Every winner, newest first

Royal Society Science Book Prize Winners

1988 to 2025

Winners by year

Newest first. The year links to everything published or awarded that year.

Royal Society Science Book Prize Winners, newest first
Year	Book and author
2025	Our Brains, Our Selves: What a Neurologist's Patients Taught Him About the Brain by Masud Husain
2024	A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith
2023	An Immense World by Ed Yong
2022	A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth by Henry Gee
2021	Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake
2020	Explaining Humans by Camilla Pang
2019	Invisible Women by Caroline Criado Perez
2018	Inventing Ourselves by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore
2017	Testosterone Rex by Cordelia Fine
2016	The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf
2015	Adventures in the Anthropocene by Gaia Vince
2014	Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik
2013	The Particle at the End of the Universe by Sean Carroll
2012	The Information by James Gleick
2011	The Wavewatcher's Companion by Gavin Pretor-Pinney
2010	Life Ascending by Nick Lane
2009	The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes
2008	Six Degrees by Mark Lynas
2007	Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert
2006	Electric Universe by David Bodanis
2005	Critical Mass by Philip Ball
2004	A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson
2003	Right Hand, Left Hand by Chris McManus
2002	The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking
2001	Mapping the Deep by Robert Kunzig
2000	The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene
1999	The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman
1998	Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond
1997	The Wisdom of the Bones by Alan Walker and Pat Shipman
1996	Plague's Progress by Arno Karlen
1995	The Consumer's Good Chemical Guide by John Emsley
1994	The Language of the Genes by Steve Jones
1993	The Making of Memory by Steven Rose
1992	The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond
1991	Wonderful Life by Stephen Jay Gould
1990	The Emperor's New Mind by Roger Penrose
1989	Bones of Contention by Roger Lewin
1988	Living with Risk by British Medical Association Board of Science

About the Royal Society Science Book Prize

The Royal Society Science Book Prize celebrates the very best in popular science writing, awarded annually since 1988 to books that make science accessible and engaging to general readers.

Awarded by: The Royal Society
First awarded: 1988
Country: United Kingdom
Winner receives: £25,000

When it is announced

The winner is announced in the autumn, usually October, after a shortlist in the summer. See the full announcement calendar.

How to enter

Publishers submit popular science books written for a general reader rather than for specialists.

Official prize site. Checked August 2026. Dates move year to year, so confirm on the official site before entering.