Philip Ball

Hubo un tiempo en que la curiosidad era algo condenable: a fin de cuentas, por su culpa cometió Eva ese pecado original que al parecer aún estamos pagando. Y sin embargo, no es fácil frenar la curiosidad humana. Llevados por ella, hoy nos gastamos fortunas en construir un acelerador de partículas que nos permita "ver" el instante de la creación, o en mandar robots a planetas lejanos, y todavía hay quien le da vueltas a la idea de la piedra filosofal. Ese...

"One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1998" Philip Ball is an associate editor for physical sciences with Nature. He contributes regular articles on all fields of science to the academic and popular press, and is the author of Designing the Molecular World (Princeton) and The Self-Made Tapestry (Oxford). Made to Measure introduces a general audience to one of today's most exciting areas of scientific research: materials science. Philip...

Todos hemos oído hablar de la física cuántica, aunque realmente no sepamos ni qué es ni para qué sirve. Hasta hace poco, ni siquiera los físicos parecían tenerlo demasiado claro. En las últimas décadas se ha aprendido algo más, y ahora sabemos que la física cuántica no va de partícula y ondas, ni de "cosas que hacen cosas raras", sino que es una teoría sobre la propia información, sobre el espacio y el tiempo, sobre las relaciones...

Los primeros científicos que experimentaron con la física atómica tuvieron la "suerte" de vivir unos tiempos interesantes. En plena Segunda Guerra Mundial, la ciencia alemana se convirtió en un asunto político: Heisenberg, Planck, Einstein y Debye, entre muchos otros, tuvieron que definirse. Como científicos y como personas. Y, para algunos de ellos, la definición no fue la misma.

From the Yangtze to the Yellow River, China is traversed by great waterways, which have defined its politics and ways of life for centuries. Water has been so integral to China's culture, economy, and growth and development that it provides a window on the whole sweep of Chinese history. In The Water Kingdom, renowned writer Philip Ball opens that window to offer an epic and powerful new way of thinking about Chinese civilization. Water, Ball shows,...

"Winner of the 1994 Award for Best Professional/Scholarly Book in Chemistry, Association of American Publishers" Philip Ball, Associate Editor for Physical Sciences for Nature, has written on the new chemistry for both technical journals and popular magazines and newspapers. Some of the most exciting scientific developments in recent years have come not from theoretical physicists, astronomers, or molecular biologists but instead from the chemistry...

"Though at first glance the natural world may appear overwhelming in its diversity and complexity, there are regularities running through it, from the hexagons of a honeycomb to the spirals of a seashell and the branching veins of a leaf. Revealing the order at the foundation of the seemingly chaotic natural world, Patterns in Nature explores not only the math and science but also the beauty and artistry behind nature's awe-inspiring designs, "--Amazon.com....

In the summer of 2017, scientists removed a tiny piece of flesh from Philip Ball's arm and turned it into a rudimentary "mini-brain." The skin cells, removed from his body, did not die but were instead transformed into nerve cells that independently arranged themselves into a dense network and communicated with each other, exchanging the raw signals of thought. This was life-but whose? That disconcerting question is the focus of Philip Ball's How...