Books written by Philip Ball, science writer. Writing at the interface of science and culture.
Selection of articles Water; Patterns; Colour; Nanoscience; Materials; Physics of Society; Alchemy; Other
 
 
TALKS & PRESENTATIONS
Philip has given invited talks and lectures to the public and the scientific community worldwide.

During 2007 and continuing in 2008 I have been aiming to reduce my travelling commitments for delivering talks, for family reasons. So please note that, while I am always happy to receive invitations, there is a stronger chance at present that I might have to decline them.
  • 'Water: life's matrix'. Opening address at the first international conference on astrobiology, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffat Field, California, April 2000.
  • 'Bright Earth: the invention of colour'. Evening discourse at the Royal Institution, London, March 2001. Repeated at the RI for a public audience during Chemistry Week, November 2001. This talk provided the inspiration for a poem by Lavinia Greenlaw in the poetry collection 'Discourses' published by the RI (2002). Also available on CD.
  • 'The age of molecular engineering.' Plenary talk at STM'01, international conference on microscopy and nanoscience, Vancouver, July 2001.
  • 'The age of molecular engineering.' Plenary talk in Symposium X, 'Frontiers of Materials Science', at the Materials Research Society Fall annual meeting, Boston, December 2001.
  • 'Bright Earth: the invention of colour'. Special public event at the Edinburgh Science Festival, April 2002.
  • 'Colour: art and science'. Talk at the 'Colour Through Time' workshop, Victoria & Albert Museum, London, October 2002.
  • 'Pattern formation in nature', talk presented in Limerick, Belfast and Dublin for the Irish branch of the Institute of Physics, February 2003.
  • 'Utopia Theory: the search for a physics of society'. Presented at the Royal Institution, London, on 12 February 2004, and at the Cheltenham Science Festival on 13 June 2004.
  • 'The history of social physics'. Plenary talk at the International Conference on Complexity Science, Boston, 16 May 2004.
  • 'Nanotechnology in the Firing Line'. Special presentation at the International Conference on Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing, Royal Society, 15 December 2003. Available online at http://www.nanotechweb.org/articles/society/2/12/1/1
  • 'Chemistry in 20th Century Literature'. Talk at Public Images of Chemistry in the Twentieth Century, Paris, 17-18 September 2004. See http://www.hyle.org/service/chmc2004/
  • 'How chemists invented colour.' Dove Memorial Lecture, University of Toronto, 14 October 2004.
  • 'Colour through the eyes of a scientist', public lecture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 29 March 2005.
  • 'Utopia theory: the search for a physics of society', Northwestern University, Illinois, 31 March 2005.
  • 'Synthetic biology for nanotechnology', Northwestern University, Illinois, 1 April 2005. (Both given as part of the Northwestern Institute on Complex Systems Distinguished Lecturer series.)
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