Are there any science books (pop or not) you could recommend that don’t into this pattern?
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28256439-the-hidden-life...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34272565-life-3-0
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/19395553-our-mathematica...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28116739-other-minds
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30555486-to-be-a-machine
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7972148-proofiness
[1] Specifically, cephalopods are very intelligent compared to other invertebrates, but that's it. It's interesting because they represent a parallel evolution of greater intelligence outside the vertebrates, and because what they can do with that intelligence is greatly enhanced by their physical capabilities. Give a fish a human brain and it will have trouble twisting a lid open.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/series/scientific-american-libra...
the books are heavily illustrated, don’t shy away from the real stuff, but are still the most readable scientific publishing i have seen. whoever was the editor or manager of the series is a genius of publishing. john wheeler, julian schwinger, steven weinberg, peter atkins, and more can be found as authors. i am personally trying to collect them all.
It does cover a history of SETI, but goes into a lot of the theory that is generally beyond a bit of what I've seen discussed before in popsci. I thought I knew the subject very well, but learned a lot of new things.