GrrlScientist 

Royal Society 2014 Winton Prize for Science Books shortlist announced

GrrlScientist: The Royal Society just announced the six books that were shortlisted for the 2014 Winton Prize for Science books.
  
  

2014 Royal Society Winton Prize shortlist for science books
2014 Royal Society Winton Prize shortlist for science books. Photograph: The Royal Society.

I’ve got some excellent news that you’ve all been waiting for: After a summer spent lounging in beach chairs under umbrellas while intensively scrutinising this year’s 12 longlisted popular science books, the Royal Society just announced the six books that comprise the shortlist for the 2014 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books.

If you look carefully at the 2014 longlist, you might wonder how the judges could choose just six?

“The judges had to think long and hard about which books to include on the shortlist this year. With so much good science writing out there at the moment, it was incredibly difficult to select only six,” said Professor Nicky Clayton FRS, chair of the judges.

Similar to last year’s shortlisted books, this year’s flock of books represents the growing body of truly exquisite science writing that is published each year across a wide variety of scientific fields.

“Whether we realise it or not, science is inextricably part of our culture and the books we have selected for the shortlist emphasise the central role it plays in all of our lives.”

If you enjoy science in all of its many expressions, then this year’s contenders for the 2014 Science Prize are outstanding additions to your libraries, whether these are your community or university libraries or your personal bookshelves, and they are first-rate supplemental classroom materials, book club books, and gifts for the special people in your lives.

“Each of these books takes you on an informative and engaging journey of the science. Some are woven with humour and passionate personal stories; others shed light on incredibly complex topics. All are beautifully written and full of the wonder of science.”

The Science Prize winner will be announced at a public event at the Royal Society on 10 November 2014. The author of the winning book will receive £25,000, while the authors of each shortlisted book will receive £2,500.

The shortlisted books

Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler by Philip Ball [The Bodley Head, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US]

Publisher’s synopsis: Serving the Reich tells the story of physics under Hitler. While some scientists tried to create an Aryan physics that excluded any ‘Jewish ideas’, many others made compromises and concessions as they continued to work under the Nazi regime. Among them were three world-renowned physicists:

  • Max Planck, pioneer of quantum theory, regarded it as his moral duty to carry on under the regime.
  • Peter Debye, a Dutch physicist, rose to run the Reich’s most important research institute before leaving for the United States in 1940.
  • Werner Heisenberg, discovered the Uncertainty Principle, and became the leading figure in Germany’s race for the atomic bomb.

After the war most scientists in Germany maintained they had been apolitical or even resisted the regime: Debye claimed that he had gone to America to escape Nazi interference in his research; Heisenberg and others argued that they had deliberately delayed production of the atomic bomb.

Mixing history, science and biography, Serving the Reich is a gripping exploration of moral choices under a totalitarian regime. Here are human dilemmas, failures to take responsibility, three lives caught between the idealistic goals of science and a tyrannical ideology.

The judges said: “An authoritative account of the complex science and politics of a much disputed period in history. This book shows how scientists can never divorce themselves completely from the world around them.”

Seven Elements That Have Changed The World: Iron, Carbon, Gold, Silver, Uranium, Titanium, Silicon by John Browne [Weidenfeld & Nicolson (an imprint of the Orion Publishing Group), 2014; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US]

Publisher’s synopsis: Humans have put the Earth’s resources to extraordinary use, but not always for the benefit of humankind. Seven elements vividly describes how iron, carbon, gold, silver, uranium, titanium and silicon have shaped the world around us -- for good and for bad.

This book takes you on an adventure of human passion, ingenuity and discovery, but it is a journey that is far from over: we continue to find surprising new uses for each of these seven key elements. Discover how titanium pervades modern consumer society, how natural gas is transforming the global energy sector and how an innovative new form of carbon could be starting a technological revolution.

Seven elements is a unique mix of science, history and politics, interwoven with the author’s extensive personal and professional experience.

The judges said: “Browne is clearly a man who has dedicated his life to the elements. This is an inspiring tale of our relationship with these seven very special elements that interweaves the culture, science and history masterfully.”

The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity by Pedro G. Ferreira [Little, Brown Book Group, 2014; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US/audio CD US]

Publisher’s synopsis: Albert Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity is possibly the most perfect intellectual achievement in modern physics. Anything that involves gravity, the force that powers everything on the largest, hottest or densest of scales, can be explained by it.

From the moment Einstein first proposed the theory in 1915, it was received with enthusiasm yet also with tremendous resistance, and for the following ninety years was the source of a series of feuds, vendettas, ideological battles and international collaborations featuring a colourful cast of characters.

A gripping, colourfully told story, A Perfect Theory entangles itself with the flashpoints of modern history. In this first complete popular history of the theory, Pedro G. Ferreira shows how the theory has informed our understanding of exactly what the universe is made of and how much is still undiscovered: from the work of the giant telescopes in the deserts of Chile to the way in which the latest work on black holes is providing a fresh, new perspective on what space and time are truly made of. As we near the first centenary of Einstein’s iconic theory, scientists the world over are wondering once again if we have reached the limits of the theory and just how much of the universe’s future it can explain.

