Freelance writer, London
Philip Ball is a British science writer, whose work appears in Nature, New Scientist and Prospect, among others. His latest books are How Life Works (2023) and Beautiful Experiments (2023). He lives in London.
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Genetics
We are not machines
Welcome to the new post-genomic biology: a transformative era in need of fresh metaphors to understand how life works
Philip Ball
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Space exploration
The final ethical frontier
Earthbound exploration was plagued with colonialism, exploitation and extraction. Can we hope to make space any different?
Philip Ball
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Evolution
What on earth is a xenobot?
The more we understand how cells produce shape and form, the more inadequate the idea of a genomic blueprint looks
Philip Ball
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Human evolution
Homo imaginatus
Imagination isn’t just a spillover from our problem-solving prowess. It might be the core of what human brains evolved to do
Philip Ball
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Biology
Life with purpose
Biologists balk at any talk of ‘goals’ or ‘intentions’ – but a bold new research agenda has put agency back on the table
Philip Ball
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Future of technology
Sim ethics
Say you could make a thousand digital replicas of yourself – should you? What happens when you want to get rid of them?
Philip Ball
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Mathematics
How natural is numeracy?
Where does our number sense come from? Is it a neural capacity we are born with — or is it a product of our culture?
Philip Ball
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Quantum theory
Quantum common sense
Despite its confounding reputation, quantum mechanics both guides and helps explain human intuition
Philip Ball
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Cosmology
Life rocks
Could meteorites be akin to lifeboats from other planets? Or do they reveal more about life on Earth than off it?
Philip Ball
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Stories and literature
Why our imagination for alien life is so impoverished
Philip Ball
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Music
The story trap
We use neat stories to explain everything from sports matches to symphonies. Is it time to leave the nursery of the mind?
Philip Ball
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Philosophy of science
Too many worlds
Nobody knows what happens inside quantum experiments. So why are some so keen to believe in parallel universes?
Philip Ball