Books by Philip Ball

Colour in art - as in life - is both inspiring and uplifting, but where does it come from?

The first fully illustrated history of the chemical elements.

A cutting-edge examination of what it means to be human and to have a 'self' in the face of new scientific developments in genetic editing, cloning and neural downloading.

While the natural world is often described as organic, it is in fact structured to the very molecule, replete with patterned order that can be decoded with basic mathematical algorithms and principles. In a nautilus shell one can see logarithmic spirals, and the Golden Ratio can be seen in the seed head of the sunflower plant. These patterns and shapes have inspired artists, writers, designers, and musicians for thousands of years. "Patterns in Nature: Why the Natural World Looks the Way It Does" illuminates the amazing diversity of pattern in the natural world and takes readers on a visual tour of some of the world s most incredible natural wonders. Featuring awe-inspiring galleries of nature s most ingenious designs, "Patterns in Nature" is a synergy of art and science that will fascinate artists, nature lovers, and mathematicians alike."

Why have all human cultures - today and throughout history - made music? Why does music excite such rich emotion? And how do we make sense of musical sound? This title explores how the research in music psychology and brain science is piecing together the puzzle of how our minds understand and respond to music.

Is there a 'physics of society'? Ranging from Hobbes and Adam Smith to modern work on traffic flow and market trading, and across economics, sociology and psychology, this title shows how much we can understand of human behaviour when we cease to try to predict and analyse the behaviour of individuals.

With The Modern Myths, brilliant science communicator Philip Ball spins a new yarn. From novels and comic books to B-movies, Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley to The War of the Worlds, it is an epic exploration of literature, new media and technology, the nature of storytelling, and the making and meaning of our most important tales.

Science Book Prize-winning science writer Philip Ball explores the diversity of thinking minds, from the variety of human minds to those of mammals, insects, computers and plants, in a book that brilliantly illuminates how many different ways there are to think and engage with the world; and how particular are our own.

'This is the book I wish I could have written but am very glad I've read' Jim Al-Khalili`I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.'Richard Feynman wrote this in 1965 - the year he was awarded the Nobel prize in physics for his work on quantum mechanics.

Selected as a Book of the Year by The Times and The Economist A secret history of China - a fresh new way of thinking about a people, a civilisation, an epic story. The ubiquitous relationship that the Chinese people have had with water has made it an enduring metaphor for philosophical thought and artistic expression.

Unnatural delves beneath the surface of the cultural history of 'anthropoeia' - the artificial creation of people - to explore what it tells us about our views on life, humanity, creativity and technology, and the soul.

One of the four elements of classical antiquity, water is central to the environment of our planet. In this book, the author writes of water's origins, history, and unique physical character. As a geological agent, water shapes mountains, canyons, and coastlines, and when unleashed in hurricanes and floods its destructive power is awesome.

Why do similar patterns appear in nature in settings that seem to bear no relation to one another? Nature commonly weaves its tapestry by self-organization, employing no master plan or blueprint but by simple, local interactions between its component parts and gives rise to spontaneous patterns. This book tells how nature's patterns are made.

This book aims to stimulate the reader to think anew about some of the relationships and differences between science and art, and to challenge some of the common notions about particular 'famous experiments'.

Chemists have created superconducting ceramics for brain scanners, designed liquid crystal flat screens for televisions and watch displays, and made fabrics that change color while you wear them. This book lets the lay reader into the world of modern chemistry.

This book proposes that the complex systems view of social sciences has matured sufficiently to make it possible, desirable and perhaps essential to try formulating a unified scheme for studying, understanding and ultimately predicting the world we have made.

The brilliantly told and gripping story of the most familiar - yet, amazingly, still poorly understood - substance in the universe: Water.