The judges said: “A treasure trove of information about the theory of relativity and all its ramifications, carried along by stories of personal struggle that highlight how scientists are only human too.”

The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine’s Deepest Mystery by George Johnson [The Bodley Head, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US/audible US]

Publisher’s synopsis: When the woman he loved was diagnosed with a metastatic cancer, science-writer George Johnson embarked on a journey to learn everything he could about the disease and the people who dedicate their lives to understanding and combating it. What he discovered is that a revolution is now under way -- an explosion of new ideas about what cancer really is and where it comes from.

He combs through the realms of epidemiology, clinical trials, laboratory experiments and scientific hypotheses, to reveal what we know and don’t know about cancer, showing why a cure remains such a slippery concept. His luminous accounts describe tumors that evolve like alien creatures inside the body, paleo-oncologists who uncover petrified tumors clinging to the skeletons of dinosaurs and ancient human ancestors, and the surprising reversals in science’s comprehension of the causes of cancer, with the foods we eat and environmental toxins playing a lesser role. Perhaps most fascinating of all is how cancer borrows natural processes involved in the healing of a wound or the unfolding of a human embryo and turns them against the body.

Throughout his pursuit, Johnson illuminates the human experience with elegiac grace, bearing witness to the punishing gauntlet of consultations, surgeries, targeted therapies and other treatments. Provocative and intellectually vibrant, The Cancer Chronicles will challenge everything you thought you knew about the disease -- and provide hope for tomorrow and the future.

The judges said: “A wonderful and yet very sad book. It weaves together an immense amount of detail on this devastating disease with a very personal and touching story.”

Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World by Mark Miodownik [Viking (an imprint of Penguin Books), 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK; Amazon US/kindle US]

Publisher’s synopsis: Why is glass see-through? What makes elastic stretchy? How come concrete pours? Why does a paperclip bend? Why does any material look and behave the way it does?

From the towering skyscrapers of our cities to the most ordinary objects in our homes, Stuff Matters tells enthralling stories that explain the science and history of materials we take entirely for granted, while introducing some of humankind’s most ingenious and improbable inventions.

From the tea-cup to the jet engine, the silicon chip to the paper clip, the plastic in our appliances to the elastic in our underpants, world-leading materials scientist Mark Miodownik reveals the miracles of engineering and ingenuity that permeate every aspect of our lives. Along the way, he introduces materials that can heal themselves, implants that become living bone, the explosive that made the movie business, materials that might one day save the world -- and others that already have.

The judges said: “This brilliantly written book is a fresh take on material science that makes even the most everyday stuff exciting and interesting. It demonstrates just how creative and ingenious the human mind can be in its ability to incorporate them into our lives.” (Read my review.)

Gulp: Adventures of the Alimentary Canel by Mary Roach [Oneworld, 2013; Guardian Bookshop; Amazon UK/audio CD UK; Amazon US/kindle US/audio CD US]

Publisher’s synopsis: Eating is the most pleasurable, gross, necessary, unspeakable biological process we humans undertake. But very few of us realise what strange wet miracles of science operate inside us after every meal -- let alone have pondered the results (of the research). How have physicists made crisps crispier? What do laundry detergent and saliva have in common? Was self-styled ‘nutritional economist’ Horace Fletcher right to persuade millions of people that chewing a bite of shallot 700 times would yield double the vitamins? And did Elvis actually die from constipation?

In her trademark, laugh-out-loud style, Mary Roach breaks bread with spit connoisseurs and enema exorcists, stomach slugs, rectum-examining prison guards, and competitive hot dog eaters as she investigates the beginning -- and the end -- of our food.

The judges said: “Roach is such an entertaining writer who uses humour and wit to make the mundane intriguing and the unmentionable acceptable. She ventures where few would go, for example, Elvis Presley’s poop!”

You are invited to download the first chapter of each shortlisted book for free.

The judges:

  1. Professor Nicola Clayton FRS (Chair): Professor of Comparative Cognition at the University of Cambridge and Scientist in Residence at the Rambert Dance Company.
  2. Dr Nathalie Vriend: Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow, Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge.
  3. Emma Read: Head of Factual and Features at ITN Productions.
  4. Michael Frayn: playwright and novelist, best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy.
  5. Lone Frank: journalist and author of My Beautiful Genome (shortlisted for the 2012 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books).

Originally started in 1988 as the “Science Book Prizes”, the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books has been known variously as the Rhône-Poulenc Prizes for Science Books (1990-2000), the Aventis Prizes for Science Books (2001-2006), the Royal Society Prize for Science Books (2007-2010) and the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books (starting in 2011, when the global investment management company, Winton Capital Management, committed to a five-year sponsorship of this very important award).

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When she’s not got her nose in a book, GrrlScientist can also be found here: Maniraptora. She’s very active on twitter @GrrlScientist and sometimes lurks on social media: facebook, G+, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.

 

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