http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/tsfrss.xml THE SCIENCE FACTORY NEWS Fri, 17 May 2013 07:49:37 -0500 en-gb http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=224 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=224 Fri, 17 May 2013 08:00:00 -0500 We are delighted to announce that Adam Kucharski's THE PERFECT BET: How Science is Taking the Luck out of Gambling has been sold at auction to Basic Books. In the book, the author, a young award-winning science writer and mathematician at Imperial College London, surveys the latest ideas in statistics, probability, chaos theory, psychology, game theory, computer science and more to provide an original and revealing guide to how science is taming chance and transforming gambling.   Wage ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=223 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=223 Sat, 13 Apr 2013 06:00:00 -0500 The Science Factory's rights list for the London Book Fair 2013 can now be viewed as an electronic edition by clicking on the following link: http://bit.ly/12Y3mDN. To print the rights list or store it on your computer, you will need to register with Issuu at http://issuu.com.   The fair runs from 15 to 17 April, and the Science Factory will be there representing its authors and projects at table 8T in the International Rights Centre. We will be working very closely with Louisa Pr ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=222 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=222 Mon, 25 Mar 2013 07:00:00 -0500 Three exciting new deals to report ahead of the London Book Fair next month.   In THE IMPROBABILITY PRINCIPLE, David Hand, emeritus professor of statistics at Imperial College, London, and former president of the Royal Statistical Society, provides a penetrating look at why extraordinarily rare events happen so often - at why, in the words of the British mathematician J. E. Littlewood, we should expect to experience miracles 'at the rate of a about one a month'. World English lang ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=221 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=221 Thu, 20 Dec 2012 03:00:00 -0600 Sam Kean, author of The Violinist"s Thumb, has selected Daniel Bor's THE RAVENOUS BRAIN in his round-up of the top books of 2012 in the Wall Street Journal's weekend review section: 'For science that"s more legitimate, but still wild in its own way, try Daniel Bor's "The Ravenous Brain." Mr. Bor takes on the oldest, thorniest question in neuroscience — what is consciousness? — and delivers a masterly overview of everything scientists think they think right'.     ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=220 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=220 Thu, 22 Nov 2012 05:00:00 -0600 We are thrilled to see that Ian Stewart's SEVENTEEN EQUATIONS THAT CHANGED THE WORLD has been chosen by Amazon.co.uk as one of its Top 10 Nonfiction Books of 2012 - see the full list here. 'Nothing less than a quick tour of the history of scientific thought, from ancient Greece to quantum mechanics and beyond', wrote Charles Seife in his review in The Times Higher Education.         ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=219 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=219 Fri, 28 Sep 2012 03:00:00 -0500 The Science Factory's rights list for the Frankfurt Book Fair 2012 can now be viewed as an electronic edition by clicking on the following link: http://bit.ly/S55Rm3. To print the rights list or store it on your computer, you will need to register with Issuu at http://issuu.com/explore. The fair runs from 10 to 13 October, and the Science Factory will be there representing its authors and projects at table 8Q in the Literary Agents and Scouts Centre (LitAg) in Hall 6. We will be w ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=217 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=217 Tue, 25 Sep 2012 09:00:00 -0500 Our congratulations to Lone Frank, whose MY BEAUTIFUL GENOME has been shortlisted for the 2012 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books. In the words of the judges, the book 'puts a personal story at the heart of the science. To some extent we are all narcissists and we want to learn more about ourselves. Frank provides us with an insight into how our genes help to define us. She keeps you wanting to read more.' The other shortlisted titles are Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer, The I ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=216 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=216 Mon, 03 Sep 2012 14:00:00 -0500 We are delighted to announce that Palgrave Macmillan has acquired rights in a sweeping narrative account by the Cambridge immunologist John Rhodes of the global fight against infectious disease. Spanning more than three centuries, the book weaves together the discovery of vaccination, the birth and growth of immunology, the many battles, reversals and defeats on the path leading to the eradication of smallpox, the imminent defeat of polio, and the dawn of a new war on parasitic disease ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=215 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=215 Fri, 01 Jun 2012 06:00:00 -0500 We are delighted to announce that Chicago University Press has just acquired a new book on the renaissance in Darwinian medicine by the science writer and documentary film maker Jeremy Taylor. Drawing on fascinating scientific curiosities from the natural world and compelling human-interest stories of people suffering from a range of ailments, from asthma, arthritis, backache and preeclampsia to diabetes, heart disease, cancer and Alzheimer's disease, BOTCHED BODIES shows how the lates ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=214 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=214 Tue, 10 Apr 2012 08:00:00 -0500 The Science Factory's rights list for the London Book Fair 2012 can now be viewed as an electronic edition by clicking on the following link: http://bit.ly/Iw4z9M. To print the rights list, or to store it on your computer, you"ll need to register with Issuu here: http://issuu.com/explore. The fair runs from 16 to 18 April, and the Science Factory will be there representing its authors and projects at table 1O in the International Rights Centre. Louisa Pritchard Associates (tab ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=213 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=213 Tue, 20 Mar 2012 12:00:00 -0500 We are delighted to announce that the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences has awarded the 2012 Dr A. H. Heineken Prize for Cognitive Science (USD 150,000) to John Duncan, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Assistant Director of the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Author of HOW INTELLIGENCE HAPPENS, he is receiving the prize for his 'remarkable innovative, multidisciplinary research into the relationships between psychology, be ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=212 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=212 Fri, 09 Mar 2012 09:00:00 -0600 From sexual organs and holes in the ground to Islamic banking and Stalin's scientists, we are delighted to report four deals that have just been wrapped up in time for the run up to next month's London Book Fair.   In DARWIN'S PEEP SHOW: What Nature's Nether Regions Reveal about Life, Sex and Death, Menno Schilthuizen, a Dutch evolutionary biologist, ecologist and research scientist at the National Museum of Natural History 'Naturalis' in Leiden, provides the first account for a g ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=211 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=211 Thu, 06 Oct 2011 06:00:00 -0500 The Frankfurt Book Fair 2011 catalogue is now available as a PDF download here. The fair runs from 12 to 16 October, and the Science Factory will be there representing its authors and projects at table 8Q in the Literary Agents & Scouts Centre (LitAg), Hall 6.   Louisa Pritchard Associates (table 8P) is also handling translation rights on behalf of Science Factory titles for all territories excluding Japan (English Agency) and Korea (Duran Kim).    ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=210 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=210 Tue, 27 Sep 2011 06:00:00 -0500 Ian Sample's MASSIVE has made it through to the final six for the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books, described as an 'intensely rewarding and eye-opening' shortlist by the judges.   The other shortlisted titles are Guy Deutscher"s Through the Language Glass, Gavin Pretor-Pinney"s The Wavewatcher"s Companion, Sam Kean's The Disappearing Spoon, Alex Bellos"s Alex"s Adventures in Numberland and Jon Turney's The Rough Guide to The Fut ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=209 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=209 Wed, 14 Sep 2011 09:00:00 -0500 Creaking glaciers, whispering galleries, stalactite organs, musical roads, squeaking beaches, groaning waterwheels, frogs that croak in Mexican waves, Mayan pyramids that produce echoes that chirp like a bird - these are just a sample of the fascinating, strange and unusual sounds that the acoustic engineer Trevor Cox has tracked down in his search for the 'sonic wonders of the world'. His unique quest is the subject of LABORATORY OF SOUND, the UK & Commonwealth rights in which have now ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=208 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=208 Wed, 10 Aug 2011 09:00:00 -0500 It has been a busy summer at the Science Factory, with three new book deals and one film option to report.   In the UK, Jim Baggott's new book FAREWELL TO REALITY: How Fairy-Tale Physics has Betrayed the Scientific Search for Truth has been signed up on proposal by Constable. In what promises to be a controversial work of popular science, Jim sets out to explains exactly what we do and don't know about the basic elements of physical reality - light, matter, force, space and time - ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=207 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=207 Mon, 18 Jul 2011 10:00:00 -0500 We are delighted to announce that Ian Sample's first book, MASSIVE, has been longlisted for the Royal Society's Winton Prize for Science Books, an annual book prize that celebrates the best in popular science writing.   Over the centuries scientists have refined their understanding of exactly what makes up the universe. Since the 1960s the existence of different particles, each now thought to be fundamental, has been postulated and observed. So far physicists have seen 16 of ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=206 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=206 Wed, 22 Jun 2011 10:00:00 -0500 Basic Books has acquired a new book by University of Queensland psychologist Thomas Suddendorf that aims to provide the definitive account of the differences between animal and human minds. Drawing on his two decades of research on apes, children and human evolution, Suddendorf surveys all the main areas often cited as uniquely human, proposes that just two innovations account for why our minds appear so distinct in all these areas and argues that this gap is becoming wider not just because we ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=205 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=205 Mon, 04 Apr 2011 09:00:00 -0500 The London Book Fair 2011 rights list is now available as a PDF download here. The Science Factory will be at the fair from 11 to 13 April, represented by Louisa Pritchard at table 1N and Peter Tallack at table 9R in the international rights centre.                   ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=204 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=204 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 14:00:00 -0500 On Monday, following a trip to New York, Angela Saini visited the offices of Google in San Francisco to give a talk to the staff there about GEEK NATION as part of their Authors@Google programme - you can watch it here. Angela is now back in London for a few days before leaving for India for a five-city book tour (where GEEK NATION this week entered the nonfiction bestseller charts at number four). ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=203 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=203 Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:00:00 -0500 Science journalist, palaeontology researcher and author of WRITTEN IN STONE, Brian Switek has loved fossils since he was knee-high to a Stegosaurus. In his next book, A DATE WITH A DINOSAUR, he will be revealing the latest in dinosaur science and tracking the peculiar ways in which paleontology intersects with pop culture. World rights in the title have just been acquired by Amanda Moon at Scientific American Books, with publication planned for Spring 2013. WRITTEN IN STONE was published to ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=202 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=202 Tue, 15 Mar 2011 12:00:00 -0500 We are delighted to announce two new deals for books by specialists in the history and philosophy of science. In THE PLATO CODE, Dr Jay Kennedy provides a popular revisionist biography of the ancient world"s greatest philosopher, set against the backdrop of the author's revolutionary discovery of a system of musical and mathematical codes in Plato"s work, revealing Plato as a follower of Pythagoras and the founding father of Western mysticism as well as the ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=201 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=201 Thu, 27 Jan 2011 06:00:00 -0600 A documentary on the Antikythera Mechanism, the subject of Jo Marchant's book Decoding the Heavens, was shown on the National Geographic Channel in the US last week. The author is featured in some clips that can be seen here. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=200 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=200 Mon, 17 Jan 2011 13:00:00 -0600 According to Dr Ted Nield, author of Incoming: Or Why We Should Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Meteorite (published in the UK by Granta on 6 January), we should stop worrying about being wiped out by meteorite strikes, and instead praise them for what they do to help life flourish. Earlier this week he explained on BBC Radio 4's Today programme what the occasional impact has done for the Earth. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=199 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=199 Thu, 02 Dec 2010 04:00:00 -0600 Jim Baggot's THE FIRST WAR OF PHYSICS and Manjit Kumar's QUANTUM are among Booklist's top ten science and technology books of 2010. 'Baggott reveals the hidden stories of the scientist-soldiers Oppenheimer recruited for the Manhattan Project who coalesced into the most lethal fighting force in history, although not all were playing on the same side', they say, whereas 'Kumar illuminates a pivotal episode - Bohr"s triumph over Einstein in their debate over quantum physics - in an accessi ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=198 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=198 Tue, 23 Nov 2010 03:00:00 -0600 Commissioning editor Will Hammond has acquired world rights in Stuff Matters: How Materials Shape Our World by Mark Miodownik for Viking/Penguin Books. In the book, Mark Miodownik, Research Director of the Materials Library at King's College London, takes the reader on a thrilling tour of the manmade world, explaining the wonderful stories and science behind the materials we encounter and rely on every day as well as introducing some of the most extraordinary materials known. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=197 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=197 Thu, 04 Nov 2010 14:00:00 -0500 Amazon.com has released its editors' picks for top books of 2010, with Manjit Kumar's QUANTUM: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality coming in at number 5 in the top 10 in science list. The full top 100 list is here. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=196 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=196 Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:00:00 -0500 The Frankfurt Book Fair 2010 catalogue is now available as a PDF download here.  ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=195 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=195 Fri, 17 Sep 2010 09:00:00 -0500 We are delighted to announce that Rita Carter's THE BRAIN BOOK has won the British Medical Association's Illustrated Book Award. The book uses computer-generated 3D images and explanatory text to reveal the intricacy and wonder of the human brain. Published in 2009 by Dorling Kindersley, the book was among 784 titles entered by more than 100 publishers. The BMA's reviewer described it as a 'valuable work of information about a complex organ'. For more information about the awards, see the B ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=194 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=194 Mon, 16 Aug 2010 08:00:00 -0500 We are delighted to announce that Louisa Pritchard Associates - a new agency specializing in the sale of translation rights - has been appointed to sell foreign rights on behalf of the Science Factory on a near-global basis.Louisa has 15 years" experience in selling translation rights and co-editions. She has worked as foreign rights director at Orion and senior rights manager at Random House. She was most recently head of rights at PFD. She has sold rights across the full range of fiction a ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=193 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=193 Thu, 01 Jul 2010 07:00:00 -0500 No sign of the publishing world shutting up shop for the holidays at the Science Factory, which has recently concluded deals for Dan Clery's A PIECE OF THE SUN (the first popular account of fusion research and its hopes for the future - Overlook/Duckworth), Vaughan Bell's THE ENCHANTED WINDOW (on how hallucinations reveal the hidden workings of the mind and brain - Penguin), Simon Ings's eagerly awaited new novel DEAD WATER (set among the tramp lines and pirate syndicates operating on the Indian ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=192 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=192 Tue, 06 Apr 2010 19:00:00 -0500 Anil Ananthaswamy recently visited Google's San Francisco office to present his book THE EDGE OF PHYSICS. The event took place on 12 March 2010 as part of the Authors@Google series, and is now available online in this YouTube clip. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=191 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=191 Fri, 12 Mar 2010 05:00:00 -0600 Neville Moir at Polygon has acquired world rights in a trilogy of novels dramatizing the three wholescale revolutions in astronomical thought that have punctuated human history. The author is the acclaimed astronomy writer Stuart Clark, senior editor for space science at the European Space Agency and former editor of the UK's best-selling popular astronomy magazine Astronomy Now. The trilogy has already been sold to publishers in Greece, Korea and Japan, in deals totalling more than $100,000. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=190 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=190 Thu, 25 Feb 2010 14:00:00 -0600 Nicholas Dunbar appeared on BBC Radio 4"s 'Today' programme on Monday, talking about Greece concealing its debt using derivatives. This was a story that Nick broke about six years ago on the same programme, and features in his forthcoming book, THE DEVIL'S DERIVATIVES - and has now become very topical. If you missed the Radio 4 interview, you can listen again below. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=189 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=189 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:00:00 -0600 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). ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=188 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=188 Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:00:00 -0500 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'). ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=187 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=187 Wed, 22 Jul 2009 10:00:00 -0500 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 th ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=186 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=186 Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:00:00 -0500 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. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=185 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=185 Fri, 22 May 2009 18:00:00 -0500 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. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=184 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=184 Thu, 21 May 2009 18:00:00 -0500 Manjit Kumar's QUANTUM has been shortlisted for the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize. The shortlist of six shows strong bias towards 'scientific discovery and scientific malpractice', according to the Guardian. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=183 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=183 Thu, 14 May 2009 09:00:00 -0500 Manjit Kumar's QUANTUM has been longlisted for the £20,000 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize. A strong scientific flavour dominates this year's candidates for the UK's most prestigious non-fiction award, with Richard Holmes, Ben Goldacre, Steve Jones, Patricia Fara and Elizabeth Pisani all in contention (among 19 authors in total). See here for more details. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=182 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=182 Mon, 13 Apr 2009 16:00:00 -0500 The Science Factory London Book Fair 2009 catalogue is now available as a PDF download here. The fair runs from 20 to 22 April, and the Science Factory will be representing its authors and titles at table 9R in the International Rights Centre. Full details of the co-agents who handle translation rights on behalf of the Science Factory can be found at the back of the catalogue. