{"title":"Books by Philip Ball","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780753810927","title":"H2O","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe brilliantly told and gripping story of the most familiar - yet, amazingly, still poorly understood - substance in the universe: Water.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe extent to which water remains a scientific mystery is extraordinary, despite its prevalence and central importance on Earth. Whether one considers its role in biology, its place in the physical world (where it refuses to obey the usual rules of liquids) or its deceptively simple structure, there is still no complete answer to the question: what is water? Philip Ball's book explains what, exactly, we do and do not know about the strange character of this most essential and ubiquitous of substances.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eH20 begins by transporting its readers back to the Big Bang and the formation of galaxies to witness the birth of water's constituent elements: hydrogen and oxygen. It then explains how the primeval oceans were formed four billion years ago; where water is to be found on other planets; why ice floats when most solids sink; why, despite being highly corrosive, water is good for us; why there are at least fifteen kinds of ice and perhaps two kinds of liquid water; how scientists have consistently misunderstood water for centuries; and why wars have been waged over it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePhilip Ball's gloriously offbeat and intelligent book conducts us on a journey through the history of science, folklore, the wilder scientific fringes, cutting-edge physics, biology and ecology, to give a fascinating new perspective on life and the substance that sustains it. After reading this book, drinking a glass of water will never be the same again.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204155769010,"sku":"9780753810927","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780753810927_27d4a3a4-01a8-44cc-bb3f-aba9604fc215.jpg?v=1786016460"},{"product_id":"9780099535447","title":"The Music Instinct","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhy have all human cultures - today and throughout history - made music? Why does music excite such rich emotion? How do we make sense of musical sound? \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThese are questions that have, until recently, remained mysterious. Now \u003ci\u003eThe Music Instinct\u003c\/i\u003e explores how the latest research in music psychology and brain science is piecing together the puzzle of how our minds understand and respond to music. Ranging from Bach fugues to nursery rhymes to heavy rock, Philip Ball interweaves philosophy, mathematics, history and neurology to reveal why music moves us in so many ways. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWithout requiring any specialist knowledge, \u003ci\u003eThe Music Instinct \u003c\/i\u003ewill both deepen your appreciation of the music you love, and open doors to music that once seemed alien, dull or daunting, offering a passionate plea for the importance of music in education and in everyday life.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e'You'll never listen to music the same way again' - \u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43399938441394,"sku":"9780099535447","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099535447_b037a388-5d44-4210-87d6-ff8fba20d7e0.jpg?v=1786011327"},{"product_id":"9780008331818","title":"How to Grow a Human","description":"A cutting-edge examination of what it means to be human and to have a 'self' in the face of new scientific developments in genetic editing, cloning and neural downloading.After seeing his own cells used to grow clumps of new neurons – essentially mini-brains – Philip Ball begins to examine the concepts of identity and consciousness. Delving into humanity's deep evolutionary past to look at how complex creatures like us emerged from single-celled life, he offers a new perspective on how humans think about ourselves.In an age when we are increasingly encouraged to regard the 'self' as an abstract sequence of genetic information, or as a pattern of neural activity that might be 'downloaded' to a computer, he return us to the body – to flesh and blood – and anchors a conception of personhood in this unique and ephemeral mortal coil. How to Build a Human brings us back to ourselves – but in doing so, it challenges old preconceptions and values. It asks us to rethink how we exist in the world.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56221416292725,"sku":"9780008331818","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780008331818_8e390504-8c84-43ea-ac15-4f28c07ed024.jpg?v=1785658630"},{"product_id":"9780099457862","title":"Critical Mass","description":"Is there a 'physics of society'? Philip Ball's investigation into human nature ranges from Hobbes and Adam Smith to modern work on traffic flow and market trading, across economics, sociology and psychology. Ball shows how much of human behaviour we can understand when we cease trying to predict and analyse the behaviour of individuals and look to the impact of hundreds, thousands or millions of individual human decisions, in circumstances in which human beings both co-operate and conflict, when their aggregate behaviour is constructive and when it is destructive. By perhaps Britain's leading young science writer, this is a deeply thought-provoking book, causing us to examine our own behaviour, whether in buying the new Harry Potter book, voting for a particular party or responding to the lures of advertisers.