John (R.) Gribbin (1946-) Biography

Born 1946, in Maidstone, Kent, England; Education: Sussex University, B.Sc., 1966, M.Sc., 1967; Cambridge University, Ph.D., 1971.

Addresses

Agent—David Higham Associates, 5-8 Lower John St., Golden Square, London W1F 9HA, England.

Career

Staff writer for Nature, 1970-75; University of Sussex, Brighton, England, member of science policy research unit, 1975-78. Physics consultant to New Scientist, 1978-98; University of Sussex, visiting fellow in astronomy, 1992—.

Member

Royal Astronomical Society (fellow), Royal Meteorological Society (fellow), Royal Geographical Society (fellow).

Honors Awards

Award from Gravity Research Foundation, 1970, for study of the nature of superluminous astronomical objects; National Award from Association of British Science Writers, 1974, for writings on climatic change, and 1991; first prize from Griffith Observatory (Los Angeles, CA), 1982, for report on astronomical discoveries pertaining to the shrinking of the sun.

Writings

FICTION

(With Douglas Orgill) The Sixth Winter, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1979.

(With Douglas Orgill) Brother Esau, Harper (New York, NY), 1982.

(With Marcus Chown) Double Planet, Gollancz (London, England), 1988, Avon (New York, NY), 1991.

Father to the Man, Gollancz (London, England), 1989, Tor Books (New York, NY), 1990.

(With D. G. Compton) Ragnarok, Gollancz (London, England), 1991.

John Gribbin

(With Marcus Chown) Reunion, (sequel to Double Planet), Gollancz (London, England), 1991.

Innervisions, Roc (London, England), 1993.

EDITOR; "ESSENTIAL SCIENCE" SERIES

(And author) Quantum Physics, DK Publishers (New York, NY), 2002.

Jeremy Cherfas, The Human Genome, DK Publishers (New York, NY), 2002.

John D. McCrone, How the Brain Works, DK Publishers (New York, NY), 2002.

Marek Walisiewicz, Alternative Energy, DK Publishers (New York, NY), 2002.

David Burnie, Evolution, DK Publishers (New York, NY), 2002.

Jack Challoner, Artificial Intelligence, DK Publishers (New York, NY), 2002.

Fred Pearce, Global Warming, DK Publishers (New York, NY), 2002.

Hazel Richardson, Killer Diseases, DK Publishers (New York, NY), 2002.

Sue Bowler, Restless Earth, DK Publishers (New York, NY), 2002.

NONFICTION

Astronomy for the Amateur, McKay (New York, NY), 1976.

Forecasts, Famines, and Freezes: Climates and Man's Future, Walker & Co. (New York, NY), 1976.

Galaxy Formation: A Personal View, Wiley (New York, NY), 1976.

Our Changing Universe: The New Astronomy, Dutton (New York, NY), 1976.

Our Changing Planet, Crowell (New York, NY), 1977.

White Holes: Cosmic Gushers in the Universe, Delacorte/Delta (New York, NY), 1977.

(Editor and contributor) Climatic Change, Cambridge University Press (New York, NY), 1978.

This Shaking Earth, Putnam (New York, NY), 1978.

What's Wrong with Our Weather? The Climatic Threat of the Twenty-first Century, Scribner's (New York, NY), 1978, published as The Climatic Threat: What's Wrong with Our Weather?, Fontana (London, England), 1978.

Climate and Mankind, Earthscan (London, London), 1979.

Future Worlds, Plenum (New York, NY), 1979.

Timewarps, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1979.

Weather Force: Climate and Its Impact on Our World, Putnam (New York, NY), 1979.

The Death of the Sun, illustrated by Neil Hyslop, Delacorte/Delta (New York, NY), 1980, published as The Strangest Star: The Scientific Account of the Life and Death of the Sun, Fontana (London, England), 1980.

Carbon Dioxide, Climate, and Man, Earthscan (London, England), 1981.

Genesis: The Origins of Man and the Universe, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1981.

(Editor and contributor) Cosmology Today, IPC (London, England), 1982.

Future Weather and the Greenhouse Effect, Delacorte/Delta (New York, NY), 1982.

(With Jeremy Cherfas) The Monkey Puzzle: A Family Tree, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1982.

(With Stephen Plagemann) The Jupiter Effect, Walker & Co. (New York, NY), 1974, revised edition published as The Jupiter Effect Reconsidered, Vintage Books (New York, NY), 1982.

(With Stephen Plagemann) Beyond the Jupiter Effect, Macdonald (London, England), 1983.

Spacewarps: Black Holes, White Holes, Quasars, and the Universe, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1983.

In Search of Schroedinger's Cat: The Startling World of Quantum Physics Explained, Bantam (New York, NY), 1984.

(With Jeremy Cherfas) The Redundant Male: Is Sex Irrelevant in the Modern World?, Pantheon (New York, NY), 1984.

In Search of the Double Helix: Quantum Physics and Life, McGraw-Hill (New York, NY), 1985.

