Philip Ball

Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it. Since Niels Bohr said this many years ago, quantum mechanics has only been getting more shocking. We now realize that it's not really telling us that "weird" things happen out of sight, on the tiniest level, in the atomic world: rather, everything is quantum. But if quantum mechanics is correct, what seems obvious and right in our everyday world is built on foundations that don't seem...

Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim, who called himself Paracelsus, stands at the cusp of medieval and modern times. A contemporary of Luther, an enemy of the medical establishment, a scourge of the universities, an alchemist, an army surgeon, and a radical theologian, he attracted myths even before he died. His fantastic journeys across Europe and beyond were said to be made on a magical white horse, and he was rumored to carry...

"Winner of the 1994 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Chemistry, Association of American Publishers" Philip Ball, Associate Editor for Physical Sciences for Nature, has written on the new chemistry for both technical journals and popular magazines and newspapers. Some of the most exciting scientific developments in recent years have come not from theoretical physicists, astronomers, or molecular biologists but instead from the chemistry...

"The Elements is a stunning visual history of how the chemical elements were discovered. By piecing together the Periodic Table, science writer Philip Ball explores not only how we came to understand what everything is made of but also how chemistry developed into a modern science. He groups the elements into chronological eras of discovery, covering three millennia from the first known to the last named. As he moves deliberately from classical antiquity...

"Though at first glance the natural world may appear overwhelming in its diversity and complexity, there are regularities running through it, from the hexagons of a honeycomb to the spirals of a seashell and the branching veins of a leaf. Revealing the order at the foundation of the seemingly chaotic natural world, Patterns in Nature explores not only the math and science but also the beauty and artistry behind nature's awe-inspiring designs, "--Amazon.com....

"Some stories keep returning, each time reimagined to fit the occasion. In some cases, we know them without having read the originals, and in a few brief sentences we can sketch the essential plot points and key characters. Robinson Crusoe, Frankenstein, Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Sherlock Holmes, Batman: their stories, Philip Ball contends, are among our modern myths. Written since Crusoe was published in 1719, these modern myths truly serve...