Sigma catalogue

BLOOMSBURY SIGMA

Patient H69 The Story of my Second Sight

Vanessa Potter Imagine what it would be like to one day wake up and find that you were suddenly both blind and completely paralysed. This is what happened to Patient H69. Her condition is unique. It has no name.

Over the next six months, Vanessa Potter slowly recovered her movement and eyesight. Opening her eyes onto a watery, two-dimensional landscape, she saw an unrecognisably monochromatic world. As colour reappeared, she encountered a range of bizarre phenomena, from synaesthesia to discussions with inanimate objects. A multidisciplinary team of scientists scrambled to figure out what had happened and why, and what incredible things could be learnt from her miraculous recovery.

MAY 2017 HARDBACK / 9781472936103 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472936134/ £14.99

This is the story of Patient H69 in her own words, based on detailed audio-diaries she kept during her time of blindness and over the two years of scientific research that was to follow.

PAPERBACK / 9781472936127 / £9.99

Before her illness, Vanessa Potter was an award-winning film producer.

She is now an author, and remains a subject of scientific scrutiny. @PatientH69

Built on Bones 15,000 Years of Urban Life and Death

Brenna Hassett Imagine you are a hunter-gatherer some 12,000 years ago. You’ve got a choice – carry on foraging, or plant a few seeds and move to one of those new-fangled settlements down the valley. What you won’t know is that urban life is short and riddled with dozens of new diseases; your children will be shorter and sicklier than you are, they’ll be plagued with gum disease, and stand a decent chance of a violent death at the point of a spear. Why would anyone choose this?

But choose they did. Why? This is one of the many intriguing questions tackled by Brenna Hassett in Built on Bones. Based on research on skeletal remains from around the world, this book explores the history of humanity’s experiment with the metropolis, and looks at why our ancestors chose city life, and, by and large, have stuck to it.

FEBRUARY 2017 HARDBACK / 9781472922939 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472922953/ £14.99 PAPERBACK / 9781472922960 / £9.99

Brenna Hassett is an archaeologist who specializes in using clues from the human skeleton to understand how people lived and died. She completed her Ph.D at University College, London, and has been based at London’s Natural History Museum since 2012. @brennawalks / trowelblazers.com BLOOMSBURY SIGMA

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The Planet Factory Exoplanets and the Search for a Second Earth

Elizabeth Tasker Fifteen years ago, the search for planets – and life – outside the Solar System was a job restricted to science-fiction writers. Now it’s one of the fastest-growing fields in astronomy, with more than 4,600 of these ‘exoplanets’ discovered to date. There have been some truly stunning recent discoveries; ‘Mega-Earth’, for example, Kepler-10c, rocky like our planet but 17 times bigger, and orbiting its sun in just 45 days. Kepler-16 orbits around a binary star system, while Kepler-11 has five planetary sisters, all closer in orbit to their star than Mercury is to the Sun. JANUARY 2017 HARDBACK / 9781472917720 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472917751 / £14.99

The Planet Factory looks at how exoplanets form, how they are detected, what we know about surface environments and planetary atmospheres, and whether this hints at the tantalising possibility of life.

PAPERBACK / 9781472917744 / £9.99

Elizabeth Tasker is an astrophysicist specialising in computational simulations of star formation in galaxies. After a doctorate at Oxford she undertook post-doctoral research at the University of Florida in the United States. In 2011 she became an assistant professor at Hokkaido University, Japan. @girlandkat

Furry Logic The Physics of Animal Life

Matin Durrani & Liz Kalaugher Furry Logic is an exploration of the cool physics animals use in weird, intriguing ways as part of their daily battle to survive, as uncovered by scientists researching the field of biomechanics.

The book is divided into seven chapters, each representing a separate arm of physics. Each chapter examines the animals’ key features before describing the ways they use physics, how this was discovered, and what remains to be found out.

OCTOBER 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472914095 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472914101 / £14.99 PAPERBACK / 9781472914118 / £9.99

This book makes the incredible interdisciplinary world of animal biomechanics accessible to all, in an enthralling and entertaining read.

Matin Durrani is the editor of Physics World. After his PhD at the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, Matin did a postdoc before moving into publishing in the late 1990s. Liz Kalaugher also has a PhD in physics, along with qualifications in biological sciences. She is the editor of environmentalresearchweb.org, a leading news resource on environmental issues. @MatinDurrani / @LizKalaugher

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Bring Back the King The New Science of De-extinction

Helen Pilcher If you could bring back one living being from the whole of the history of time, what would you choose? In Bring Back the King, comedian and former stem-cell biologist Helen Pilcher explains the cutting-edge science that makes the resurrection of extinct animals a very real possibility, and highlights her choices from geological eras gone by, from the King of the Dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex, to the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, Elvis Presley.