(With wife, Mary Gribbin) Weather, Rourke Enterprises (Vero Beach, FL), 1985.

(Editor) The Breathing Planet, Blackwell (Cambridge, MA), 1986.

In Search of the Big Bang: Quantum Physics and Cosmology, illustrated by Neil Hyslop, Bantam (New York, NY), 1986.

The Omega Point: The Search for the Missing Mass and the Ultimate Fate of the Universe, Heinemann (London, England), 1987, Bantam (New York, NY), 1988.

(With Mary Gribbin) The One Percent Advantage: The Sociobiology of Being Human, Blackwell (Cambridge, MA), 1988.

(With Kate Charlesworth) The Cartoon History of Time: A Beginner's Guide to Quantum Physics, Relativity, and the Beginning of the Universe, Plume (New York, NY), 1990.

(With Mary Gribbin) Children of the Ice: Climate and Human Origins, Blackwell (Cambridge, MA), 1990.

Hothouse Earth: The Greenhouse Effect and Gaia, Grove, Weidenfeld (New York, NY), 1990.

Blinded by the Light: The Secret Life of the Sun, Harmony (New York, NY), 1991.

(With Martin Rees) Cosmic Coincidences: Dark Matter, Mankind, and Anthropic Cosmology, Bantam (New York, NY), 1989, published as The Stuff of the Universe: Dark Matter, Mankind, and the Coincidences of Cosmology, Black Swan (London, England), 1991.

(With Paul Davies) The Matter Myth: Toward Twenty-first-Century Science, Viking (London, England), 1991, published as The Matter Myth: Dramatic Discoveries That Challenge Our Understanding of Physical Reality, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1992.

The Hole in the Sky: Man's Threat to the Ozone Layer, Bantam (New York, NY), 1988, revised edition, 1993.

In Search of the Edge of Time, Bantam (New York, NY), 1992.

Unveiling the Edge of Time: Black Holes, White Holes, Wormholes, Harmony (New York, NY), 1992.

(With Michael White) Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science, Dutton (New York, NY), 1992, updated edition, Joseph Henry Press (Washington, DC), 2002.

(With Mary Gribbin) Too Hot to Handle? Greenhouse Effect, Corgi (London, England), 1992.

(With Mary Gribbin) Being Human: Putting People in an Evolutionary Perspective, Dent (London, England), 1993.

(With Michael White) Einstein: A Life in Science, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1993.

In the Beginning: After COBE and before the Big Bang, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1993.

(With Mary Gribbin) Time and Space, Dorling Kindersley (London, England), 1994.

(With Michael White) Darwin: A Life in Science, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1995.

Schroedinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality: Solving the Quantum Mysteries, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1995.

Companion to the Cosmos, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1996.

(With Mary Gribbin) Fire on Earth: Doomsday, Dinosaurs, and Humankind, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1996.

Origins: Our Place in Hubble's Universe, Overlook Press (Woodstock, NY), 1997.

(With Mary Gribbin) Richard Feynman: A Life in Science, Dutton (New York, NY), 1997.

The Case of the Missing Neutrinos: And Other Phenomena of the Universe, Fromm International (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Simon Goodwin) Empire of the Sun: Planets and Moons of the Solar System, New York University Press (New York, NY), 1998.

The Search for Superstrings, Symmetry, and the Theory of Everything, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1998.

Q Is for Quantum: An Encyclopedia of Particle Physics, edited by Mary Gribbin, illustrated by Jonathan Gribbin, timelines by Benjamin Gribbin, Free Press (New York, NY), 1998.

(With Mary Gribbin) Almost Everyone's Guide to Science: The Universe and Everything, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 1999.

The Little Book of Science, Barnes & Noble (New York, NY), 1999.

The Birth of Time: How Astronomers Measured the Age of the Universe, Weidenfeld & Nicolson (London, England), 1999, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2000.

(With Mary Gribbin) Stardust: Supernovae and Life: The Cosmic Connection, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2000.

(With Simon Goodwin) XTL: Extraterrestrial Life and How to Find It, Cassell & Co. (London, England), 2001.

Hyperspace: Our Final Frontier, (based on BBC television series Space), DK Publishers (New York, NY), 2001, published as Space: Our Final Frontier, BBC (London, England), 2001.

(With Mary Gribbin) Ice Age, Penguin (New York, NY), 2001.

Quantum Physics, DK Publishers (New York, NY), 2002.

Science, a History, 1543-2001, Allen Lane (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Mary Gribbin) FitzRoy: The Remarkable Story of Darwin's Captain and the Invention of the Weather Forecast, Review (London, England), 2003, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2004.

The First Chimpanzee: In Search of Human Origins, Barnes & Noble (New York, NY), 2003.

Mating Game, Barnes & Noble (New York, NY), 2003.

The Scientists: A History of Science Told through the Lives of Its Greatest Inventors, Random House (New York, NY), 2003.

Get a Grip on Physics, Barnes & Noble (New York, NY), 2003.

(With Mary Gribbin) Big Numbers, illustrated by Ralph Edney, Wizard (Cambridge, England), 2003.

