This is the page of my website for all the things that don't belong elsewhere, such as links to favourite books and websites.
The Science Bit
Like Slartibartfast, I'm a great fan of science. The things that have been accomplished by palaeontologists piecing together the four-billion year history of life on earth from marks on old stones, or geneticists deciphering the arcane texts concealed within each living cells, or astrophysicists piecing together the processes that created the atoms in the universe, seem to me utterly astonishing. Here are a few great books, each of which I'd recommend unreservedly to anyone who's remotely interested in the way the universe works:
- Before the Beginning (1997) is a fascinating introduction to cosmology by Martin Rees, the British
Astronomer Royal(!)
- The Inflationary Universe (1998) by Alan Guth is a readable and well-written introduction to the cosmological
theory of inflation, by the man who discovered it. One of my favourite non-fiction books of all time.
- The Meme Machine (1999) by Susan Blackmore is all about memes: an idea first proposed by Richard Dawkins
in his book The Selfish Gene, and since made use of by the American philosopher Daniel Dennett in books such
as Consciousness Explained.
Other Stuff on this Website
In case I've not mentioned it elsewhere, here's a link to some information on unsuccessful time travel experiments (partly based on a speech I gave at a literary lunch in Cambridge in June 2002).