Funny, intriguing and informative, Bring Back the King investigates current initiatives to resurrect entire species from their stony graves, and uses both science and willful irreverence to assess how these genetic Lazaruses might fare in their brave new world. Unique and brilliantly written, Bring Back the King is a book that you will simply have to read.

SEPTEMBER 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472912251 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472912282/ £14.99 PAPERBACK / 9781472912275 / £9.99

A stand-up comedian for more than ten years, Helen Pilcher performed at clubs such as the Comedy Store, Jongleurs and at the Edinburgh Festival, before the arrival of children meant she couldn’t physically stay awake beyond 9pm. Unusually, Helen is also a professional science writer with a PhD in stem-cell biology, who writes for Nature and New Scientist. helenpilcher.com / @HelenPilcher

Science and the City The Mechanics Behind the Metropolis

Laurie Winkless There is a surprising amount of hidden science behind urban life, which secretly keeps things moving. Science and the City describes how technological advances in fields as diverse as quantum mechanics, ergonomics and thermodynamics provide solutions to the urban problems of the future – 50% of the world’s population now lives in cities, and that proportion is growing fast. Can technology provide the answer to a viable megacity future?

Written in an informal and enjoyable style by Laurie Winkless, Science and the City is built on solid foundations of science fact, with a decent sprinkling of speculation on top.

AUGUST 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472913210 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472913227 / £14.99

Laurie Winkless is a physicist from London (via Dublin). Formerly a researcher at the National Physical Laboratory, Laurie went on to research the physics of thermoelectric energy harvesting before moving into science communication. An experienced commentator on physics and technology issues, she has given TEDx talks, worked as a reporter for the Naked Scientists, and appeared in The Times magazine.

PAPERBACK / 9781472913234 / £9.99

“If you are looking for a guide to the city, look no further than this book.”

MARK MIODOWNIK “Fascinating, lucid and entertaining” JOHN O’FARRELL

lauriewinkless.wordpress.com / @laurie_winkless BLOOMSBURY SIGMA

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Goldilocks and the Water Bears The Search for Life in the Universe

Louisa Preston Across a Universe of at least 100 billion habitable, earth-like worlds, life cannot be restricted to Earth – or can it? We can learn much about the possibilities of extraterrestrial life by studying the conveyer belt of life forms over the planet’s history, and by exploring organisms present in harsh environments on Earth that mimic those on other worlds.

These extreme-loving organisms are directing our search for alien life throughout the Solar System and beyond. Could we one day find Earth’s toughest animal, the microscopic water bear, living on the surface of another world?

JUNE 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472920096 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472920089 / £14.99 PAPERBACK / 9781472920119 / £9.99

“A fascinating overview of the most profound and exciting story in science” DALLAS CAMPBELL

Goldilocks and the Water Bears is an accessible introduction to the most fascinating of all the astro-sciences – the quest to learn whether we are alone in the Universe.

Louisa Preston is an astrobiologist and planetary geologist, whose research has included the search for signatures of life that could survive the harsh environments of Mars. She has a Ph.D. in Astrobiology and Planetary Geology from Imperial College London. louisajpreston.com / @LouisaJPreston

Big Data Does Size Matter?

Timandra Harkness Data is big, and getting bigger. It can help us do things faster and more efficiently than ever before, and has made possible scientific and social achievements that would have been impossible just a few years ago. But are we being bamboozled by its size, its speed and its shiny technology?

It’s big, but it’s not always clever.

JUNE 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472920058 / £16.99

Timandra Harkness cuts through the hype to put data science into real-life context. Stories, jokes and personal asides bring to life what is essentially a human science, demystifying Big Data, telling us where it comes from and what it can do for us – and what it can’t. This book asks you to decide – are you a data point, or a human being?

EBOOK / 9781472920065 / £14.99 PAPERBACK / 9781472920072 / £9.99

“The book about stats, life and big data we’ve all been waiting for” MATT PARKER

Timandra Harkness is a writer and comedian who has been performing on mathematical topics since the latter days of the 20th century. In 2010 she co-wrote and performed The Maths of Death, a smash hit at the Edinburgh Fringe, and she is currently on tour with her latest solo show, Brainsex. Timandra is the presenter of BBC Radio 4’s The Human Zoo. www.timandraharkness.com / @TimandraHarknes

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Soccermatics Mathematical Adventures in the Beautiful Game

David Sumpter Football – the most mathematical of sports – is riddled with numbers, patterns and shapes. How to make sense of them? The answer lies in mathematical modelling, an applied science with applications in a host of biological systems. More than a Game brings the two together in a thrilling, mind-bending synthesis.