(With Mary Gribbin) How Far Is Up? Measuring the Size of the Universe Icon (Cambridge, England), 2003.

The Science of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials, Knopf (New York, NY), 2004.

Deep Simplicity: Bringing Order to Chaos and Complexity, Allen Lane (London, England), 2003, Random House (New York, NY), 2005.

Contributor to British Broadcasting Corp. and British Forces Radio. Contributor to newspapers and periodicals, including New Scientist, Guardian, London Times, Analog, and Science Digest.

Sidelights

Beginning his writing career in the mid-1970s, British astronomer and author John Gribbin, one of the most popular science writers of his generation, has penned books on numerous newsworthy science-based issues, from books about the nature of time, weather, evolution, and quantum physics to biographies of scientists such as Albert Einstein, Richard Feynman, and Stephen Hawking, to books for younger readers, the last on which he often collaborates with his wife, Mary Gribbin. In addition to fueling public interest in news-worthy topics through such nonfiction titles as Unveiling the Edge of Time: Black Holes, White Holes, Worm-holes and the popular In Search of Schroedinger's Cat, a work explaining the role of quantum physics in life on Earth, Gribbin has also penned a number of science-fiction novels that echo his concern with natural disasters and evolutionary theory and have been praised for their scientific accuracy and their fast-moving plots.

In the nonfiction title This Shaking Earth Gribbin argues that the Earth is less stable than was previously assumed, and that the population is consequently more vulnerable to catastrophe. Continental drift, Gribbin contends, can produce incredible disasters, including earthquakes and volcanoes that may dwarf mankind's feats of destruction such as war and pollution. In the New York Times, Harold M. Schmeck, Jr. wrote that "When many Americans seem to blame all the ills of humanity on human causes—including, notably, too much procreation and too little concern for the environment—a book like this makes fascinating reading."

Gribbin moves from the firmament to the heavens in Weather Force, which explores the origins of extreme events, or "freak weather." Timewarps examines the history of man's rendering of time, reviews Einstein's theories of relativity, and discusses the possibility of devices proposed in science fiction, such as dream telepathy and time travel. Reviewing these books and others, critics have consistently praised the scientist for making concepts such as time travel understandable to the general reader. In his review of Gribbin's Unveiling the Edge of Time for the New York Times Book Review, Hans Christian von Baeyer wrote that the author's "thought-provoking book is written in the smooth, easy style of professional science journalism. Simple line drawings, a glossary and a short bibliography help to give the reader the secure feeling of being in the hands of a competent guide through perplexing territory."

Gribbin's novel The Sixth Winter, co-written with Douglas Orgill, focuses on a new ice age, while Double Planet follows an attempt to provide the Moon with its own atmosphere by causing a newly discovered comet to crash into it. Father to the Man tells about a scientist's attempt to perfect the human race through genetic manipulation. When human misuse of the environment leads to a worldwide catastrophe, a Nobel Prize-winning scientist undertakes the task of altering the human species by crossing a pygmy chimpanzee with a human. "The utter asininity of humanity gets its comeuppance quite nicely," explained Tom Easton in Analog.

Among Gribbin's biographies are books on two of the most important twentieth-century physicists: Stephen Hawking and Albert Einstein. In the collaborative Einstein: A Life in Science, co-author Michael White describes Einstein's personal life, while Gribbin explains his theories in light of current scientific thinking. "Gribbin's metaphors and analogies fairly propel you toward understanding," declared New York Times Book Review contributor Robert Kanigel. Stephen Hawking: A Life in Science profiles the most well-known modern theoretical physicist.

A more historic figure is discussed in FitzRoy: The Remarkable Story of Darwin's Captain and the Invention of the Weather Forecast, which Gribbin coauthored with his wife, Mary Gribbin. Captain Robert FitzRoy of the HMS Beagle which took evolutionary biologist Charles Darwin on his history-making voyage, is also remembered as the man who designed the first weather station system, comprising a barometer and thermometer. A complex man who ironically refuted Darwin's theories and ultimately committed suicide at age sixty, FitzRoy also developed a system of warning signals for bad weather that would save numerous lives during the late nineteenth century.

Perhaps Gribbin's most ambitious biography is The Scientists: A History of Science Told through the Lives of Its Greatest Inventors, which covers 500 years of Western scientific discovery through the lives of the individuals that added to the breadth of human scientific knowledge. The book was praised by Library Journal reviewer James Olson as "well written and scholarly" as well as "accessible, if not downright entertaining, for the general reader," while a Publishers Weekly reviewer dubbed The Scientists a "remarkably readable popular history."

In Search of Schroedinger's Cat is the first part of a trilogy that examines, according to Gribbin, "the role of quantum physics in determining the nature of our universe, life, and everything." Continuing to convey his enthusiasm about science in other nonfiction works for general readers, Gribbin has also fueled the interests of younger readers with such books as Big Numbers, about mathematical theory, Time and Space, and How Far Is Up? Measuring the Size of the Universe, all written with his wife.