The Aventis Prizes for Science Books is an annual award for the previous year's best general science writing and best science writing for children. The nominees and winners are decided by the Royal Society, the UK national academy of science. The prizes were established in 1988.

It is generally considered to be the most prestigious science writing award, and is sometimes referred to as the Booker Prize of science writing. It was formerly known as the Rhône-Poulenc Prizes.

2005 Prizes

The shortlist of nominees for the General Prize is:

• Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another, by Philip Ball
• The Ancestor's Tale, by Richard Dawkins
• Why Life Speeds Up As You Get Older, by Douwe Draaisma
• Matters Of Substance: Drugs - And Why Everyone's A User, by Griffith Edwards
• The Earth: An Intimate History, by Richard Fortey
• The Human Mind, by Robert Winston

The shortlist for the Junior Prize:

• Kingfisher Knowledge: Endangered Planet, by David Burnie
• Mysteries And Marvels Of Science, by Phillip Clarke, Laura Howell, and Sarah Khan
• Leap Through Time: Earthquake, by Nicholas Harris
• Night Sky Atlas, by Robin Scagell
• Kingfisher Knowledge: Microscopic Life, by Richard Walker
• What Makes Me, Me?, by Robert Winston

The winners will be announced 2005-05-12 .

General Prize

This category is awarded to the best science writing for a non-specialist audience.

2004 Winner

The winner was announced on June 14 2004:

• A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson

The other nominees for 2004 were:

• In The Beginning Was the Worm , Andrew Brown
• Magic Universe , Nigel Calder
• Mutants , Armand Marie Leroi
• Nature Via Nurture , Matt Ridley
• Backroom Boys , Francis Spufford

2003 Winner

• Right Hand, Left Hand , Chris McManus

Other nominees:

• Small World , Mark Buchanan
• Reckoning With Risk , Gerd Gigerenzer
• The Extravagant Universe , Robert P. Kirshner
• The Blank Slate, Steven Pinker
• Where Is Everybody? , Stephen Webb

2002 Winner

• The Universe in a Nutshell, Stephen Hawking

Other nominees:

• Aeons, Martin Gorst
• The Secret Life of Dust , Hannah Holmes
• The Madness of Adam & Eve , David Horrobin
• A Primate's Memoir , Robert M. Sapolsky
• Rivals , Michael White

2001 Winner

• Mapping the Deep , Robert Kunzig

2000 Winner

• The Elegant Universe, Brian Greene

Other nominees:

• The White Death , Thomas Dormandy
• A Brief History of the Future , John Naughton
• Genome, Matt Ridley
• Time, Love, Memory , Jonathan Weiner
• Children of Prometheus , Christopher Wills

Pre-2000 Winners

• (1999) The Man Who Loved Only Numbers , Paul Hoffman
• (1998) Guns, Germs and Steel, Jared Diamond
• (1997) The Wisdom of Bones , Alan Walker and Pat Shipman
• (1996) Plague’s Progress , Arno Karlen
• (1995) The Consumer’s Good Chemical Guide , John Emsley
• (1994) The Language of the Genes, Steve Jones
• (1993) The Making of Memory , Steven Rose
• (1992) The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee , Jared Diamond
• (1991) Wonderful Life, Stephen Jay Gould
• (1990) The Emperor's New Mind, Roger Penrose
• (1989) Bones of Contention , Roger Lewin
• (1988) Living with Risk , British Medical Association Board of Science

Junior Prize

This category is awarded to the best science writing for children.

2004 Winner

• Really Rotten Experiments , Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles

Other nominees:

• , Peter Ackroyd
• Really Rotten Experiments , Nick Arnold and Tony De Saulles
• Riotous Robots , Mike Goldsmith
• , Sally Hewitt
• , Clare Oliver
• , Peter Riley

2003 Winner

• DK Guide to the Oceans , Frances Dipper

Other nominees:

• , Nick Arnold
• Get in Gear , Sholly Fisch
• , Nicholas Harris
• Why Can’t I..? Series , Sally Hewitt
• The Way Science Works , Robin Kerrod & Sharon Ann Holgate

2002 Winner

• DK Guide to the Human Body , Richard Walker

Other nominees:

• Life Finds its Feet , Jacqui Bailey
• The Kingfisher Illustrated Dinosaur Encyclopedia , David Burnie
• , Mike Goldsmith
• , Christopher Maynard
• , Alistair Smith , Phillip Clarke & Corinne Henderson

2001 Winner

• DK Guide to Weather , Michael Allaby

2000 Winner

• DK Guide to Space , Peter Bond

Pre-2000 Winners

• (1999) The Usborne Complete Book of the Microscope , Kirsteen Rogers
• (1998) The Kingfisher Book of Oceans , David Lambert
• (1997) , Nick Arnold
• (1996) The World of Weather , Chris Maynard
• (1995) The Most Amazing Pop-Up Science Book , Jay Young
• (1994)
  • , Linda Gamlin
  • Science with Weather , Rebecca Heddle and Paul Shipton
  • The Ultimate Dinosaur Book , David Lambert
• (1993) Mighty Microbes , Thompson Yardley
• (1992) The Amazing Voyage of the Cucumber Sandwich , Peter Rowan
• (1991) Cells Are Us and Cell Wars , Fran Balkwill and Mic Rolph
• (1990)
  • (under-14) , Susan Mayes
  • (under-8) The Giant Book of Space , Ian Ridpath
• (1989) The Way Things Work, David Macaulay and Neil Ardley
• (1988) Science Alive – Living Things , Roger Kerrod

External links

• Official WWW pages