What’s the similarity between an ant colony and Total Football, Dutch style? How is the Barcelona midfield linked geometrically? And how can we relate the mechanics of a Mexican Wave to the singing of cicadas in a Greek valley? Welcome to the world of mathematical modelling, expressed brilliantly by David Sumpter through the prism of football.

Football – more than a game, and packed with game theory.

MAY 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472924124 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472924155 / £14.99 PAPERBACK / 9781472924148 / £9.99

David Sumpter is Professor of Applied Mathematics at the University of Uppsala, Sweden, where he runs the Collective Behaviour Research Group. An incomplete list of research subjects that he’s modelled include pigeons in pairs over Oxford, Cuban leaf-cutter ant traffic, the gaze of London commuters, and the tubular structures of Japanese slime moulds.

“Every football nerd’s dream.”

FOUR FOUR TWO

www.collective-behavior.com / @djtsumpter

The Tyrannosaur Chronicles The Biology of the Tyrant Dinosaurs

David Hone Tyrannosaurus is by some margin the most famous dinosaur in the world.

It topped 10 tons, was more than 15m long, and had the largest head and most powerful bite of any land animal, ever.

The Tyrannosaur Chronicles tracks the rise of these dinosaurs, and presents the latest research into their biology, showing off more than just their impressive statistics – tyrannosaurs had feathers, may have hunted in groups, and fought and even ate each other. This entertaining book presents the science behind this research, and explores how they came to be the dominant terrestrial predators of the Mesozoic and, in more recent times, one of the great icons of biology.

David Hone is Lecturer in Ecology at QMW in London. He has published more than 50 academic papers on dinosaur biology and behaviour, with a particular interest in the tyrannosaurs, while his fieldwork has included a spell working on the famous feathered dinosaur deposits of China. David’s writing credits include the BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs.

APRIL 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472911254 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472911278 / £14.99 PAPERBACK / 9781472911285 / £9.99

“Gripping and wonderfully informative” NEW STATESMAN “Spectacular” NATURE

theguardian.com/science/lost-worlds / @Dave_Hone BLOOMSBURY SIGMA

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Death on Earth Adventures in Evolution and Mortality

Jules Howard Planet Earth teems with trillions of life-forms, eating, reproducing, thriving … Yet the life of every one draws nearer and nearer to certain death. Why? Why is death such a universal companion to life on Earth?

Why haven’t animals evolved to break free of its shackles?

MARCH 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472915078 / £16.99

In this ground-breaking exploration of death, Jules Howard attempts to shed evolutionary light on one of our most unshakeable taboos.

Encountering some of the world’s oldest animals and meeting the scientists attempting to unravel their mysteries, his journey ends with our own fate: can we ever become immortal? And even if we could, would we really want to?

EBOOK / 9781472915108 / £10.99 PAPERBACK / 9781472915092 / £9.99

“Funny, clever, but also chock full of science ... a book that’s a genuine pleasure to read” DISCOVER MAGAZINE

Jules Howard is a zoologist, writer and broadcaster. He is a features writer for BBC Countryfile magazine, and a regular contributor to the Guardian, the Independent, and BBC Wildlife, for whom he is a judge for the Wildlife Writer of the Year award. His TV work incorporates regular appearances on Inside Out, BBC Breakfast and The One Show. www.juleshoward / @juleslhoward

Sorting the Beef from the Bull The Science of Food Forensics

Richard Evershed and Nicola Temple Horsemeat in burgers, melamine in infant’s milk, artificial colours in our fish and fruit … as our urban lifestyle takes us further away from our food sources, there are increasing opportunities for dishonest, profitmaking short-cuts. Food adulteration costs the food industry billions of dollars each year; the price to consumers may be even higher, with some paying for these crimes with their health and, in some cases, their lives.

FEBRUARY 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472911339 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472911346 / £10.99

This book explains the scientific tools used in the fightback against the fraudsters. It explores the arms race between scientists and adulterers, and looks at the up-and-coming techniques that will help battle food fraud in the future. Sorting the Beef… brings the full story of a fascinating and under-reported applied science to light.

