Edited by Jon Turney
Photographs by Hugo Glendinning
2003

£8.50 + p&p, 160 pp
B/w illus
ISBN 978 0 903319 98 0
Buy from Central Books
Available in Aus/NZ from Eleanor Brasch Enterprises

Jon Copley, Caroline Dessent, Marcus du Sautoy, Kevin Fong, David Gems, Janna Levin, Tanniemola Liverpool, Mark Lythgoe, Yadvinder Malhi, Charlotte Roberts

In a companion volume to Art, not Chance: Nine artists’ diaries, a young generation of outstanding scientists, many of them Royal Society Research Fellows and working in fields as diverse as genetics, cosmology and palaeopathology, defy the stereotypes, revealing with an unusual honesty the frustrations, comic moments and occasional breakthroughs in the charged and highly competitive world of contemporary science. What do mathematicians actually do? How are hypotheses dreamed up and then tested in space physiology, climate change or neuroscience? And how does an intense commitment to understanding more about the world impact on scientists’ private lives?

A BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week

‘This fascinating little volume sets out to provide a sense of science’s daily processes … The result is exhilarating.’ Lisa Appignanesi, The Independent

‘These diaries take us to the places where innovative science is being done – rainforests, zero-gravity chambers, deep under the ocean – and give a valuable insight into science as it is lived by those who practise it.’ London Review Bookshop

‘Anyone considering a career in something scientific should probably read it.’ Focus

Jon Turney is an award-winning science writer and editor. His books include Frankenstein’s Footsteps: Science, genetics and popular culture (1998), winner of the BMA Prize for popular science book of the year, A Quark for Mister Mark: 101 poems about science (2000), which he co-edited with Maurice Riordan, and Lovelock and Gaia: Signs of life (2003). He writes and reviews popular science for the Guardian, Independent, New Scientist and New York Times.