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56223895716213,"sku":"9780099457862","price":11.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099457862_4e785344-d2fb-4955-8f45-468e20d50617.jpg?v=1786011078"},{"product_id":"9780192840998","title":"The Elements","description":"This Very Short Introduction traces the history and cultural impact of the elements on humankind, and examines why people have long sought to identify the substances around them. Looking beyond the Periodic Table, the author examines our relationship with matter, from the uncomplicated vision of the Greek philosophers, who believed there were four elements - earth, air, fire, and water - to the work of modern-day scientists in creating elements such as hassium and meitnerium. Packed with anecdotes, The Elements is a highly engaging and entertaining exploration of the fundamental question: what is the world made from? ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56225807532405,"sku":"9780192840998","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780192840998_72e730a2-f280-4cac-b87a-6cb3c2bffb8b.jpg?v=1786010995"},{"product_id":"9780192854308","title":"Molecules","description":"The processes in a single living cell are akin to that of a city teeming with molecular inhabitants that move, communicate, cooperate, and compete. In this Very Short Introduction, Philip Ball explores the role of the molecule in and around us - how, for example, a single fertilized egg can grow into a multi-celled Mozart, what makes spider's silk insoluble in the morning dew, and how this molecular dynamism is being captured in the laboratory, promising to reinvent chemistry as the central creative science of the century.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56226295742837,"sku":"9780192854308","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780192854308_4286f410-4c26-4628-9a1d-b2cd0127166d.jpg?v=1786011132"},{"product_id":"9780226823843","title":"The Modern Myths – Adventures in the Machinery of the Popular Imagination","description":"With The Modern Myths, brilliant science communicator Philip Ball spins a new yarn. From novels and comic books to B-movies, it is an epic exploration of literature, new media and technology, the nature of storytelling, and the making and meaning of our most important tales.    Myths are usually seen as stories from the depths of time—fun and fantastical, but no longer believed by anyone. Yet, as Philip Ball shows, we are still writing them—and still living them—today. From Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein to Batman, many stories written in the past few centuries are commonly, perhaps glibly, called “modern myths.” But Ball argues that we should take that idea seriously. Our stories of Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Sherlock Holmes are doing the kind of cultural work that the ancient myths once did. Through the medium of narratives that all of us know in their basic outline and which have no clear moral or resolution, these modern myths explore some of our deepest fears, dreams, and anxieties. We keep returning to these tales, reinventing them endlessly for new uses. But what are they really about, and why do we need them? What myths are still taking shape today? And what makes a story become a modern myth? In The Modern Myths, Ball takes us on a wide-ranging tour of our collective imagination, asking what some of its most popular stories reveal about the nature of being human in the modern age.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56227538436469,"sku":"9780226823843","price":18.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780226823843_a272d20a-6a35-4975-838c-3643fb2b9acf.jpg?v=1786012216"},{"product_id":"9780226825823","title":"Beautiful Experiments – An Illustrated History of Experimental Science","description":"A New Scientist Best Book of 2023 Featuring two hundred color plates, this history of the craft of scientific inquiry is as exquisite as the experiments whose stories it shares.      This illustrated history of experimental science is more than just a celebration of the ingenuity that scientists and natural philosophers have used throughout the ages to study—and to change—the world. Here we see in intricate detail experiments that have, in some way or another, exhibited elegance and beauty: in their design, their conception, and their execution. Celebrated science writer Philip Ball invites readers to marvel at and admire the craftsmanship of scientific instruments and apparatus on display, from the earliest microscopes to the giant particle colliders of today. With Ball as our expert guide, we are encouraged to think carefully about what experiments are, what they mean, and how they are used. Ranging across millennia and geographies, Beautiful Experiments demonstrates why “experiment” remains a contested notion in science, while also exploring how we came to understand the way the world functions, what it contains, and where the pursuit of that understanding has brought us today.