PAPERBACK / 9781472911353 / £9.99

“Eye-opening” DAILY MAIL “Sorting the Beef from the Bull is a must-read” FINANCIAL TIMES

Richard Evershed FRS is Professor of Biogeochemistry at the University of Bristol. Having been at the forefront of analytical chemistry for more than thirty years, his methodologies have been crucial in the fight against food fraudsters. Nicola Temple is a biologist, conservationist and science writer. www.nicolatemple.com / @nicolatemple

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Electronic Dreams How 1980s Britain Learned to Love the Computer

Tom Lean Remember the ZX Spectrum? How about the BBC Micro, Acorn Electron, or the Commodore 64? Did you marvel at the immense galaxies of Elite, master digital kung-fu in Way of the Exploding Fist or lose yourself in the surreal caverns of Manic Miner? For anyone who was a kid in the 1980s, these iconic computer brands are the stuff of legend. In Electronic Dreams, Tom Lean tells the story of how computers invaded British homes for the first time, as people set aside their worries of electronic brains and Big Brother and embraced the wonder-technology of the 1980s.

It’s the story of the people who made the boom happen; inventors and entrepreneurs like Clive Sinclair and Alan Sugar, bedroom programmers and computer hackers, and the millions of everyday folk who bought in to the electronic dream and let the computer into their lives.

HARDBACK / 9781472910042 / £16.99

Tom Lean is a historian of science based at the British Library. His fascination with computer technology is long-standing, culminating in his doctorate at the University of Manchester on computing in 1980s Britain.

“A joy to anyone who grew up in the period” THE SPECTATOR

JANUARY 2016 EBOOK / 9781472910066 / £14.99 PAPERBACK / 9781472910073 / £9.99

“Packed with nuggety info” ESQUIRE

@reggitsti

Herding Hemingway’s Cats Understanding How Genes Work

Kat Arney The language of genes has become common parlance. We know they make your eyes blue, your hair curly or your nose straight. Newspapers tell us that our genes control our risks of cancer, heart disease, alcoholism or Alzheimer’s. Six hundred pounds will buy you your very own genome readout, neatly stored on a USB stick. And advances in genetic medicine hold huge promise. So we’ve all heard of genes, but how do they actually work?

Drawing on stories ranging from six-toed cats to fish hips, werewolves and zombie genes, geneticist Kat Arney explores how DNA is packed, unpacked and read, creating a companion reader to the book of life itself.

JANUARY 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472910042 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472910066 / £14.99

Following a doctorate and research career in genetics, Kat Arney is now Science Communications Manager for Cancer Research UK, helping people understand the disease. According to BBC America, Kat is one of the ‘Top 10 Brits Who Make Science Sexy’, and she regularly appears on national TV and radio shows to talk about the latest genetic research. katarney.wordpress.com / @harpistkat

PAPERBACK / 9781472910073 / £9.99 “A

witty, clued-up report from the front lines of genetics” NATURE “Engrossing and fun” THE GUARDIAN

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Suspicious Minds Why we believe conspiracy theories

Rob Brotherton

NOVEMBER 2015 HARDBACK / 9781472915610 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472915641 / £14.99

Conspiracy theories have been widespread throughout history, from ancient Rome to 9/11 and JFK. Inside Job explores the psychology of this phenomenon, and sheds light on the important consequences conspiracy theories have on society. Conspiracy theorists are not limited to people wearing tin-foil hats or with bizarre ideas about shape-shifting reptilian aliens. Conspiracies are as likely to appeal to women as men, college students as underprivileged youths, middle-class parents as blue-collar workers. Psychological research shows that this is due to a complex mix of personality traits and psychological drives such as the desire for excitement, control, and possession of privileged knowledge.

We’re all born conspiracy theorists. This brilliant book tells you why

PAPERBACK / 9781472915634 / £9.99

“Sophisticated and absorbing … this is a first-class book” THE SUNDAY TIMES “A thought-provoking read” WALL STREET JOURNAL

Rob Brotherton is a leading expert on the psychology of conspiracy theory. Following his doctorate, he went on to become a lecturer in psychology at Goldsmiths, University of London, and has written about conspiracy theories for periodicals such as New Scientist. conspiracypsychology.com / @rob_brotherton

Breaking the Chains of Gravity The Story of Spaceflight before NASA

Amy Shira Teitel NASA’s history is a familiar story, culminating with the agency successfully landing men on the Moon in 1969. But NASA’s prehistory is a rarely told tale, one that is largely absent from the popular space-age literature but that gives the context behind the lunar program. America’s space agency wasn’t created in a vacuum; it drew together some of the best minds the non-Soviet world had to offer.

