Skip to main content

Authors - L

A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z

Anna Lachowska (with Apoorva Khare)

Alex Lamb

Nick Lane

Philippa Lang

Charles Langmuir (with Wally Broecker)

Mark Lasbury

Robert Laughlin

Eric Lax

Cathy Lazere (with Dennis Shasha)

James Le Fanu

Ursula Le Guin

Tom Lean

Leon Lederman (with Christopher Hill)

Leon Lederman (with Dick Teresi)

Jonah Lehrer

Fritz Leiber

Michael Lemonick

Armand Leroi

Nigel Lesmoir-Gordon (with Will Rood and Ralph Edney)

Richard Lester

Hector Levesque

Mark Levi

Frank Levin

Janna Levin

Steven Levitt (with Stephen Dubner)

Tim Lewens

Mark Leyner (with Billy Goldberg)

David Linden

Martin Lindstrom

Chris Lintott (with Patrick Moore, Brian May)

Lewis Little

David Livingston

Mario Livio

Charles Lockwood

William Bryant Logan

Mun Keat Looi (with Colin Stuart)

Jonathan Losos

Rosaly Lopes (with Michael Carroll)

David Love

Catherine Loveday

James Lovelock

Pete Lunn

Mark Lynas

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Quantum Space: Jim Baggott *****

There's no doubt that Jim Baggott is one of the best popular science writers currently active. He specialises in taking really difficult topics and giving a more in-depth look at them than most of his peers. The majority of the time he achieves with a fluid writing style that remains easily readable, though inevitably there are some aspects that are difficult for the readers to get their heads around - and this is certainly true of his latest title Quantum Space, which takes on loop quantum gravity.

As Baggott points out, you could easily think that string theory was the only game in town when it comes to the ultimate challenge in physics, finding a way to unify the currently incompatible general theory of relativity and quantum theory. Between them, these two behemoths of twentieth century physics underlie the vast bulk of physics very well - but they simply can't be put together. String theory (and its big brother M-theory, which as Baggott points out, is not actually a the…
Post a Comment
Read more

Beyond Weird - Philip Ball *****

It would be easy to think 'Surely we don't need another book on quantum physics.' There are loads of them. Anyone should be happy with The Quantum Age on applications and the basics, Cracking Quantum Physics for an illustrated introduction or In Search of Schrödinger's Cat for classic history of science coverage. Don't be fooled, though - because in Beyond Weird, Philip Ball has done something rare in my experience until Quantum Sense and Nonsense came along. It makes an attempt not to describe quantum physics, but to explain why it is the way it is.

Historically this has rarely happened. It's true that physicists have come up with various interpretations of quantum physics, but these are designed as technical mechanisms to bridge the gap between theory and the world as we see it, rather than explanations that would make sense to the ordinary reader.

Ball does not ignore the interpretations, though he clearly isn't happy with any of them. He seems to come clo…
1 comment
Read more

Everything You Know About Planet Earth is Wrong - Matt Brown ****

This is the latest of a series of 'Everything You Know About... is Wrong' books from Matt Brown. Although I always feel slightly hard done by as a result of the assertion in the title, as there are certainly things here I know that aren't wrong (I mean, come on, the first corrected piece of 'knowledge' is that 'The Earth is only 6,000 years old' and I can't imagine many readers will 'know' that), it's a handy format to provide what are often surprisingly little snippets of information that are very handy for 'did you know' conversations down the pub (or showing up your parents if you're a younger reader).

Some of the incorrect statements that head each article are well-covered, if often still believed (for example, people thought that world was flat before Columbus), some are a little tricksy in the wording (such as seas have to wash up against land) and some are just pleasantly surprising (countering the idea that gold is a rar…
2 comments
Read more