Home

I am a science writer, author and broadcaster. I live in Oxford, UK, and write about science and scientists past and present.

Over the years I've covered many topics, mainly in the life sciences, but at the moment I'm fascinated by the lives of scientists and their interactions with the society in which they live. Biography, it seems to me, harnesses people's natural curiosity about the lives of others to tell stories about how science is really done. See my blog for occasional thoughts on science, life and time.

Through writing biographies I've found myself hovering on the fringes of history of science as practised by real historians. Until recently biography was rather a dirty word among academic historians, but they seem to be coming round to the view that there are insights to be gained from the lives of individuals after all.

My most recent published work is a chapter on 20th century X-ray crystallographers, including my previous biographical subjects Dorothy Hodgkin and Max Perutz, in a new book edited by Bill Bryson and published to mark the 350th anniversary of the Royal Society.

Recently published:

Seeing Further: The Story of Science and the Royal Society

Edited by Bill Bryson, HarperPress, UK hardback January 2010

Available on Amazon.co.uk

'This is a book of cerebral riches, heavy with history, to be consumed at leisure. It is also beautifully illustrated.’ (Tim Radford, Guardian)