Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

Possibly my favorite sci-fi book and one of my favorite books in general is Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. There isn't a preponderance of science in it, but it takes time to examine what it means to be a scientist, especially one who works on weapons which have world-ending potential. I highly recommend reading it at some point. It's not to long but here are some passages to point out:

-Chapter 6, particularly the last paragraph

-Chapter 20

Chapter 20 describes the principles of the main scientific technology in the book, ice-nine. I feel this is a great example of sci-fi done well because it relies on true scientific principles and then adds some flair to them. It is true that there are different types of ice which form at different pressures and temperatures. However, it is untrue that there is any form of ice we know about which behaves likes ice-nine. On the other hand, prions (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prion), which I find totally fascinating, work in a similar manner but with proteins. For another good example of low-key sci-fi that seems almost realistic, check out the movie Primer. 

I found a pdf of the test available here: https://7chan.org/lit/src/Cat's_Cradle.pdf

In some ways, the premise for the narrator writing the book is almost like an ethnographic study. He wants to learn more about the human aspects of the scientists behind the atomic bomb (another example of drawing from real science. Also, a lot of passages deal with how non-scientists may perceive science as magic, and the dilemmas associated with that.