “The Genre We Have Lost.”
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It is clear that it’s ridiculous to say that Russia is the country of the winning scientific teacher, but it can not but rejoice that people buy such books, read, and are interested in modern research in a wide variety of fields.

At what level is the segment of popular science literature now represented?
in our country?

There are publishers who adhere to strict criteria when selecting popular science books, for example, Alpina non-fiction, Corpus, our publishing house. But, unfortunately, a large number of publishers have come to the market, who do not have serious experience in the selection, preparation and translation of such literature. Therefore, the reader is faced with the question: how to choose a book?

What can you advise in this case?

I recommend to pay attention to the books that came out with the support of the Dmitry Zimin Foundation (“Dynasty”).

This fund set the bar high, which we focus on when forming a pool of popular science literature. The logo of the Dynasty Foundation is a kind of quality guarantee, as its experts always carefully select translators and scientific editors. Publishers whose books were supported by the foundation are trying to keep a high level, and any of their books, even those released without the support of the foundation, are being prepared by experts of the highest level. With the help of the foundation, we introduced our readers to the works of great scientists: Leonard Susskind, Sean Carroll, Edward Wilson, Edward Fraenkel, Nick Lane and many others.

The first book of the popular science trend in our publishing house was String Theory and Hidden Dimensions of the Universe . At the moment, this bestseller has sold over 30,000 copies.

Is there any hope that modern Russia can someday be called the country of the winning science teacher?

I want to believe, but for the time being we rejoice that young people are now actively attending lectures, various events related to science to one degree or another. Moreover, it has become fashionable to attend such events. Of course, fashion is not a permanent phenomenon, but if it is a fashion for intelligence and knowledge, then this is wonderful. An example of this is our regular meetings within the framework of the project “Science is not a flour,” which we hold with the support of Progress School and the Open Faculty. Meetings are in great demand and gather an active interested audience, most of which are young people. By the way, one of such events will take place literally in a week, we invite everyone to the discussion devoted to the release of another novelty - the book of Mark Lewis “The biology of desire” . We will talk about the nature of dependence, about what is dependence from the point of view of science and how to live with it.

What topics and trends in scientific science are now the most relevant and in demand?

The most fashionable themes that are popular with both physicists and lyricists are the themes of space, eternity, time. I would like to note the following trend: if before, only people with the appropriate education were interested in the natural-scientific direction, but now the humanities scholars have drawn themselves to them.

Initially, we were engaged in books on physics and mathematics, released an anthology of Susskind books, but then began to pay attention to biology, chemistry, and other fields.

What is planned for release in the near future in the publishing house "Peter"?

This month we will be pleased with the novelty - the book “Island of Knowledge” by Marcelo Glazer, which details various aspects of physics. The book by the popular American evolutionary biologist Beth Shapiro “The Science of Resurrection of Species. How to clone a mammoth " - she won world recognition and many awards, for example, was named the best popular science book in 2016. For everyone who cares about their health, we are preparing for the release of the publication of the author Michael Greger with the provocative title “Do not Die! Food in the fight for life. " Of course, a lot of interesting things are expected throughout the year, stay tuned for our new products.

PS In honor of the science coupon day - Science 20% discount on our New Science and Pop Science series