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56227544269173,"sku":"9780226825823","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780226825823_7112fdef-e276-49cc-84fc-05859ae4ba6c.jpg?v=1786032734"},{"product_id":"9780226332420","title":"Patterns in Nature – Why the Natural World Looks the Way It Does","description":"Though at first glance the natural world may appear overwhelming in its diversity and complexity, there are regularities running through it, from the hexagons of a honeycomb to the spirals of a seashell and the branching veins of a leaf. Revealing the order at the foundation of the seemingly chaotic natural world, Patterns in Nature explores not only the math and science but also the beauty and artistry behind nature's awe-inspiring designs. Unlike the patterns we create in technology, architecture, and art, natural patterns are formed spontaneously from the forces that act in the physical world. Very often the same types of pattern and form spirals, stripes, branches, and fractals, say recur in places that seem to have nothing in common, as when the markings of a zebra mimic the ripples in windblown sand. That's because, as Patterns in Nature shows, at the most basic level these patterns can often be described using the same mathematical and physical principles: there is a surprising underlying unity in the kaleidoscope of the natural world.Richly illustrated with 250 color photographs and anchored by accessible and insightful chapters by esteemed science writer Philip Ball, Patterns in Nature reveals the organization at work in vast and ancient forests, powerful rivers, massing clouds, and coastlines carved out by the sea.   By exploring similarities such as those between a snail shell and the swirling stars of a galaxy, or the branches of a tree and those of a river network, this spectacular visual tour conveys the wonder, beauty, and richness of natural pattern formation.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56227818144117,"sku":"9780226332420","price":31.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780226332420_45bfe9e7-171f-44d2-81e1-e84d22e8f947.jpg?v=1786012419"},{"product_id":"9780262044417","title":"The Beauty of Chemistry","description":"\u003cb\u003eA “visual tour through the under-appreciated chemical beauty that surrounds us”\u003cb\u003e—\u003c\/b\u003ewith astonishing photographs of the scientific processes that create snowflakes, bubbles, flames, and other natural wonders (\u003ci\u003eWIRED\u003c\/i\u003e)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChemistry is not just about microscopic atoms doing inscrutable things; it is the process that makes flowers and galaxies. We rely on it for bread-baking, vegetable-growing, and producing the materials of daily life. In stunning images and illuminating text, this book captures chemistry as it unfolds.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eUsing such techniques as microphotography, time-lapse photography, and infrared thermal imaging, \u003ci\u003eThe Beauty of Chemistry\u003c\/i\u003e shows us how chemistry underpins the formation of snowflakes, the science of champagne, the colors of flowers, and other wonders of nature and technology. We see the marvelous configurations of chemical gardens; the amazing transformations of evaporation, distillation, and precipitation; heat made visible; and more.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56231465845109,"sku":"9780262044417","price":45.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780262044417_36f32c23-b0a1-4488-b07b-87e3c5e74bf2.jpg?v=1786012268"},{"product_id":"9780500024539","title":"The Elements","description":"This book offers a largely chronological illustrated guide to how the chemical elements were discovered over the past three millennia. It provides a view not just of how we came to understand what everything is made of but also of how chemistry developed from a trial-and-error craft of making and transforming substances into a rational modern science that provides us with new materials, drugs, and much else.     While other books have described the properties of the chemical elements and often delved into their histories, none has done so in this highly visual manner. The closest comparison is Theodore Gray’s illustrated book The Elements - but this does not take a historical approach as this does here. The pictorial material for this subject is very rich, including some gorgeous alchemical documents as well as portraits, colour charts, woodcuts of mining, artefacts such as John Dalton’s wooden balls, advertisements (for example, for radium 'cures') and postage stamps.    The book contains separate short sections for each element or groups of related elements, which are gathered into several sections to order the sequence into several chronological eras of element discovery. Included are short 'interludes' (or 'feature spreads') presenting important intellectual milestones in how we think about elements.   With 192 illustrations","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56290365210997,"sku":"9780500024539","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780500024539_22971527-4da1-4a78-b220-dd1d3a35b7ba.jpg?v=1786013480"},{"product_id":"9780854046744","title":"Elegant Solutions","description":"Devising and performing a scientific experiment is an art, and it is common to hear scientists talk about the 'beauty' of an experiment. What does this mean in chemistry, the experimental science par excellence? And what are the most beautiful chemical experiments of all time? This book offers ten suggestions for where beauty might reside in experimental chemistry. In some cases the beauty lies in the clarity of conception; sometimes it is a feature of the instrumental design. But for chemistry, there can also be a unique beauty in the way atoms are put together to make new molecules, substances not known in nature. The ten experiments described here offer a window into the way that chemists think and work, and how what they do affects the rest of science and the wider world. This book aims to stimulate the reader to think anew about some of the relationships and differences between science and art, and to challenge some of the common notions about particular 'famous experiments'. Elegant Solutions: Ten Beautiful Experiments in Chemistry is accessible to all readers, including those without a scientific background and can provide an unusual point of entry into some of the basic concepts of chemistry. Phillip Ball is a renowned, prolific, award winning science writer.