John Gribbin

The twentieth century gave us two great theories of physics. The general theory of relativity describes the behaviour of very large things; quantum theory the behaviour of very small things. In this landmark book, John Gribbin - one of the best-known writers of popular science over the past 30 years - presents his own version of the Holy Grail of physics, the search that has been going on for decades to find a unified 'Theory of Everything' that combines...

John Gribbin is known for giving us simple explanations of big concepts in science. But there is another way to probe the mysteries of the Universe and our place in it. Faced with persistent enquiries from his grandchildren, Gribbin realised that simple questions, such as 'Why is the sky blue?', sometimes require big answers, understandable in straightforward language. In answering those simple questions, he discovered that he was telling the story...

Echoing Sherlock Holmes' famous dictum, John Gribbin tells us: 'Once you have eliminated the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, is certainly possible, in the light of present scientific knowledge.' With that in mind, in his sequel to the hugely popular 'Six Impossible Things and Seven Pillars of Science', Gribbin turns his attention to some of the mind-bendingly improbable truths of science.

Even in the third decade of the 21st century, it is still harder for women to make a career in science than men. Two centuries ago, however, at the beginning of the 19th century, when science as we know it was just getting started, the situation was far worse. Then, the very notion of a female scientist would have been regarded as something of an oxymoron. 'Against the Odds' highlights the achievements of women who overcame hurdles and achieved scientific...