Everything you need to understand or teach Timescape by Gregory Benford.
Timescape, however, is not simply another disaster novel. Benford offers no lantern-jawed scientists to singlehandedly save the day, no last-minute, jury-rigged miracle machines to zap the algae, no superhuman feats of heroism. Rather, he uses the crisis to present a penetrating look at the way real science is done. As one of the few working scientists to also write science fiction (David Brin, Robert Forward, Joan Slonczewski, and Charles Sheffield are others), Benford...