Publication dates are given for essays that have previously appeared in New Scientist.
Philip Ball (‘Impossible reaction’, published 21 January 2012) is a freelance writer. He previously worked for over twenty years as an editor for Nature. He has written many books on the interactions of the sciences, arts and wider culture, including The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature, H2O: A Biography of Water, Critical Mass and The Music Instinct.
Stephen Battersby (‘Pathways to cosmic oblivion’, published 5 February 2005) is a freelance science writer, quiz-question setter and consultant for New Scientist. He covers most sides of science, but has a soft spot for icy moons.
Michael Brooks (‘Placebo power’, published 20 August 2008, and ‘The world of superstuff’, published 14 January 2012) is a New Scientist consultant and the author of 13 Things That Don’t Make Sense, The Secret Anarchy of Science and Can We Travel Through Time? He holds a PhD in quantum physics and is a regular contributor to a variety of newspapers and magazines.
Marcus Chown (‘The big bang’, published 22 October 1987) is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. His books include Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You, Solar System for iPad and Tweeting the Universe. His latest book is What A Wonderful World: One man’s attempt to explain the big stuff.
Andy Coghlan (‘The workout pill’, published 25 August 2012) has been reporting breakthroughs in science and technology for New Scientist since 1986, focusing mainly on biomedical news. His awards include prizes presented by the UK Medical Journalists’ Association, the Association of British Science Writers and the American Society for Microbiology. He still runs up and down the stairs daily, and has so far avoided the need to take statins.
Paul Davies (‘The day time began’, published 27 April 1996, and ‘The turbulent life of empty space’, published 19 November 2011) is director of the Beyond Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science at Arizona State University in Tempe. His latest book is The Eerie Silence: Are we alone in the universe?
Michael de Podesta (‘Absolute zero’, published 22 June 2013) is a physicist and temperature expert at the National Physical Laboratory in London.
Per Eklund (‘Out of thin air’) is associate professor of materials physics at Linköping University in Sweden. He is one of the editors of the journal Vacuum and has developed and teaches courses on vacuum science and technology. He is an elected member of the Young Academy of Sweden.
David E. Fisher (‘Putting the idle to work’, published 19 November 2011) is professor emeritus of geological science and cosmo-chemistry at the University of Miami and the author of Much Ado About (Practically) Nothing: A history of the noble gases.
Douglas Fox (‘The secret life of the brain’, published 5 November 2008) is a science journalist based in California. He has written for New Scientist, Discover, Popular Mechanics, Scientific American, Esquire, National Geographic and The Christian Science Monitor. His stories have garnered national awards from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society of Journalists and Authors, and have been anthologised in The Best American Science and Nature Writing.
Linda Geddes (‘Banishing consciousness’, published 29 November 2011) is an award-winning British journalist and author who writes about the science of sex, death and everything in between. She graduated from the University of Liverpool with a first class degree in cell biology and is a reporter for New Scientist. Her book Bumpology: The myth-busting pregnancy book for curious parents-to-be was published in January 2013.
David Harris (‘Vacuum packed’, published 18 February 2012) is a science writer and editor based in Palo Alto, California.
Nigel Henbest (‘Into the void’, published 25 April 1998) is an award-winning author and television producer, specialising in astronomy and space. He researched in radio astronomy at the University of Cambridge, and has since penned 40 books and over 1,000 articles, with translations into 27 languages. His 60-plus TV programmes have been screened worldwide.
Valerie Jamieson (‘Boring-ology’, published 24 December 2005) is features editor at New Scientist and used to smash atoms at the DESY laboratory in Hamburg.
Jonathan Knight (‘Busy doing nothing’, published 25 April 1998) traded in a successful career as a journalist to teach biology and writing at San Francisco State University, California.
Richard A. Lovett (‘Get up, get out of bed’, published 20 August 2005) has a long interest in sports and fitness. He has cycled solo across North America and skied 160 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle in Greenland. Working through Team Red Lizard running club, in Portland, Oregon, he has coached two women to the US Olympic marathon trials. He also writes science fiction, sometimes on sports themes.
Jo Marchant (‘Heal thyself’, published 30 August 2011) is a freelance science journalist based in the UK. She writes on topics from the future of genetic engineering to underwater archaeology and is the author of two books, Decoding the Heavens and The Shadow King. Her third book, Heal Thyself, is due to be published in 2014.
Helen Pilcher (‘When mind attacks body’, published 13 May 2009) is a freelance science writer and performer based in the UK. She writes serious and quirky science for the likes of New Scientist and Nature, and funny stuff for comedy shows. She has a PhD in neuroscience.
Laura Spinney (‘Wastes of space’, published 14 May 2008) is a science writer and novelist. Her latest book, Rue Centrale, is a factual portrait in French of the city of Lausanne.
Ian Stewart (‘Zero, zip, zilch’, published 25 April 1998, ‘Ride the celestial subway’, published 27 March 2006, and ‘Nothing in common’, published 19 November 2011) is an emeritus professor of mathematics at Warwick University and a Fellow of the Royal Society. He was awarded the Society’s Faraday Medal in 1995. His recent books include 17 Equations That Changed the World, The Great Mathematical Problems and The Science of Discworld IV (with Terry Pratchett and Jack Cohen).
Jeremy Webb is editor-in-chief of New Scientist, where he has worked in various roles including ten years as editor. Before joining New Scientist, he wrote and edited news for television and Pulse, a UK newspaper for family doctors. His media career began in the BBC, where he worked as a sound engineer and producer of radio science programmes. This varied CV means he knows a little about a lot of scientific fields, but a lot about – well, nothing.
Richard Webb (‘From zero to hero’ and ‘The hole story’, both published 19 November 2011) is deputy features editor at New Scientist. Before that he was an editor at Nature, and before that a particle physicist at CERN, where he studied the very lively nothingness that is the interior of the proton.