John R. Gribbin (born 19 March 1946) is a British science writer and astrophysicist. His subjects include quantum physics, human evolution, climate change and cosmology. He is a visiting fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex. Best known for In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, he has also written biographies of Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein and Buddy Holly. Robert Macfarlane calls him "one of the finest and most prolific writers of popular science around."
Biography John Gribbin graduated with his bachelor's degree in physics from the University of Sussex in 1966. He then earned his Master of Science (MSc) degree in astronomy in 1967, also from the University of Sussex, and he earned his PhD in astrophysics from the University of Cambridge (1971). In 1968, Gribbin worked as one of Fred Hoyle's research students at the Institute of Theoretical Astronomy, and wrote a number of stories for New Scientist about the Institute's research and what were eventually discovered to be pulsars. In 1974, Gribbin and Stephen Plagemann published The Jupiter Effect, which predicted that the alignment of the planets in a quadrant on one side of the Sun on 10 March 1982 would cause gravitational effects that would trigger earthquakes in the San Andreas Fault, possibly wiping out Los Angeles and its suburbs. Gribbin distanced himself from The Jupiter Effect in the 17 July 1980, issue of New Scientist magazine, stating that he had been "too clever by half". In February 1982, he and Plagemann published The Jupiter Effect Reconsidered, claiming that the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption proved their theory true despite a lack of planetary alignment. In 1999, Gribbin repudiated it, saying "I don't like it, and I'm sorry I ever had anything to do with it." In 1984, Gribbin published In Search of Schrödinger's Cat. Robert Macfarlane writes that it “was among the best of the first wave of physics popularisations to share in the success of Stephen Hawking’s multi-million-selling A Brief History of Time. Margaret Atwood – who was one of the writers, along with Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, and Tom Stoppard, to get very excited about the new physics – read it, assimilated it, and credited Gribbin warmly in the back of her subsequent novel, Cat’s Eye.” Gribbin's book was cited by BBC World News as an example of how to revive an interest in the study of mathematics. Gribbin was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1999. He has been a guest on In Our Time, discussing "Science in the 20th Century" with Mary Midgley. In 2006, Gribbin took part in a BBC radio 4 broadcast as an "expert witness". Presenter Matthew Parris discussed with Professor Kathy Sykes and Gribbin whether Albert Einstein "really was a 'crazy genius'". At the 2009 World Conference of Science Journalists, the Association of British Science Writers presented Gribbin with their Lifetime Achievement award.
Critical reception The Spectator praised Science: A History as "the product of immense learning, and a lifetime spent working out how to write in a vivacious way about science and scientists". Henry Gee, a senior editor at Nature, described Gribbin as "one of the best science writers around". A review of The Universe: A Biography in the journal Physics World praised his skill in explaining difficult ideas. A Wall Street Journal review of Flower Hunters (co-authored with Mary Gribbin) described the writing as "pedestrian", with plenty of domestic detail but a failure to convey a larger cultural context. It stated that the book's chapter-length biographical sketches are too often superficial, and criticised the book for glaring omissions of prominent plant collectors. In a review of The Reason Why, the Times Higher Education states that Gribbin writes on speculative matters and presents some of his theories without supporting evidence, but noted his comprehensive research and lyrical writing.
Selected bibliography
Astronomy (1976) Astronomy for the Amateur, Macmillan, ISBN 978-0-333-18806-4 (1976) Our Changing Universe: The New Astronomy, Dutton, ISBN 978-0-87690-216-5 (1977) White Holes: Cosmic Gushers in the Universe, Delacorte Press/E. Friede, ISBN 978-0-440-09529-3 (1980) The Death of the Sun, Dell Publishing ISBN 978-0-440-51854-9 (also as The Strangest Star: The Scientific Account of the Life and Death of the Sun, 1980, Athlone Press, ISBN 978-0-485-11207-8) (1991) Blinded by the Light: The Secret Life of the Sun, Bantam, ISBN 978-0-593-02064-7 (1996) Companion to the Cosmos (with Mary Gribbin), Little: ISBN 0-316-32835-9 (1998) The Case of the Missing Neutrinos: And Other Phenomena of the Universe, Fromm Intl. ISBN 978-0-88064-199-9 (1998) Watching the Universe, Constable, ISBN 978-0-09-478230-3 (2001) Stardust: Supernovae and Life: The Cosmic Connection (with Mary Gribbin) ISBN 978-0-30-009097-0 (2008) Galaxies: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, USA. ISBN 978-0-19-923434-9 (2008) From Here to Infinity: The Royal Observatory Greenwich Guide to Astronomy (with Mary Gribbin), National Maritime Museum, ISBN 978-0-948065-78-1; republished in 2009 as From Here to Infinity: A Beginner's Guide to Astronomy, Sterling ISBN 978-1-4027-6501-8 (2011) Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet Is Unique, John Wiley & Sons, ISBN 978-1-118-14797-9 (2018) "Alone in the Milky Way: Why we are probably the only intelligent life in the galaxy", Scientific American, vol. 319, no. 3 (September 2018), pp. 94–99.
Biology (1985) In Search of the Double Helix, McGraw-Hill, ISBN 978-0-07-024740-6 (1985) The Redundant Male: Is Sex Irrelevant in the Modern World? (with Jeremy Cherfas) Paladin, ISBN 978-0-586-08503-5 (1988) The One Percent Advantage: The Sociobiology of Being Human, Blackwell Publishers, ISBN 978-0-631-16004-5 (1990) Children of the Ice: Climate and Human Origins, Blackwell Publishers (with Mary Gribbin) ISBN 978-0-631-16817-1 (1993) Being Human: Putting People in an Evolutionary Perspective, J.M .Dent & Sons (with Mary Gribbin) ISBN 978-0-460-86164-9 (2003) The Mating Game (revised edition of The Redundant Male), Barnes and Noble, ISBN 978-0-7607-4543-4 (2003) The First Chimpanzee: In Search of Human Origins (with Cherfas), Barnes and Noble, ISBN 978-0-7607-4542-7
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