Promotional Information

A fascinating exploration of the age-old question- are there 'laws of nature' that guide human affairs?

About the Author

Philip Ball writes regularly in the scientific and popular media and worked for many years as an editor for physical sciences at Nature. His books cover a wide range of scientific and cultural phenomena, and include Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads To Another (winner of the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books), The Music Instinct, Unnatural: The Heretical Idea of Making People, Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything and Serving The Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Science Under Hitler.

Reviews

Exquisitely produced and painstakingly researched... Ball writes patiently and eloquently.. Exciting... A rousing call-to-arms, and an elegant answer to the shallow tradition of British empiricism.
*Independent*

In his fascinating new book, Critical Mass, Philip Ball tells the story of this research in a comprehensive and often captivating way... Ball delves far beyond today's headlines... Impressively clear and breathtaking in scope... Substantial, impeccably researched and...persuasive. For anyone who would like to learn about the intellectual ferment at the surprising junction of physics and social science, Critical Mass is the place to start.
*Nature*

Lucid, accessible and engaging... Ball makes a persuasive, comprehensive case and it's a welcome antidote to popular individualistic thought.
*Glasgow Herald*

Critical Mass fizzes with ideas and insights
*The Guardian*

more than a book, this in an intellectual curiosity
*Independent on Sunday*

What can physics have to say about how people behave in groups, how networks such as the Internet evolve, and why the stock market fluctuates, among other questions? According to Ball (Designing the Molecular World; contributor, Nature and New Scientist magazines), a lot. The application of physical methods to social problems isn't particularly new, as the author demonstrates, beginning with Hobbes's attempt at a scientific explanation of politics. The development of statistical measurements of society paralleled the growth of statistical physics; as Ball puts it: "physical science and social science were the twin siblings of a mechanistic philosophy and when it was not in the least disreputable to invoke the habits of people to explain the habits of insensate particles." With that in mind, Ball explores recent applications of statistical physics toward a study of social physics. He draws on a wide body of contemporary literature that includes physical approaches to traffic, economics, group dynamics, and politics. While the physical application to the social sciences is not alien, as physics explains the behavior of particles and phase transitions, can it explain human behavior? Ball goes further to suggest that whatever we may make of individual behavior, "once we become part of a group we cannot be sure what to expect"; there are social forces affecting one's behavior that the individual cannot understand, e.g., something as mundane as clapping after a performance (why does it get louder and softer?). Ball has written an elegant synthesis that goes a long way toward illuminating why physicists are exploring social questions and the implications of their work. Highly recommended for both academic and public library science collections.-Garrett Eastman, Rowland Inst., Harvard Univ. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Exquisitely produced and painstakingly researched... Ball writes patiently and eloquently.. Exciting... A rousing call-to-arms, and an elegant answer to the shallow tradition of British empiricism. * Independent *
In his fascinating new book, Critical Mass, Philip Ball tells the story of this research in a comprehensive and often captivating way... Ball delves far beyond today's headlines... Impressively clear and breathtaking in scope... Substantial, impeccably researched and...persuasive. For anyone who would like to learn about the intellectual ferment at the surprising junction of physics and social science, Critical Mass is the place to start. * Nature *
Lucid, accessible and engaging... Ball makes a persuasive, comprehensive case and it's a welcome antidote to popular individualistic thought. * Glasgow Herald *
Critical Mass fizzes with ideas and insights * The Guardian *
more than a book, this in an intellectual curiosity * Independent on Sunday *