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Culture, history and society

Culture, history and society

Shelf life: Frank Close

02 Aug 2006

Frank Close is a theoretical particle physicist at the University of Oxford. He has written several popular-science books including The Cosmic Onion and Lucifer's Legacy

Frank Close

What are the three best popular-science books?

I have chosen three books that have influenced me at different stages in my life. The Double Helix by James Watson shows scientists in competition, chasing fame and glory as well as seeking truth, and not always gloriously. It presents scientific research as an adventure and shows scientists as real people; few books do that.

Steven Weinberg’s The First Three Minutes was the first great popular book about modern physics and stimulated me to write The Cosmic Onion.

Bill Bryson writes great travel books, and that is how I regarded A Short History of Nearly Everything – it is his journey to find out how science has revealed the nature of nature. The first few pages took my breath away; I almost decided there was no point in me writing popular physics again as he had said everything so elegantly.

What science books are you currently reading?

Not Even Wrong by Peter Woit (see “String theory gets knotted”). It is a long overdue antidote to those infected by the superstring disease.

What else are you reading?

The proofs for The New Cosmic Onion – I decided to ignore my reaction to Bryson’s book!

Which popular-science book have you never read, but feel you ought to have tackled, and why?

I have been reading Douglas Hofstatder’s Gödel, Escher, Bach on-and-off for over 20 years. It is profound, and if ever I were stuck on a desert island, this is the book I would try to finish.

I keep seeing excellent recommendations of The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene. His TV series showed he has a nice turn of phrase and so I am sure his writing is also compelling. Why have I not read it? There is so much hype about superstrings, for which there is little or no evidence, that I cannot bring myself to read that genre. Perhaps I am worried that Brian Greene’s elegant prose will convert me and I will finally have to learn all that mathematics.

What advice would you offer physicists who want to write a popular-science book?

Read Bill Bryson and change your mind.

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