20th Century:

1999 CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 80th Edition (for its extensive summary of physics and chemistry)

1999 The Bible According to Einstein (for its comprehensive presentation of current scientific knowledge for the lay person)

1988 A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes by Stephen Hawking (for its presentation of cosmology and astrophysics for the lay person)

1985 QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter by Richard P. Feynman (for the author's contribution to the quantum theory of electromagnetism)

1982 Subtle is the Lord by Abraham Pais (as a tribute to Albert Einstein)

1980 The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History by Stephen Jay Gould (as a tribute to the author for presenting paleontology to the lay person)

1978 On Human Nature by Edward O. Wilson (for its popularization of sociobiology)

1977 The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence by Carl Sagan (for presenting science to the general public)

1968 The Double Helix by James Dewey Watson (as a tribute to the author for his contribution to microbiology)

1965 The Feynman Lectures on Physics (as a tribute to the author and his service as an educator)

1953-1979 The Collected Works of C.G. Jung (for their contribution to psychology)

1947 One Two Three . . . Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science by George Gamow (for its popularization of science)

1939 The Nature of the Chemical Bond by Linus Carl Pauling (for its contribution to chemistry)

1937 Madame Curie by Ève Curie (as a tribute to the woman who won the Nobel prize twice)

1937 La physique nouvelle et les quanta (The New Physics and Quanta) by Louis de Broglie (for its contribution to quantum mechanics)

1937 Genetics and the Origin of Species by Theodosius Dobzhansky (for its contribution to genetics and evolution)

full list via geocities