Philip Ball (born 1962) is an English science writer. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland A science journalist (or science writer) is a Journalist who specializes in writing about Science topics and thus practices Science journalism He holds a degree in chemistry from Oxford and a doctorate in physics from Bristol University. The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the the University (or derivatives but lower-case when referring to many universitiesor universities He was an editor for the journal Nature for over 10 years. Nature is a prominent Scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869
Critical Mass
Ball's 2004 book Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads To Another examines a wide range of topics including the business cycle random walks, phase transitions, bifurcation theory traffic flow, Zipf's law, Small world phenomenon, catastrophe theory, the Prisoner's dilemma. The term business cycle or economic cycle refers to the fluctuations of economic activity during its long term growth trend A random walk, sometimes denoted RW, is a Mathematical formalization of a trajectory that consists of taking successive Random steps In Thermodynamics, phase transition or phase change is the transformation of a thermodynamic system from one phase to another Bifurcation theory is the mathematical study of changes in the qualitative or Topological structure of a given family The Mathematical or Engineering study of traffic flow, and in particular vehicular Traffic Flow, is done with the aim of achieving a better understanding WikipediaWikiProject Probability#Standards for a discussion of standards used for probability distribution articles such as this one The small world experiment comprised several experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram examining the Average path length for Social networks of people in This article refers to the study of dynamical systems For other meanings see Catastrophe. The Prisoner's Dilemma constitutes a problem in Game theory. It was originally framed by Merrill Flood and Melvin Dresher The overall theme is one of applying modern mathematical models to social and economic phenomena.
The book was awarded Aventis Prize for 2005. The Royal Society Prizes for Science Books is an annual award for the previous year's best general science writing and best science writing for children
Bibliography
- The Devil's Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science (2006), ISBN 0-434-01134-7
- Elegant Solutions: Ten Beautiful Experiments in Chemistry (2005), ISBN 0-85404-674-7
- Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another (2004), ISBN 0-434-01135-5
- The Ingredients: A Guided Tour of the Elements (2002), ISBN 0-19-284100-9 (republished as The Elements: A Very Short Introduction)
- Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour (2001), ISBN 0-670-89346-3
- Stories of the Invisible: A Guided Tour of Molecules (2001), ISBN 0-19-280214-3 (republished as Molecules: A Very Short Introduction)
- H2O: A Biography of Water (1999), ISBN 0-297-64314-2 (published in the U. S. as Life's Matrix)
- The Self-made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature (1999), ISBN 0-19-850244-3
- Made to Measure: New Materials for the 21st Century (1997), ISBN 0-691-02733-1
- Designing the Molecular World: Chemistry at the Frontier (1994), ISBN 0-691-00058-1
External links
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