Books by Philip Ball
Found 5 books
He was an editor at Nature for about 20 years. His books cover such diverse topics as chemistry, physics, the history of experiments , social science, color , the elements , water , water in China , Chartres Cathedral, music , and more. But most notably, he has a new book out this year, a major work called How Life Works : A User’s Guide to the New Biology . Philip, welcome.
He was an editor at Nature for about 20 years. His books cover such diverse topics as chemistry, physics, the history of experiments , social science, color , the elements , water , water in China , Chartres Cathedral, music , and more. But most notably, he has a new book out this year, a major work called How Life Works : A User’s Guide to the New Biology . Philip, welcome.
He was an editor at Nature for about 20 years. His books cover such diverse topics as chemistry, physics, the history of experiments , social science, color , the elements , water , water in China , Chartres Cathedral, music , and more. But most notably, he has a new book out this year, a major work called How Life Works : A User’s Guide to the New Biology . Philip, welcome.
The author is Philip Ball , and the subtitle is A User’s Guide to the New Biology . I thought this book was wonderful, one of the best popular science books I’ve read in a long time. I’m sure its contents are familiar to many MR readers, but for me it was a very good introduction to debunking Richard Dawkins-like “primacy of the gene” stories, rather seeing genes as part of a broader, fairly flexible biological ecosystem.
2. Philip Ball, The Water Kingdom: A Secret History of China . I am glad to see the Grand Canal finally get its due. “An epic portrait of China’s water management history,” says one blurb. I found half of this book fascinating and the other half not terrible.