OCTOBER 2015 HARDBACK / 9781472911179 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472911193 / £14.99 PAPERBACK / 9781472911247 / £9.99

“Teitel … illuminates the foundations of American spaceflight” PUBLISHER’S WEEKLY

From Wernher von Braun fleeing the ruins of Berlin to the Mercury programme, tests of new technologies by pilots such as Neil Armstrong and, in the shadow of Sputnik, the final creation by Dwight D. Eisenhower of NASA, Breaking the Chains of Gravity tells the story of NASA’s roots in an engaging and accessible way, against a backdrop of nazism, communism and imminent nuclear annihilation.

Amy Shira Teitel is an author and expert in the history of science, with a lifelong passion for spaceflight. An accomplished science communicator, Amy regularly appears on Discovery News and Al-Jazeera. amyshirateitel.com / @astVintageSpace

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A is for Arsenic The Poisons of Agatha Christie

Kathryn Harkup Fifteen novels. Fifteen poisons. Just because its fiction doesn’t mean its all made-up ...

Agatha Christie used poison to kill her characters more often than any other crime-fiction writer. The poison is a central part of the novel, while Christie’s choice of deadly substances was far from random; the chemical and physiological characteristics of each poison provide vital clues to identity of the murderer. A is for Arsenic celebrates the use of science in Christie’s work. It looks at why certain chemicals kill, how they interact with the body, and the feasibility of obtaining, administering and detecting these poisons, both when the novel was written and today.

Kathryn Harkup completed a degree, a PhD and a postdoc in chemistry before realising that talking and writing about science appealed more than hours slaving over a hot fume-hood. She is now a science communicator, specialising on the quirky side of science. www.harkup.co.uk / @RotwangsRobot

SEPTEMBER 2015 HARDBACK / 9781472911308 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472911292 / £14.99 PAPERBACK / 9781472911322 / £9.99

“Harkup superbly captures the texture of Christie’s books” THE TIMES “A is for Arsenic has lethal charm” WALL STREET JOURNAL

Chilled How the Refrigerator Changed the World ... and Might Do So Again Tom Jackson The refrigerator in your kitchen is one of the true wonders of 20th century science – life-saver, food-preserver and social liberator, while the science of refrigeration is crucial, not just in transporting food around the globe but in a host of branches on the scientific tree. Refrigeration and its discovery provides the remarkable backdrop to Chilled, the story of how science managed to rewrite the rules of food. It tells us how the technology whirring behind every refrigerator is at play, unseen, in a surprisingly broad sweep of modern life, and has been crucial in some of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the last 100 years, from the discovery of superconductors to the search for the Higgs boson.

JULY 2015 HARDBACK / 9781472911438 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472911421 / £14.99

Tom Jackson is a science writer who specialises in recasting science and technology into lively historical narratives, told through the deeds of the people that discovered them. After almost 20 years of writing nonfiction, Tom has uncovered a wealth of stories that help to bring technical content alive and create new ways of enjoying learning about science.

PAPERBACK / 9781472911445 / £9.99

“Buoyant, idiosyncratic and very funny” FINANCIAL TIMES

tomjackson.weebly.com / @jinjatom BLOOMSBURY SIGMA 10

Spirals in Time The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells

Helen Scales The shell-making molluscs are among the most successful animals on the planet. They live extraordinary lives in many strange places; they provide food and homes for other animals, and across the ages, their shells, sculpted by evolution and mathematics, have become powerful symbols of sex and death, prestige and war.

MAY 2015 PAPERBACK / 9781472911384 / £9.99

Shells offer an accessible way to reconnect people with nature, helping heal the rift between ourselves and the living world. Snails’ Tears and Thunderstones is a biography of the seashell. It shows why nature matters, and reveals the secrets of these wonders of calcium carbonate that you can hold in the palm of your hand.

EBOOK / 9781472911377 / £9.99

BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK A GUARDIAN, TIMES AND INDEPENDENT BOOK OF THE YEAR “This is nature writing at its most engaging” SUNDAY EXPRESS

Following her doctorate on the biology of the humphead wrasse, Helen Scales tagged sharks in California, catalogued marine life in the Andaman Sea, and studied the coral reefs of the South Pacific, before becoming an author and presenter of science programmes on BBC Radio 4. Her credits include regular appearances on Inside Science and Home Planet, and a coveted spot on The Museum of Curiosity. helenscales.com / @helenscales

Atoms Under the Floorboards The Hidden Science in Your Home

Chris Woodford Is it better to build skyscrapers like wobbly jellies or stacks of biscuits?