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56295189545333,"sku":"9780854046744","price":19.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780854046744_214a4e95-ac37-45d6-aa87-5bf599845ffc.jpg?v=1786015944"},{"product_id":"9781529069143","title":"The Book of Minds","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eUnderstanding the human mind and how it relates to the world that we experience has challenged philosophers for centuries. How then do we even begin to think about ‘minds’ that are not human?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTaking a uniquely broad view of minds and where they might be found – including in plants, aliens, and God – prize-winning science writer Philip Ball pulls these multidisciplinary pieces together to explore what sorts of minds we might expect to find in the universe.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe offers for the first time a unified way of thinking about what minds are and what they can do, arguing that in order to understand our own minds and imagine those of others, we need to move on from considering the human mind as a standard against which all others should be measured, and to think about the ‘space of possible minds’.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBall sheds new light on a host of fascinating questions. What moral rights should we afford animals, and can we understand their thoughts? Should we worry that AI is going to take over society? If there are intelligent aliens out there, how could we communicate with them? Should we? \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBall’s thrillingly ambitious \u003ci\u003eThe Book of Minds\u003c\/i\u003e about the nature and existence of minds is more mind-expanding than we could imagine. In this fascinating panorama of other minds, we come to better know our own.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":57685676163445,"sku":"9781529069167","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":56303262957941,"sku":"9781529069143","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781529069167.jpg?v=1792598820"},{"product_id":"9781529096002","title":"How Life Works","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e'An essential primer on humanity’s ongoing quest to understand the secrets of life . . . Excellent . . . Ball is a terrific writer.' – Adam Rutherford, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Ball is a ferociously gifted science writer . . . There is so much [here] that is amazing . . . urgent . . . astonishing.' – \u003ci\u003eThe Sunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA cutting-edge new vision of biology that proposes to revise our concept of what life is – from Science Book Prize winner Philip Ball.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBiology is undergoing a quiet but profound transformation. Several aspects of the standard picture of how life works have been exposed as incomplete, misleading, or wrong.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eHow Life Works\u003c\/i\u003e, Philip Ball explores the new biology, revealing life to be a far richer, more ingenious affair than we had guessed. With this knowledge come new possibilities. Today we can redesign and reconfigure living systems, tissues, and organisms. We can reprogram cells, for instance, to carry out new tasks and grow into structures not seen in the natural world. Some researchers believe that ultimately we will be able to regenerate limbs and organs, and perhaps even create new life forms that evolution has never imagined.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIncorporating the latest research and insights, \u003ci\u003eHow Life Works\u003c\/i\u003e is a sweeping journey into this new frontier of the nature of life, a realm that will reshape our understanding of life as we know it.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56303297200501,"sku":"9781529096002","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781529096002_db7d7df9-d39c-4cf1-b25d-35721c94406d.jpg?v=1786022020"},{"product_id":"9781913118907","title":"Neither Up Nor Down","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309090812277,"sku":"9781913118907","price":35.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781913118907_faf535e1-8305-42cc-9298-f5478815efaf.jpg?v=1786030168"},{"product_id":"9781784701543","title":"The Water Kingdom","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSelected as a Book of the Year by \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Economist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChina's history is an epic tapestry of courtly philosophies, warring factions and imperial intrigue. 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Many early cultures are known to have experimented with chemical transformations: from dyes, glazes, and cosmetics in Bronze Age Egypt to life-extending elixirs pursued by scholars in ancient China and India. Many have also attempted to transform lead, mercury, and other metals into gold—and some claim to have succeeded. In this visually stunning volume, Philip Ball sets alchemy within the context of the history of science and culture, showing that it was not simply an esoteric fantasy but an important phase in the development of experimental science and natural philosophy.      