
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.
- Opinion
Beyond the transition state
Entropy production could be a key guide to predicting how a reaction product forms
- Article
Causal emergence might explain how living systems can operate
Life does not run like clockwork
- Opinion
A century of curly arrows
Celebrating the simple symbols that – along with their straight counterparts – encapsulate complex chemical behaviours
- Research
Direct evidence emerges for the existence of two forms of liquid water
Low temperature experiments with sugary solution reveal transition from low- to high-density states at pressure
- Opinion
Ned Seeman’s legacy
A system based on DNA ‘tiles’ can embody Darwinian evolution, raising new possibilities for understanding natural selection and materials development
- Opinion
Don’t let the burden of proof squeeze the life out of ideas
Extraordinary claims can be extraordinarily stimulating
- Research
Quantum double-slit experiment done with molecules for the first time
Researchers prepare ‘new type of matter’ to conduct classic wave–particle duality experiment
- Opinion
Volta’s ink spills its secrets
Chemical analysis of manuscripts can reveal details of their author’s life and motivations
- Opinion
A vaccine for all seasons?
Phase 1 clinical trials have begun on a candidate that could work against a wide range of flu viruses
- Opinion
Hidden details in iconic portrait of Lavoisiers reveal fears of coming revolution
As the French Revolution neared the Lavoisiers were reimagined as scientific progressives rather than out of touch aristocrats
- Research
Observing the life and death of a single excited-state molecule
Individual pentacene’s triplet lifetime – and how it is cut short by a nearby oxygen – measured with atomic resolution
- Research
Tentacled droplets swim with stored heat energy
Microdroplets with retractable tendrils could help researchers understand how bacteria move
- Opinion
Science is political
The personal values held by scientists should influence the accolades they receive
- Research
Tiniest Turing patterns found in atomically thin bismuth
Nanoscale stripes and networks that resemble animal markings could be used to make quantum wires
- News
Race to understand Sars-CoV-2 variants amid fears virus might evade vaccines
Biochemical basis behind coronavirus variants’ success could hold key to defeating them
- Opinion
Furin fundamentals
There’s no direct evidence for the lab leak hypothesis – and the biochemistry of the virus might not tell us much about it
- Opinion
Learning the language of chemistry
Artificial intelligence works out the grammar of chemical reactions
- Opinion
Rewards based on priority drive unnecessary competition
The story of Crispr illustrates how a focus on patents and publications can cause good people to act in unsavoury ways