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=181 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=181 Mon, 06 Apr 2009 16:00:00 -0500 Profile Books have acquired a ground-breaking book by University of Kent social psychology professor Mark van Vugt and London Times science writer and journalist Anjana Ahuja that crosses business, psychology and current affairs in exploring the science of leadership. In HOMO ELECTUS: The New Science of Leadership, they reveal how and why leadership has evolved over tens of thousands of years, and present a new ‘mismatch hypothesis’: that the slowness of evolution means that there is a disju ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=180 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=180 Thu, 19 Mar 2009 15:00:00 -0500 A controversial new book arguing that the concept of post-traumatic stress disorder should be abandoned has been acquired by Anne Lawrance at Little, Brown in the UK and Lara Heimert at Basic Books in the US. For the past 20 years, the author, Stephen Joseph, has worked with survivors of trauma, most notably those of the 1987 Herald of Free Enterprise ferry disaster. During this time he and his colleagues have made a startling discovery. Hundreds of studies show that a wide range of events – f ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=179 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=179 Thu, 05 Mar 2009 16:00:00 -0600 Matthew Cobb's THE RESISTANCE: The French Fight Against the Nazis, to be published by Simon & Schuster in June 2009, has been condensed into a word cloud – all 145,000 words of it. Click here to see the result. Could this be the future of publishing? ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=178 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=178 Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:00:00 -0600 Virgin Books have bought world English rights for a book on the epic quest to discover the origins of mass in the universe – a quest about to reach its climax in the LHC particle accelerator deep underground at CERN near Geneva. Ed Faulkner, editorial director, will publish MASSIVE: The Hunt for the God Particle as a major lead title in early 2010. Written by Ian Sample, an award-winning science correspondent at the Guardian newspaper in London, the book aims to do for particle physics what Mo ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=177 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=177 Wed, 21 Jan 2009 03:00:00 -0600 Jesse Bering has started a new column in Scientific American. So far he's looked at darwinian theories of religion, researchers who place their lives at risk in the name of science, why homosexual males navigate like women, and how dog owners can pick their pooch out of a lineup by smell alone. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=176 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=176 Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:00:00 -0600 Last year Jo Marchant made this video for New Scientist of a reconstruction of the Antikythera mechanism, an ancient Greek computer that is the subject of her book Decoding the Heavens. It's also been posted on YouTube, where it has so far attracted nearly three-quarters of a million viewers. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=175 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=175 Thu, 08 Jan 2009 07:00:00 -0600 In an auction just days before Christmas, Dean Buonomano's BRAIN BUGS: How Our Brain's Flaws Shape Our Lives was sold to Angela von der Lippe at Norton. The author, a professor in the departments of neurobiology and psychology at the University of California Los Angeles, aims to provide a comprehensive tour of our mental glitches, examining their causes and consequences as well as providing insights into how our brains can be debugged. Addressing topics ranging from molecular receptors and nerve ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=174 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=174 Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:00:00 -0600 The Science Factory has just sold a landmark new book on intelligence to Yale University Press. In THE REASON MACHINE: How Intelligence Happens, John Duncan, a Cambridge cognitive neuroscientist and fellow of the Royal Society, provides a first-hand account of the search for the biological basis of 'general intelligence' that reveals what we actually mean by intelligence, how and why it happens and what this can tell us about ourselves. The book is based on the author's widely publicized finding ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=173 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=173 Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:00:00 -0500 On the eve of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the Science Factory has done a deal for a long-awaited popular science book by one of the world's most distinguished evolutionary biologists. Blind since early childhood, Geerat Vermeij is a MacArthur Fellow and recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Daniel Giraud Elliot Medal for 'extracting major generalizations about biological evolution from the fossil record, by feeling details that other scientists only see'. In THE EVOLUTIONARY WORLD, he shows ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=172 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=172 Fri, 26 Sep 2008 05:00:00 -0500 The Frankfurt Book Fair 2008 catalogue is now available as a PDF download here. The fair runs from 15 to 19 October, and the Science Factory will be there representing its authors and projects at table C5 in the Literary Agents & Scouts Centre (LitAg), Hall 6.2. