Philip Ball
Philip Ball is a freelance science writer.
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 and has delivered lectures to scientific and general audiences at venues ranging from the Victoria and Albert Museum (London) to the NASA Ames Research Center, London's National Theatre and the London School of Economics.
Philip writes regularly for Nature. He has contributed to publications ranging from New Scientist to the New York Times, the Guardian, the Financial Times and New Statesman. He is a contributing editor of Prospect magazine and also a columnist for Nature Materials and the Italian science magazine Sapere. He has broadcast on many occasions on radio and TV, and is a presenter of 'Science Stories' on BBC Radio 4. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry, sits on the editorial board of Chemistry World and Interdiscipinary Science Reviews, and is a board member of the RESOLV network on solvation science at the Ruhr University of Bochum.
ResearchLondinium Romans’ blood lead levels so high they may have lowered birth rates
Heavy metal’s levels were more than 70 times higher than pre-Roman populations
- Opinion
Breaking the carbon cycle
Focusing on new technologies to tackle climate change could allow policymakers to dodge their own responsibilities
- Opinion
Chemical computers question the logic of life
Circuits of chemicals could carry out calculations
- Research
Are synthetic chemists out of a job as AI meets automation?
Platform can weigh up a synthetic route, plan it and then carry out it
- Opinion
Machine-learning Mendeleevs have rediscovered the periodic table
Exposing new dimensions in the relationships between elements
- Research
AFM captures changing structures of charged molecules
Technique that adds electrons one by one could enable new molecules to be synthesised by atomic manipulation
- Feature
Primo Levi and the other periodic table
Author and chemist Primo Levi was born 100 years ago this July. Philip Ball looks at his chemical and literary legacy – including his books The Periodic Table and If This Is a Man
- Opinion
What happens when life has a limited vocabulary?
The longest synthetic genome shows us life is more complicated than just learning your AGCs
- Review
Superheavy: Making and Breaking the Periodic Table
Kit Chapman has been on a journey around the world to discover how new elements are made
- Opinion
How old is the Turin Shroud?
New evidence has reopened the debate on radiocarbon dating of the relic
- Research
Hopes raised of a ‘super-table’ to end periodic table disputes
Mathematical analysis could help answer where hydrogen or lanthanum should sit on the table
- Research
Leap forward for molecular computing as DNA executes six-bit algorithms
Computer made from DNA strands can recognise palindromes, copy and sort data, and perform random walks
- Opinion
Does science need democracy to flourish?
Evidence shows good work can survive even the harshest regimes
- Opinion
Whose periodic table is it anyway?
Dmitri Mendeleev’s table was not the first – but it’s the one that matters
- Article
Philip Ball: The Elements Song
Philip Ball updates The Elements Song for the International Year of the Periodic Table
- Feature
What is an element?
Our understanding of what an element is has evolved over the years, but it’s still a tricky concept to nail down. Philip Ball investigates
