Ask the Author: Brian Clegg
Answered Questions (17)
Brian Clegg
Historically I'd say that this was an issue, but most popular science/maths books now take into account a wide range of cultural inputs - certainly they would at the very least tend to include Arabic, Indian and Chinese.
Brian Clegg
Ron Mallett keeps at it (though he is 78 this year) - as far as I'm aware, he's still not got sufficient funding for an experimental attempt (I'm surprised one of the tech billionaires haven't funded it). He keeps popping up in the news (most recently at the start of March 2023), but only telling essentially the same story.
Brian Clegg
Thanks, Hamish. It's not what you'd call popular mathematics, and is probably quite old-fashioned now, but I've found A History of Mathematics by Carl B. Boyer quite good.
Brian Clegg
It's a good question - part of the problem is, of course, even establishing what consciousness is - as I mention in my book What Do You Think You Are? some suggest that there is no such thing.
At the very least neuroscience has a strong influence on consciousness, but I don't think we can say definitively either way.
At the very least neuroscience has a strong influence on consciousness, but I don't think we can say definitively either way.
Brian Clegg
I'm relatively optimistic. I can't see how we could run out of renewable energy resources - we only use a tiny fraction, for example, of solar energy at the moment - and renewable energy generation/energy storage is becoming increasingly cost-effective.
Climate change is a very serious issue and will get worse before it gets better. Any serious solution has to go beyond emission reduction to capturing carbon etc. out of the atmosphere.
Nuclear threats are still an issue in terms of bombs, though it still feels less scary than it did back in the 70s. I'm a big supporter of nuclear energy, which is green in climate change terms - even with the accidents there have been, coal has killed far more people per amount of energy generated than nuclear. The reaction to the Japanese accident (particularly from Germany) was ridiculous - the tsunami killed plenty of people but the reactor accident killed no one.
Climate change is a very serious issue and will get worse before it gets better. Any serious solution has to go beyond emission reduction to capturing carbon etc. out of the atmosphere.
Nuclear threats are still an issue in terms of bombs, though it still feels less scary than it did back in the 70s. I'm a big supporter of nuclear energy, which is green in climate change terms - even with the accidents there have been, coal has killed far more people per amount of energy generated than nuclear. The reaction to the Japanese accident (particularly from Germany) was ridiculous - the tsunami killed plenty of people but the reactor accident killed no one.
Brian Clegg
Funnily, I asked a group of writers the same question recently - so nothing new for me to suggest at the moment, I'm afraid.
Brian Clegg
I don't mind answering an occasional quirky question, but I've answered this one. The idea of this facility is to ask authors about their books and writing.
Brian Clegg
It's Halloween and the doorbell rings in the dark, dark night. I've run out of sweets for trick or treat.
Brian Clegg
Are we talking the fruit or the drink?
Brian Clegg
It certainly seems to be more the case than previously. A lot of effort seems to go into mathematics that has little bearing on anything that can necessarily be observed or experimentally verified. I hope soon to read Sabine Hossenfelder's new book 'Lost In Math: how beauty leads physics astray' which I think will explore this area very effectively.
Brian Clegg
Probably over the birth of one of my grandmothers. I was always told that she was English, but happened to be born in Ireland. However, shortly before my mother died she said to me 'Did you really believe that? That a Catholic, born in Cork with the name Eileen Mulligan was English?' She said that it was just the story they put about because being Irish in England in the early part of the 20th century meant that you were socially limited. I'd love to know more - and I'm sure there's a great story in it - but everyone who could cast light on it is dead.
Brian Clegg
Albert and Amanda Campion in the Margery Allingham books - despite how relatively early these books were written Amanda is very much a character in her own right (and an engineer to boot).
Brian Clegg
Hello,
They are 30 Second Physics, and 30 Second Quantum Theory.
Brian
www.brianclegg.net
They are 30 Second Physics, and 30 Second Quantum Theory.
Brian
www.brianclegg.net
Brian Clegg
Hi - if you drop me an email at [email protected] with an idea of which book(s) you have in mind, I can pass your details onto the publishers.
Brian Clegg
I've currently two books on the go, both to be published next year, it's a bit early to discuss the subjects, but they're very different types of topic, which is one of the things I love about this job.
Brian Clegg
Find something that excites you and write about it. Get the practice in. And hone it. When you've written something, leave it for a couple of weeks at least, then come back to it and see if it's really any good.
Oh, and develop a thick skin. Because rejections are likely to happen - and when you get a book out there, so are bad reviews.
In fact, only do this thing if you are driven to do so. If you love writing, then it's all worthwhile. But if you see it as a means to an end (like getting rich) forget it!
Oh, and develop a thick skin. Because rejections are likely to happen - and when you get a book out there, so are bad reviews.
In fact, only do this thing if you are driven to do so. If you love writing, then it's all worthwhile. But if you see it as a means to an end (like getting rich) forget it!
Brian Clegg
No commute - so when I do have to go to London, say, it's fun rather than a chore - and the flexibility of being able to choose what you work on when. (There is the downside - being paid like a writer.)
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