“wide-ranging, intelligent and non-dogmatic… a lucid and companionable guide to some of the big issues in science, past and present.”
Martin Kemp, Times Literary Supplement
“Ball is capable of making us gasp at worlds both tiny and huge.”
Nicholas Lezard, The Guardian (on Flow)
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Reviews: NATURE’S PATTERNS: A Tapestry in Three PartsRead More »
UNIVERSE OF STONE
“impressively erudite, refreshingly undogmatic, and delightfully discursive… It will make many readers rush to see its subject for themselves.” Financial Times
“Ball presents an impressive amount of technical information in lucid and engaging form. There is no better general introduction to the subject.” Wall Street Journal
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Reviews: UNIVERSE OF STONE: Chartres Cathedral and the Triumph of the Medieval MindRead More »
“How do you write a novel about science? Many people do it badly, but with ‘The Sun and Moon Corrupted’, Philip Ball succeeds at his first attempt. Six steps lead to a good read, and Ball has aced them all.” Nature
“Ball has still written a fine novel which achieves a kind of well-wrought luminescence and purity of its own: much like the glowing result of an alchemical experiment.” The New Humanist
“Neder is as elusive, crazed and compelling as Nabokov’s John Shade.” Financial Times
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“Ball brings to light a largely forgotten phase of human understanding. It is a considerable achievement.”Peter Ackroyd, Times
“Wonderfully rich… Ball does an excellent job of recreating this strange and wonderful age, with its wandering wizards and its magical worldview. [He] succeeds in convincing us that, despite [Paracelsus’s] arcane ideas, his vision of the ‘strangeness and the beauty of the magical universe’ remains both inspiring and important.” P.D.Smith, Guardian
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Reviews: THE DEVIL’S DOCTOR: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and ScienceRead More »
“I cannot think of anyone else who is able to present this chemical history tour with such precision and clarity… Ball is witty, wise, and delightful.” Pedro Cintas, Angewandte Chemie
“The whole book is full of vivid characters, pointed anecdote and insightful comment, and is a delight to read.” Martyn Berry, Chemistry & Industry
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Reviews: ELEGANT SOLUTIONS: Ten Beautiful Experiments in ChemistryRead More »
“Ball delves far beyond today’s headlines… substantial, impeccably researched and generally persuasive. For anyone who would like to learn about the intellectual ferment at the surprising junction of physics and social science, Critical Mass is the place to start.” Steven Strogatz, Nature
“Philip Ball makes physics sexy again in Critical Mass.” Vanity Fair
“Lively and wonderfully informative.” George Scialabba, Boston Globe
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Reviews: CRITICAL MASS: How One Thing Leads to AnotherRead More »
“A delight of a book· It could become a classic. Hold on to your first edition”New Scientist
“This provocative book· is surely worth a read by both general readers and chemists.”Nature
“With [a] good-tempered twinkle Ball provides an extended essay on the culture, history, and nature of the chemical elements. His range is somewhat sweeping, but Ball is choosy about what he shares, and the immensity of the topic is never overwhelming.”Chemical & Engineering News
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Reviews: THE INGREDIENTS: A Guided Tour of the ElementsRead More »
“If the intimate workings of molecules seem invisible, through Philip Ball’s lively prose we see them – coming to life, helping us live. A special delight of this excellent book is the tie that emerges between the wondrous molecules of nature and those that chemists make in the laboratory.” Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 1981
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Reviews: STORIES OF THE INVISIBLE: A Guided Tour of MoleculesRead More »
“If the intimate workings of molecules seem invisible, through Philip Ball’s lively prose we see them – coming to life, helping us live. A special delight of this excellent book is the tie that emerges between the wondrous molecules of nature and those that chemists make in the laboratory.” Roald Hoffmann, Nobel Laureate in Chemistry, 1981
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Reviews: BRIGHT EARTH: Art and the Invention of ColourRead More »
“Ball engages fearlessly with all the questions most non-scientists can never answer: how hydrogen and oxygen came to combine following the Big Bang; why water freezes from the top down; why snowflakes have six points; and how water came to cover two-thirds of our planet. He writes clearly, humorously and with an enviable range of literary allusions about a subject which would tie others in knots. This is a science book to recommend highly.” Charles Clover, Daily Telegraph
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