Can you burn your house down with an electric drill? How many atoms would you have to split to power a lightbulb?

MARCH 2015 PAPERBACK / 9781472912237 / £9.99 EBOOK / 9781472912244 / £9.99

ONE OF ‘PHYSICS WORLD’S TOP TEN BOOKS OF THE YEAR “Provides elegant answers to questions so obvious you’ve never thought of them” WALL STREET JOURNAL

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Atoms under the Floorboards answers all these questions and hundreds more. Using the modern home as a springboard, the book introduces the reader to the fascinating and surprising scientific explanations behind a variety of common (and often entertainingly mundane) household phenomena, from gurgling drains and squeaky floorboards to rubbery custard and shiny shoes. Readers will discover an entirely new appreciation of the science that underpins their lives, while gaining a broad introduction to fundamental scientific concepts like forces, motion, energy, and materials.

Chris Woodford has been a professional science and technology writer for 25 years. His best-sellers include Cool Stuff and Cool Stuff Exploded. www.explainthatstuff.com

P53 The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code

Sue Armstrong All of us have lurking in our DNA a most remarkable gene. Its job is straightforward – to protect us from cancer. This gene – known simply as p53 – scans our cells to ensure that they grow and divide without mishap.

Cancer cannot develop unless p53 itself is damaged and malfunctioning.

Not surprisingly, p53 is the most studied gene in history.

This book is the story of medical science’s mission to unravel the mysteries of p53. A timely tale of scientific discovery, p53: The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code charts our understanding of a disease that affects one in three of us at some point in our lives.

Sue Armstrong is an author and broadcaster. A former New Scientist journalist, Sue has undertaken regular assignments for the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS, writing about women’s health issues and the AIDS pandemic, among many other topics. She has also worked on major Radio 4 documentaries, focusing on topics such as ageing, alcoholism, obesity and cancer. @armstrong_sue

NOVEMBER 2014 PAPERBACK / 9781472910523 / £9.99 EBOOK / 9781472910530 / £9.99

SHORTLISTED FOR THE BMA BOOK AWARD 2015 “One of the best accounts I’ve read of how science is actually performed” THE GUARDIAN

Sex on Earth A Journey Through Nature’s Most Intimate Moments

Jules Howard Since sex first took place – one billion years ago – the world has become ever more colourful, ringing with elaborate songs, epic battles, and rallying cries as male and female desires collided. Right now, warring hordes are locking horns, preening feathers, questioning their mate’s fidelity. Birds are singing, flow ers bloom. A million females choose; a billion penises ejaculate (or snap off); a trillion sperm battle, block and tackle. Sex made planet Earth sexy.

Written in a brilliantly engaging style by biologist Jules Howard, Sex on Earth takes us on a thrilling journey through the ins and outs of animal reproduction.

OCTOBER 2014 PAPERBACK / 9781408193433 / £9.99 EBOOK / 9781408193426 / £9.99

Jules Howard is a zoologist, writer and broadcaster. He is a features writer for BBC Countryfile magazine, and a regular contributor to the Guardian, the Independent, and BBC Wildlife, for whom he is a judge for the Wildlife Writer of the Year award. His TV work incorporates regular appearances on Inside Out, BBC Breakfast and The One Show.

“A brilliantly informative yet entertainingly accessible guide to reproduction across the planet” DAILY MAIL

www.juleshoward / @juleshoward BLOOMSBURY SIGMA 12

Bloomsbury’s popular science imprint, Sigma A celebration of great writing, with a roster of brilliant new authors Sigma – making serious science seriously accessible

Jules Howard

Sue Armstrong

Chris Woodford

Helen Scales

Tom Jackson

Kathryn Harkup

Amy Shira Teitel

Rob Brotherton

Kat Arney

Tom Lean

Nicola Temple

David Hone

David Sumpter

Timandra Harkness

Louisa Preston

www.bloomsbury.com

Bloomsbury’s popular science imprint, Sigma A celebration of great writing, with a roster of brilliant new authors Sigma – making serious science seriously accessible

Laurie Winkless

Helen Pilcher

Matin Durrani

Elizabeth Tasker

Brenna Hassett

Vanessa Potter

Coming soon ...

Natalie Starkey

Johnny Ball

Kathryn Lougheed

Jack Lewis

Kate Devlin

Karin Bojs

www.bloomsbury.com