Rich illustrations complement a narrative history of the methods and techniques developed in alchemical workshops, the search for the philosopher’s stone and “elixirs of life” that extended across diverse cultures, and the controversies surrounding the practices of making alchemical gold and alchemical medicine. Ball explores the rise of alchemy from its inception in Hellenistic culture, through the golden age of Islamic natural philosophy in the eighth to the eleventh centuries, to the emergence of the tradition of natural magic in the Renaissance, and to the roles of alchemical thought and practice in the beginnings of early modern science in the seventeenth century. He traces the persistence of alchemical ideas through the occult revival of the late nineteenth century and the fascination of the topic for modern artists and writers. This engaging and accessible book will provide readers of all backgrounds with a nuanced understanding of alchemy and its history.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56419553345909,"sku":"9780300280876","price":30.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780300280876.jpg?v=1791212795"},{"product_id":"serving-the-reich","title":"Serving the Reich","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eServing the Reich\u003c\/i\u003e tells the story of physics under Hitler. While some scientists tried to create an Aryan physics that excluded any ‘Jewish ideas’, many others made compromises and concessions as they continued to work under the Nazi regime. 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Contemporary of Luther, enemy of established medicine, scourge of the universities ('at all the German schools you cannot learn as much as at the Frankfurt Fair'), army surgeon and alchemist, myths about him - from his treating diseases from beyond the grave in mid-nineteenth century Salzburg to his Faustian bargain with the devil to regain his youth - have been far more lasting than his actual story. Even during his lifetime, he was rumoured to travel with a magical white horse and to store the elixir of life in the pommel of his sword.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut who was Paracelsus and what did he really believe and practice? Although Paracelsus has been seen as both a charlatan and as a founder of modern science, Philip Ball's book reveals a more richly complex man - who used his eyes and ears to learn from nature how to heal, and who wrote influential books on medicine, surgery, alchemy and theology while living a drunken, combative, vagabond life. Above all, Ball reveals a man who was a product of his time - an age of great change in which the church was divided and the classics were rediscovered - and whose bringing together of the seemingly diverse disciplines of alchemy and biology signalled the beginning of the age of rationalism.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57466650198389,"sku":"9780099457879","price":18.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099457879.jpg?v=1785654708"},{"product_id":"why-society-is-a-complex-matter","title":"Why Society Is a Complex Matter","description":"\u003cp\u003eSociety is complicated. But this book argues that this does not place it beyond the reach of a science that can help to explain and perhaps even to predict social behaviour. As a system made up of many interacting agents – people, groups, institutions and governments, as well as physical and technological structures such as roads and computer networks – society can be regarded as a complex system. In recent years, scientists have made great progress in understanding how such complex systems operate, ranging from animal populations to earthquakes and weather. These systems show behaviours that cannot be predicted or intuited by focusing on the individual components, but which emerge spontaneously as a consequence of their interactions: they are said to be ‘self-organized’. Attempts to direct or manage such emergent properties generally reveal that ‘top-down’ approaches, which try to dictate a particular outcome, are ineffectual, and that what is needed instead is a ‘bottom-up’ approach that aims to guide self-organization towards desirable states.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis book shows how some of these ideas from the science of complexity can be applied to the study and management of social phenomena, including traffic flow, economic markets, opinion formation and the growth and structure of cities. Building on these successes, the book argues that the complex-systems view of the social sciences has now matured sufficiently for it to be possible, desirable and perhaps essential to attempt a grander objective: to integrate these efforts into a unified scheme for studying, understanding and ultimately predicting what happens in the world we have made. Such a scheme would require the mobilization and collaboration of many different research communities, and would allow society and its interactions with the physical environment to be explored through realistic models and large-scale data collection and analysis. It should enable us to find new and effectivesolutions to major global problems such as conflict, disease, financial instability, environmental despoliation and poverty, while avoiding unintended policy consequences. 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