HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Philip Ball (born 1962) is a British science writer. For over twenty years he has been an editor of the journal ''
Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physics, physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomenon, phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. ...
'' for which he continues to write regularly. He now writes a regular column in '' Chemistry World''. He has contributed to publications ranging from ''
New Scientist ''New Scientist'' is a magazine covering all aspects of science and technology. Based in London, it publishes weekly English-language editions in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia. An editorially separate organisation publishe ...
'' to the ''
New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'', ''
The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
'', the ''
Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...
'' and ''
New Statesman The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members ...
''. He is the regular contributor to '' Prospect'' magazine, and also a columnist for ''Chemistry World'', ''
Nature Materials ''Nature Materials'', is a peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Nature Publishing Group. It was launched in September 2002. Vincent Dusastre is the launching and current chief editor. Aims and scope ''Nature Materials'' is focused on all ...
'' and BBC Future. He has broadcast on many occasions on radio and TV, and in June 2004 he presented a three-part serial on nanotechnology, ''Small Worlds'', on
BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...
.


Work

Ball's 2004 book '' Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another'' was the winner of the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books. It examines a wide range of topics including the
business cycle Business cycles are intervals of Economic expansion, expansion followed by recession in economic activity. These changes have implications for the welfare of the broad population as well as for private institutions. Typically business cycles are ...
,
random walk In mathematics, a random walk is a random process that describes a path that consists of a succession of random steps on some mathematical space. An elementary example of a random walk is the random walk on the integer number line \mathbb Z ...
s,
phase transition In chemistry, thermodynamics, and other related fields, a phase transition (or phase change) is the physical process of transition between one state of a medium and another. Commonly the term is used to refer to changes among the basic states o ...
s,
bifurcation theory Bifurcation theory is the mathematical study of changes in the qualitative or topological structure of a given family of curves, such as the integral curves of a family of vector fields, and the solutions of a family of differential equations. ...
,
traffic flow In mathematics and transportation engineering, traffic flow is the study of interactions between travellers (including pedestrians, cyclists, drivers, and their vehicles) and infrastructure (including highways, signage, and traffic control devi ...
, Zipf's law,
Small world phenomenon The small-world experiment comprised several experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram and other researchers examining the average path length for social networks of people in the United States. The research was groundbreaking in that it suggeste ...
, catastrophe theory, the
Prisoner's dilemma The Prisoner's Dilemma is an example of a game analyzed in game theory. It is also a thought experiment that challenges two completely rational agents to a dilemma: cooperate with their partner for mutual reward, or betray their partner ("def ...
. The overall theme is one of applying modern
mathematical models A mathematical model is a description of a system using mathematical concepts and language. The process of developing a mathematical model is termed mathematical modeling. Mathematical models are used in the natural sciences (such as physics, ...
to social and economic phenomena.Ball, Philip. (2004)
''Critical Mass - How One Thing Leads to Another''
New York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux Farrar, Straus and Giroux (FSG) is an American book publishing company, founded in 1946 by Roger Williams Straus Jr. and John C. Farrar. FSG is known for publishing literary books, and its authors have won numerous awards, including Pulitzer ...
.
In 2011, Ball published '' The Music Instinct'' in which he discusses how we make sense of sound and
Music and emotion Research into music and emotion seeks to understand the psychological relationship between human affect and music. The field, a branch of music psychology, covers numerous areas of study, including the nature of emotional reactions to music, how ...
. He outlines what is known and still unknown about how music has such an emotional impact, and why it seems indispensable to humanity. He has since argued that music is emotively powerful due to its ability to mimic humans and through setting up expectations in pitch and harmony and then violating them. Ball holds a degree in chemistry from
Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
and a doctorate in physics from Bristol University. As of 2008 he lives in London.


Books

*''Designing the Molecular World: Chemistry at the Frontier'' (1994), *''Made to Measure: New Materials for the 21st Century'' (1997), *''The Self-made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature'' (1999), *''H2O: A Biography of Water'' (1999), (published in the U.S. as ''Life's Matrix'') *''Stories of the Invisible: A Guided Tour of Molecules'' (2001), (republished as ''Molecules:
A Very Short Introduction ''Very Short Introductions'' (''VSI'') is a book series published by the Oxford University Press (OUP). The books are concise introductions to particular subjects, intended for a general audience but written by experts. Most are under 200 page ...
'' (2003),
OUP Oxford University Press (OUP) is the university press of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world, and its printing history dates back to the 1480s. Having been officially granted the legal right to print books ...
, ) *''Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour'' (2001), *''The Ingredients: A Guided Tour of the Elements'' (2002), (republished as ''The Elements: A Very Short Introduction'' (2004), OUP, ) *''Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another'' (2004), *''Elegant Solutions: Ten Beautiful Experiments in Chemistry'' (2005), *''The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science'' (2006), *''The Sun and Moon Corrupted'', a novel,
Portobello Books ''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and m ...
Ltd, (2008), *''Universe of Stone: A Biography of Chartres Cathedral'' (2008), *''Shapes, Nature's Patterns, a Tapestry in three Parts'' (2009), *''Flow, Nature's Patterns, a Tapestry in three Parts'' (2009), *''Branches, Nature's Patterns, a Tapestry in three Parts'' (2009), *''The Music Instinct'' (2010), *''Unnatural, The Heretical Idea of Making People'' (2011), *''Why Society is a Complex Matter: Meeting Twenty-first Century Challenges with a New Kind of Science'' (2012), *''Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything'' (2013), *''Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler'' (2014), Read a
excerpt


(2015), University of Chicago Press, ; (2014), Random House *''Patterns in Nature: Why the Natural World Looks the Way It Does'' (2016), *''The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China'' (2017), *''Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Quantum Physics is Different'' (2018), *''How to Grow a Human: Adventures in Who We Are and How We Are Made'' (2019),


Awards

His book '' Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another'' won the 2005 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, and his book ''Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler'' (The Bodley Head) was on the shortlist for the 2014 prize. In 2019 he won the
Kelvin Medal and Prize The Institute of Physics awards numerous prizes to acknowledge contributions to physics research, education and applications. It also offers smaller specific subject-group prizes, such as for PhD thesis submissions. Bilateral awards * The Max ...
.


References


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ball, Philip 1962 births Living people Alumni of the University of Oxford Alumni of the University of Bristol English male journalists English science writers People associated with The Institute for Cultural Research