A journey into the mysteries and meaning of quantum theory: "Gorgeously lucid text . . . easily the best book I've read on the subject." — The Washington Post"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 wor...

"A vibrant, original portrait of a man of contradictions," the Renaissance-era Swiss father of modern medicine ( Publishers Weekly, starred review).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 b...

With the recent landing of the Mars rover Curiosity, it seems safe to assume that the idea of being curious is alive and well in modern science—that it's not merely encouraged but is seen as an essential component of the scientific mission. Yet there was a time when curiosity was condemned. Neither Pandora nor Eve could resist the dangerous allure of unanswered questions, and all knowledge wasn't equal—for millennia it was believed that there were some things we should not try to know. In ...

“Bold and intriguing.”—Wall Street Journal • “Penetrating. . . . Provocative and profound.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) • “Offers plenty of food for thought.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)**“Ball’s marvelous book is both wide-ranging and deep. . . . I could not put it down.”—Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Song of the Cell and the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Emperor of All MaladiesA new, cutting-edge ...

An epic study of classic novels, comics, and B-movies—and what they reveal about the nature of humanity in the modern age."Ball does an impressive job with the literary histories behind each iconic title, assembling a set of origin stories rich in cultural history and imagination. . . . To Ball, mythic writing is where the conditions of irrationality, superstition, and enchantment persist: forms of wonder that depend on the disconnect between what we know f...

"A wide-ranging and dazzlingly informed book about the science of interactions. I can promise you'll be amazed." —Bill Bryson, chair of the 2005 Aventis General Prize Judging PanelWinner of the Aventis Prize for Science BooksAre there any "laws of nature" that influence the ways in which humans behave and organize themselves? In the seventeenth century, tired of the civil war ravaging England, Thomas Hobbes decided that he would work out wh...

The award-winning science writer shares "a winding romp through advances in cell biology [that] pushes readers to ponder the boundaries of life" ( Science).In the summer of 2017, scientists removed a tiny piece of flesh from Philip Ball's arm and turned it into a rudimentary "mini-brain." The skin cells, removed from his body, did not die but were instead transformed into nerve cells that independently arranged themselves into a dense network and communicat...

"[A] lively biography of Chartres Cathedral . . . Ball's account of its construction reveals fascinating details." — The New YorkerChartres Cathedral, south of Paris, is revered as one of the most beautiful and profound works of art in the Western canon. But what did it mean to those who constructed it in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries—and why was it built at such immense height and with such glorious play of light, in the soaring manner we now call G...

The acclaimed science writer "curates a visually striking, riotously colorful photographic display…of physical patterns in the natural world" ( Publishers Weekly, starred review).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 th...

"A rewarding read" this political, social and cultural history of water management in China "puts water beautifully back at the heart of China's story" ( Economist).From the Yangtze to the Yellow River, China is traversed by great waterways, which have defined its politics and ways of life for centuries. In The Water Kingdom, renowned writer Philip Ball opens that window to offer an epic and powerful new way of thinking about Chinese civilization....

This "fascinating and illuminating account" explores how we might perceive the mind if we didn't put humans at the center of our understanding ( The Guardian Observer).Popular science writer Philip Ball explores a range of sciences to map our answers to a huge, philosophically rich question: How do we even begin to think about minds that are not human?Taking a uniquely broad view of minds and where to find them—including in plants, aliens, and God—Ph...

"A very fun, largely chronological journey through invisibility, beginning with myth and early magicians, ending with quantum physics." — The New YorkerIn this lively look at a timeless idea, Ball provides the first comprehensive history of our fascination with the unseen. This sweeping narrative moves from medieval spell books to the latest nanotechnology, from fairy tales to telecommunications, from camouflage to ghosts to the dawn of nuclear physics and ...