I wrote a longer essay on the topic.

If students today wish to protest to demand more "relevance" in their education, then I believe that they have a case. How can they face the twenty-first century if their academic leaders are oblivious to the nineteenth and twentieth?

Update: The Speculist has comments on this issue, including an attempt to channel Isaac Asimov. Also, in case you missed the trackback, Freedom-to-Tinker invited readers to submit lists of science books. Interesting that they turn out for the most part to be a bit too theoretical for my taste.