Philip Ball
Philip Ball is a freelance science writer. He trained as a chemist at the University of Oxford, and as a physicist at the University of Bristol.
He worked previously at Nature for over 20 years, first as an editor for physical sciences and then as a consultant editor. His writings on science for the popular press have covered topical issues ranging from cosmology to the future of molecular biology.
Philip is the author of many popular books on science, including H2O: A Biography of Water, Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour, The Music Instinct and Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything. His book Critical Mass won the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books, while Serving the Reich was shortlisted for the Royal Society Winton Science Book Prize in 2014.
Philip writes regularly for publications including Nature, New Scientist, the Guardian, the Financial Times, Prospect and New Statesman. He has broadcast on many occasions on radio and TV, and is a presenter of Science Stories on BBC Radio 4. He was awarded the William Thomson, Lord Kelvin Medal and Prize in 2019 by the Institute of Physics for communication of physics, and the American Chemical Society James T Grady–James H Stack Award in 2006 for interpreting chemistry for the public. He holds honorary degrees from Bristol University and Union College, NY.
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Research‘Ageing’ cellular blobs could be linked to neurodegenerative diseases
Over time biomolecular condensates’ redox activity drops and tangled aggregates linked to conditions like Alzheimer’s build-up
OpinionTunnelling to the heart of cell communication
Nanotubes are being found in an increasing number of biological contexts, including the developing heart
Research‘Hidden grammar’ explains proteins’ distribution into sub-cellular condensates
Proteins’ amino-acid sequences appear to guide their access to blob-like aggregates involved in many cell processes
OpinionScientific institutions have a long history of anticipatory obedience
Societies should learn from this and speak up to support inclusion
OpinionCelebrating 100 years of the Pauli exclusion principle
How a quantum view of electron states enabled us to understand the stability of matter
OpinionThere are no life lessons to be learned in AI’s Chinese Room
There’s a lot more lab work to do before we understand the ‘language of life’
OpinionWhat are the limits of life?
In search of design principles that would apply to living systems evolved anywhere in the universe
OpinionA high-pressure insight into the structure of water
The hydrogen-bonded network in liquid water resists compression; density increases instead arise from molecules moving into voids
OpinionA broader view of condensates
Exquisite insight into chromosome separation reveals the intricate relationships between molecular changes and large-scale cell processes
OpinionEnormous enzymes expand the limits of molecular biology
Identifying the PKZILLAs, used by algae to make toxins, stretched the capabilities of current analytical methods – and the limits of our preconceptions
OpinionTriggering a nuclear chain reaction
How Leo Szilard’s concept emerged from a rich interchange of ideas across disciplinary silos
OpinionA common misunderstanding about wave-particle duality
Instead of treating quantum particles as shape-shifters, we should think in terms of probability distributions
OpinionThe 1920s chemists who thought they’d achieved the alchemists’ dream
The now-forgotten transmutation controversy hung on apparent evidence of mercury transforming into gold
OpinionHeated crystals jump to enantiomeric separation
Chiral asparagine monohydrate crystals can segregate by handedness – if you arrange them carefully first
FeatureSmall molecules that switch up cell development could transform medicine
Turning mature somatic cells back into flexible stem cells using small molecules could revolutionise medicine, especially for regeneration and cancer. Philip Ball reports
OpinionAn unprecedented supramolecular structure brings new complexities to life
The transcription factor FOXP3’s interactions with DNA present more evidence of the importance of disorder
OpinionAtmospheres conducive to life
Researchers propose a new biosignature that could hint at habitable exoplanets
ResearchMolecular movie captures DNA repair from start to finish
Study spans pico- to microsecond timescales to uncover enzymatic process