Philip Ball (born 1962) is
an English
science writer. He holds a degree in
chemistry from Oxford
and a
doctorate in physics from Bristol University
. He was an editor for the journal
Nature for over 10
years.
Critical Mass
Ball's 2004 book
Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads To
Another examines a wide range of topics including the
business cycle,
random
walks,
phase transitions,
bifurcation theory,
traffic flow,
Zipf's
law,
Small world
phenomenon,
catastrophe
theory, the
Prisoner's
dilemma. The overall theme is one of applying modern
mathematical models to social and economic phenomena.
The book was awarded
Aventis Prize for
2005.
Bibliography
- The Music Instinct (2010), ISBN 9781847920881
- Branches, Nature's Patterns, a Tapestry in three Parts
(2009), ISBN 9780199237982
- Flow, Nature's Patterns, a Tapestry in three Parts
(2009), ISBN 9780199237975
- Shapes, Nature's Patterns, a Tapestry in three Parts
(2009), ISBN 9780199237968
- The Sun and Moon Corrupted, a novel, Portobello Books
Ltd, (2008), ISBN 978-1846271083
- The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance
Magic and Science (2006), ISBN 0-434-01134-7
- Elegant Solutions: Ten Beautiful Experiments in
Chemistry (2005), ISBN 0-85404-674-7
- Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another (2004),
ISBN 0-434-01135-5
- The Ingredients: A Guided Tour of the Elements (2002),
ISBN 0-19-284100-9 (republished as The Elements: A Very Short
Introduction)
- Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour (2001), ISBN
0-670-89346-3
- Stories of the Invisible: A Guided Tour of Molecules
(2001), ISBN 0-19-280214-3 (republished as Molecules: A Very
Short Introduction)
- H2O: A Biography of Water (1999), ISBN
0-297-64314-2 (published in the U.S. as Life's
Matrix)
- The Self-made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature
(1999), ISBN 0-19-850244-3
- Made to Measure: New Materials for the 21st Century
(1997), ISBN 0-691-02733-1
- Designing the Molecular World: Chemistry at the
Frontier (1994), ISBN 0-691-00058-1
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