Shortlist announcement 12th September - Winner announcement
25th November
The longlist for this year’s Royal Society Winton Prize for Science
Books – the world’s most prestigious award for popular science writing –
is announced today (1 June).
The judges selected a longlist of twelve books:
The Spark of Life by Frances Ashcroft (Allen Lane)
The judges said: “Beautifully clear, engaging and accessible. A live
wire account of the body electric.”
Bird Sense by Tim Birkhead (Bloomsbury)
The judges said: “A wonderful glimpse into an alien world. Imagine how
birds hear, taste and feel.”
The Particle at the End of the Universe by Sean
Carroll (Oneworld Publications)
The judges said: “Fizzing with enthusiasm. Makes you realize what the
fuss with the Higgs Boson is all about.”
Cells to Civilizations: The Principles of Change that
Shape Life by Enrico Coen (Princeton University Press)
The judges said: “Daring and ambitious. Succeeds in making transparent
the mechanisms of evolution and development.”
Pieces of Light: The New Science of Memory by Charles
Fernyhough (Profile Books)
The judges said: “Illuminating. This book is not only about how memory
works but what memory means to us.”
The Story of Earth by Robert Hazen (Viking)
The judges said: “Brilliantly explains the origin of earth and life.
Skilfully compressed into a punchy text.”
The Book of Barely Imagined Beings by Caspar Henderson
(Granta)
The judges said: “This is a treasure. Encapsulates the pure wonder of
discovery and the strangeness of the world around us.”
Life's Ratchet by Peter Hoffmann (Basic Books)
The judges said: “A bold, enterprising book that explains how life
starts from the very small.”
Air: The Restless Shaper of the World by William
Bryant Logan (WW Norton)
The judges said: “Lyrical - the poetry of this book is beautiful.
Delights in dust and scent and all that fills the air around us.”
The Cosmic Tourist by Sir Patrick Moore, Brian May and
Chris Lintott (Carlton Books)
The judges said: “Exuberant and well illustrated. A book to inspire
future cosmologists and astronomers.”
Ocean of Life by Callum Roberts (Allen Lane)
The judges said: “A celebration and a wake-up call. The changing state
of our oceans has never been made clearer.”
The Life of a Leaf by Steven Vogel (The University of
Chicago Press)
The judges said: “Exciting and visually engaging. Takes you back to what
it is like to be a child looking at the world of plants.”
Professor Uta Frith, Chair of the judges, said:
“This may be a golden age of science writing - we had
to choose from well over a hundred wonderful books covering a huge range of
topics. Many of them would have deserved a place on the list. We happily and
unanimously agreed on the long list, but we each had favourites that we were
sad not to be able to include. We are very pleased that almost all of our
selected books are ambitiously grounded in several subjects at once, be it
biology, physics, psychology, or technology. The judges
all commented on how much they enjoyed the process. It was an inspiring task.”
The shortlist will be announced on 12th September 2013. The
winner will be announced at a ceremony at the Royal Society on 25th
November 2013.
The judges on this year’s judging panel are Jon Culshaw, impressionist
and comedian; Dr Emily Flashman, Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow at
University of Oxford; Professor Uta Frith DBE FBA FRS (Chair), Emeritus
Professor of Cognitive Development at University College London; Joanne Harris,
novelist and author of Chocolat; and Lucy Siegle, journalist and writer on
environmental issues.
The longlist is being announced to coincide with a panel discussion at
the World
Science Festival in
New York today (1 June). James
Gleick, winner of the 2012 Royal Society Winton Prize
for Science Books and 2012 shortlisted authors Lone Frank and Brian Greene
are taking part in a panel discussion entitled Science and
story: cutting-edge discovery for a literary public.
Commencing in 2011, the global investment management company Winton
Capital Management agreed a five year sponsorship deal of the prize.
. The judges:
·
Jon
Culshaw - Impressionist and
comedian
·
Dr
Emily Flashman - Royal Society
Dorothy Hodgkin Fellow, Department of Chemistry, University
of Oxford
·
Professor
Uta Frith DBE FBA FRS -
Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development, University College London
·
Joanne
Harris - Novelist and author
of Chocolat
·
Lucy
Siegle - Journalist and
writer on environmental issues
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