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=171 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=171 Wed, 10 Sep 2008 09:00:00 -0500 Barnes & Noble have chosen Michael Brooks's 13 Things That Don't Make Sense for an online Spotlight Review this week. Paul Di Filippo describes the book as "a fascinating and humbling perspective on humanity's vaunted scientific wisdom", adding that the chapters are "arranged with beautiful logic". "Concise historical backstory and vivid portraits of researchers offer a true sense of the Great Work of science and the still-murky dark corners of its realm", he says. The book was published las ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=170 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=170 Fri, 25 Jul 2008 06:00:00 -0500 Bella Shand at Granta has acquired world English rights in a book that provides a radically new view of meteorites and their role in the evolution of life on Earth. In Incoming: Or Why We Should Learn to Stop Worrying and Love the Meteorite, the science writer Ted Nield shows that far from leading to pestilence, global holocaust and mass extinction, meteorites are coming to be seen as immensely useful messengers from the cosmos. Contrary to popular belief, he argues, scientists haven't identifie ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=169 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=169 Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:00:00 -0500 Deals for Jesse Bering's Under God's Skin have just been concluded with Nicholas Brealey Publishing for UK & Commonwealth rights and with Ediciones Paidos for Spanish rights. Nicholas Brealey is a London/Boston-based independent publisher of 'innovative books in business and economics, self-help and psychology, travel writing and crossing cultures', and Jesse's book will join their growing popular psychology list which includes such titles as Martin Seligman's Authentic Happiness. Paidos is ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=168 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=168 Mon, 14 Jul 2008 08:00:00 -0500 Agent Research and Evaluation has given the Science Factory 'full marks' in its July email newsletter, Talking Agents. Headed by husband-and-wife team Bill and Beverly Swerling Martin, this US-based consultancy assesses the strengths and weaknesses of agents on both sides of the Atlantic and helps writers to find effective literary representation. Peter Tallack recently talked to Bill Martin about the Science Factory, and Bill reports that he was 'very impressed'. He goes on to say, 'One group T ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=167 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=167 Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:00:00 -0500 Angela von der Lippe at Norton has acquired at auction North American rights in Jesse Bering's UNDER GOD'S SKIN: The Hidden Psychology of Souls, Destiny and the Meaning of Life. In the book, Jesse examines how people's everyday thoughts, behaviours and emotions betray a default tendency to reason as though supernatural beings are deeply invested in their public lives and secret affairs. A lead researcher in the €2-million European Commission 'Explaining Religion' project, he also provides some ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=166 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=166 Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:00:00 -0500 Nicholas Dunbar's The Devil's Derivatives has been acquired at auction by Jacqueline Murphy at Harvard Business Press in the US and by Phoebe Clapham at Yale University Press in the UK. In the book, Nicholas tells the story of how innovation in the selling of financial risk spawned a culture of complexity and an illusion of consumer wealth. As well as showing how this triggered the credit crunch, he also explores what kind of financial system we should desire for the future. It's a story that Ni ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=165 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=165 Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:00:00 -0500 Bungeishunjue has acquired at auction the Japanese rights in Jo Marchant's forthcoming Decoding the Heavens: Solving the Mystery of the World’s Oldest Computer. The English Agency Japan represented the Science Factory in the negotiations. The book will be published early next year by Heinemann in the UK and Da Capo in the US. ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=164 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=164 Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:00:00 -0500 Congratulations to the journalist Mark Lynas, winner of the 2007 Royal Society Science Book Award for his book Six Degrees: Our Future on a Hotter Planet. Published by Fourth Estate in the UK and by National Geographic in the US, the book tracks what our planet may look like as it warms in the future, with each chapter upping the temperature by one degree. The £10,000 prize was awarded last night at the Royal Society in London. Lynas beat the Science Factory's own shortlisted writers – Stuart ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=163 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=163 Wed, 11 Jun 2008 16:00:00 -0500 The End of Sex: The Quest for Reproduction without Men by the biology writer Aarathi Prasad has been bought by Marsha Filion at Oneworld in a World English deal for publication in Spring 2009. In this wide-ranging tour of the past, present and future of sex, Aarathi investigates how reproduction without sex is achieved in animals and explores why evolution hasn't made it an option for humans – yet. For as she puts it in, now that we have the competent hand of science in our lives, will girls s ... http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=162 http://www.sciencefactory.co.uk/content/news.php?nid=162 Fri, 16 May 2008 03:00:00 -0500 Stuart Clark's The Sun Kings and Ian Stewart's Why Beauty is Truth have both been shortlisted for this year's Royal Society Prize for Science Books. Also shortlisted are A Life Decoded by J. Craig Venter, Coral by Steve Jones, Gut Feelings by Gerd Gigerenzer and Six Degrees by Mark Lynas. The judges praised The Sun Kings as 'A real page turner which will open your eyes to the number of scientific discoveries throughout history that might have been lost. The real majesty and power of the su ...