Three new authors join the Science Factory at the start of 2010, with new deals for Michael Nielsen (REINVENTING DISCOVERY: How Open Science is Making Us Smarter, Princeton University Press), Georgina Ferry (ROUGH MAGIC: Shakespeare's World of Science; Bloomsbury) and Angela Saini (GEEK NATION: How Indian Citizens are Creating the World’s Next Science Superpower; Hodder).

The Science Factory is delighted to welcome two new science writers whose books have just secured deals with publishers in the US: Daniel Bor (consciousness) and Brian Switek ('missing links').

SciencePunk.com blogger and science writer Frank Swain's ZOMBOLOGY: The New Science of Zombies, Reanimation and Mind Control has just been sold to Oneworld. The book explores the 100-year scientific quest to control the bodies and minds of fellow humans, tying together seemingly disparate subjects from the most incredible annals of scientific literature – unsuspecting citizens dosed with zombifying drugs by secret agents; Soviet experiments in which organs are kept alive when separated from the body; parasites that force unnatural behaviors, sex changes and suicide; psychologists reducing crime through urban design; doctors treating schizophrenia with antibiotics in Ethiopia – to reveal how, despite our supposed intelligence, we all remain extraordinarily susceptible to manipulation. Marsha Filion acquired UK & Commonwealth rights in the book (excluding Canada), for publication in Autumn 2010.

Jo Marchant's Decoding the Heavens has been shortlisted for this year's Royal Society Prize for Science Books. The winner will be announced at a ceremony at the Royal Society on 15 September 2009 and awarded £10,000. For more details see Royal Society Science Books.

Jo Marchant's Decoding the Heavens and Manjit Kumar's Quantum have both been longlisted for this year's Royal Society Prize for Science Books. The shortlist will be announced on Thursday 25 June 2009, and the winner will be announced at a ceremony at the Royal Society on 15 September 2009 and awarded £10,000. For more details see Royal Society Science Books. Quantum has also been shortlisted for the BBC Samuel Johnson Prize.