ANIL ANANTHASWAMY is a consultant editor of New Scientist in London. He has worked at the magazine in various capacities since 2000, most recently as deputy news editor, and has written more than 250 news and features articles. He is also a contributor to National Geographic News. He studied electronics, electrical and computer engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (Bachelor of Technology), and the University of Washington, Seattle (Master of Science), and worked as a software engineer in Silicon Valley before training as a journalist in the University of California Santa Cruz’s renowned science writing programme.

Links
The Edge of Physics website

THE EDGE OF PHYSICS
A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe

An accomplished and timely overview of modern cosmology and particle astrophysics. Ananthaswamy’s characterizations of the many physicists he meets are on the mark... Conveys that cutting-edge science is a human endeavour – NATURE

A remarkable narrative that combines fundamental physics with high adventure... Ananthaswamy is a worthy guide for both journeys – NEW SCIENTIST

Displays a writer's touch for the fascinating detail – Washington Post

Quite simply, the ultimate physics-adventure travelogue... as an adventure story and a fly-on-the-wall account of remote places that most of us will never visit, THE EDGE OF PHYSICS is brilliant – Physics World

A grand tour of modern-day cosmology’s sacred places... evocative...engaging... refreshing... a taste of science in the heroic mode – Sky At Night magazine

Ananthaswamy, a science writer and editor, smoothly weaves together the stories of people who help push science forward, from principal investigators to research institute gardeners, with exquisitely clear explanations of the questions they hope to solve – and why some research can be done only at the edge of the world – Science News

Stirring, scenic narrative... Ananthaswamy journeys to several geographically and scientifically extreme outposts, and returns not only with engaging portraits of the men and women who work there, but also a vibrant glimpse of how cutting-edge research is actually performed. Part history lesson, part travelogue, part adventure story, THE EDGE OF PHYSICS is a wonder-steeped page-turner – SEED magazine

These experiments and others are heroic in every sense, and Ananthaswamy captures their excitement – and the personalities of the scientists behind them – with enthusiasm and insight – PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Sure to appeal to general readers interested in science books without the philosophy and mathematics found in drier, more academic physics titles – LIBRARY JOURNAL

Physicists are trying to understand the furthest reaches of space and the furthest extremes of matter and energy. To do it, they have to trek to some of the furthest places on Earth – from deep underground, to forbidding mountains, to the cold of Antarctica. Anil Ananthaswamy takes us on a thrilling ride around the globe and around the cosmos, to reveal the real work that goes into understanding our universe – Sean Carroll, California Institute of Technology, and author of FROM ETERNITY TO HERE: The Quest for the Ultimate Theory of Time

Clean, elegant prose, humming with interest – Robert Macfarlane, author of MOUNTAINS OF THE MIND and THE WILD PLACES

An excellent book. The author has a great knack of making difficult subjects comprehensible. I thoroughly enjoyed it – Sir Patrick Moore, former president of the British Astronomical Society and presenter of the BBC’s 'The Sky at Night'

Ananthaswamy’s juxtaposition of extreme travel and extreme science offers a genuinely novel route into the story of modern cosmology. His story turns on the price of success: we already know so much about our universe that it becomes hugely difficult – even genuinely risky – to pry loose from nature that next burst of insight. The result is a well written and genuinely accessible tale of what it takes to push past the edge of human knowledge – Thomas Levenson, author of NEWTON AND THE COUNTERFEITER and EINSTEIN IN BERLIN

An intrepid journalist takes us from desolate deserts to derelict mines to answer some of the most burning questions in physics today.

Physics is in crisis. For more than two centuries, our understanding of the laws of nature expanded rapidly. But in the past few decades, we’ve made astonishingly little progress. What will finally break the impasse and get physics back on track?

In this timely and original book, science writer Anil Ananthaswamy sets out in search of the world’s most audacious physics experiments: the telescopes and detectors that promise to shed new light on such things as dark matter, dark energy and the phenomenon of quantum gravity (which string theory tries to explain). He soon finds himself at the ends of the Earth – in cold and remote and sometimes dangerous places. As it turns out, extreme physics requires extreme environments.

Reporting from some of the most inhospitable and dramatic research sites on our planet – from the Atacama Desert in Chile, to the Indian Observatory in the Himalayas, to the Ross Ice Shelf in Antarctica to deep within an abandoned iron mine in Minnesota – Ananthaswamy weaves together stories about the people and places at the heart of this research while beautifully explaining the problems that scientists are trying to solve. In so doing, he provides a unique portrait of the universe and our quest to understand it. Atmospheric, engaging and illuminating, THE EDGE OF PHYSICS brings cosmology – with all its rarefied concepts – back down to Earth.

Publisher: Duckworth (UK)/Houghton Mifflin (US)
Pub date: 2 March 2010 (US)/22 April 2010 (UK)
Length: 336 pages

All rights available excluding:
UK & Commonwealth, US, Germany (Spektrum), Greece (Travlos), India (Penguin – English language), Italy (Codice), Japan (Kawadeshobo), Korea (Humanist), Poland (Proszynski Media)