macmillanscience: big ideas, great stories, fine writing
2 NEW NOVEMBER BOOKS
SPACE ON EARTH ▪ MIDDLE WORLD
SPACE ON EARTH: SAVING OUR WORLD BY SEEKING OTHERS
by CHARLES S. COCKELL
Details: 28 NOVEMBER 2006; Macmillan; ISBN 023000752X; Hardback $24.95/£16.99
AUTHOR/JACKET image downloads: http://www.macmillanscience.com/023000752X.asp
THE BOOK: Many environmentalists think going into space detracts from solving problems here on Earth. Many astrophysicists feel environmentalism hampers their exploration and settlement of space. Actually environmentalism and space exploration have the same objective, argues leading astro-biologist Professor Charles Cockell. Namely: to ensure humanity has a home.
Cockell calls for a fusion of the two movements as the only way forward. The technologies we develop to live sustainably on Earth, such as wind and solar power, will also establish humanity in space. The exploration of space will provide new resources and skills for the protection of the Earth’s environment. For example, studying extreme environments on Earth is helping us to look for life on Mars and satellites orbiting Earth are helping track hurricanes and protect people from natural disasters.
There are many books on environmentalism and many on space faring. Space On Earth is the first to provide a new vision of humanity’s future uniting these two goals.
THE AUTHOR: Professor Charles S. Cockell is currently Chair of Microbiology at the Open University. He has written and edited six books including Impossible Extinction (2003 CUP) about the survival of microbes after natural catastrophes. Following his doctorate at the University of Oxford, Professor Cockell worked for NASA and British Antarctic Survey. He has led expeditions to Mongolia and Indonesia, among other places, to study life in extreme environments. He is Chair of the Earth and Space Foundation and in 1990 stood in the UK national elections for the ‘Forward to Mars Party’ advocating more British involvement in Mars exploration. He won 91 votes.
AUTHOR CONTACTS: [email protected]; +44 (0) 1908 652588
EVENTS: The British Interplanetary Society, British Library, The Whipple Museum of the History of Science in Cambridge and more. For details and updates see www.macmillanscience.com/blog.asp
PRAISE FOR CHARLES S. COCKELL’S PREVIOUS BOOK, IMPOSSIBLE EXTINCTION:
· ‘A highly readable primer on the basics of the new discipline of astrobiology.’ Endeavour
· ‘Worth reading. Recommended to the lay reader and can also be quickly read by a professional.’ Nature
· ‘An informative yet humorous book written in a colloquial style — fascinating.’ Journal of the British Astronomical Association
Middle World: THE RESTLESS HEART OF MATTER AND LIFE
by MARK HAW
Details: 28 NOVEMBER 2006; Macmillan; ISBN 1403986037; Hardback $24.95/£16.99
AUTHOR/JACKET image downloads: http://www.macmillanscience.com/1403986037.asp
THE BOOK: Between the tiny world of quarks and atoms, and the huge one of pebbles, planets, and galaxies there is another world, strangely neglected by science since Isaac Newton. It is inhabited by pollen, DNA and viruses — not to mention globules of paint, shampoo, milk and chocolate. Its middle-sized denizens have one thing in common: they cannot keep still.
Now physicist Mark Haw tells the pacy story of how scientists finally saw the restless middle world 200 years ago, having ignored it for so long; how, at the beginning of the 20th century, it spectacularly answered Einstein’s most basic question about the nature of matter. And how we then ignored it again until the past decade or so. Finally Haw reveals that today understanding the weird, jiggling ‘mesoscale’ has become central to nanotechnology, medicine and working out the origins of life.
THE AUTHOR: Dr Mark Haw is a materials scientist at the University of Nottingham, UK, having spent a decade researching Brownian motion at the University of Edinburgh and the Ecole des Mines in France. Mark has written physics and chemistry features for Nature and Physics World, published numerous short stories and penned three novels.
AUTHOR CONTACTS: [email protected]; +44 (0)115 9514178
EVENTS: Cafes Scientifiques, The British Library and more. For details and updates see www.macmillanscience.com/blog.asp
PRE-PUBLICATION PRAISE FOR MIDDLE WORLD:
‘Mark Haw is to be congratulated on this remarkable book. It opens up a treasure chest of forgotten science that has shaped life on Earth and which is going to play a major role this century.’ Dr John Emsley, writer, broadcaster, and author of Vanity, Vitality and Virility, and Elements of Murder
NOTES FOR EDITORS
The above title is the latest in Macmillan Publishers’ critically acclaimed global popular science list, featuring entertaining, authoritative books about the drama, politics, history and implications of research and discovery, appealing to a broad readership. For more information see www.macmillanscience.com
US & Canada press enquiries for Charles Cockell to Lisa LaPoint: [email protected]
US & Canada press enquiries for Mark Haw to Cheryl Vawdrey: [email protected]
UK/EU/Rest Of World press enquiries to Lisa Hayden: [email protected] +44 (0) 207 014 4033
Australia press enquiries to Jenny McHendrie: [email protected] +61 (0) 3 9825 1157
Extract enquiries to Jon Mitchell: [email protected] +44 (0) 20 7014 6151
Jacket & author image downloads: http://www.macmillanscience.com/download.htm
