The six books in the running to claim the 2006 Aventis General Prize for science books have been named:
Power, Sex, Suicide -
Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life
by Nick Lane (Oxford University Press)
Mitochondria are tiny structures within all our cells that do the essential task of producing energy. They are pivotal in
power, sex, and suicide. In
his book, Nick Lane shows how understanding mitochondria is of fundamental importance, both in understanding how complex life came to be, but also in order to be able to control our own illnesses, and delay our degeneration and death.
Empire of the Stars -
Friendship, Obsession and Betrayal in the Quest for Black Holes
by Arthur I. Miller (Little Brown)
In August 1930, the young Indian scientist
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar calculated that certain stars could end their lives by collapsing indefinitely to a point - to nowhere. This idea brought
Chandrasekhar into conflict with
Sir Arthur S. Eddington, the grand old man of British astrophysics, who publicly ridiculed the idea.
Empire of the Stars teases out the major implications of this infamous event, setting it against the backdrop of the turbulent growth of astrophysics.
Electric Universe -
How Electricity Switched on the Modern World
by David Bodanis (Little Brown)
For centuries, electricity was viewed as little more than a curious property of certain substances that sparked when rubbed. Then, in the 1790s, Alessandro Volta began the scientific investigation that ignited an explosion of knowledge and invention. In
Electric Universe, Bodanis weaves the tales of romance, divine inspiration, and fraud that surround the story of electricity.
Collapse -
How Societies Choose to Fail or Survive
by Jared Diamond (Penguin Allen Lane)
Why do some societies flourish, while others founder? What happened to the people who made the long-abandoned statues of Easter Island or to the architects of the Maya pyramids? And will we go the same way? Bringing together new evidence and piecing together the myriad influences that make societies self-destruct,
Collapse shows how, unlike our ancestors, we can benefit from our knowledge of the past and learn to be survivors.
Parallel Worlds -
The Science of Alternative Universes and our Future in the Cosmos
by Michio Kaku (Penguin)
Getting a grip on the creation and ultimate fate of the Universe is one of the great scientific stories of the 20th Century. In the 21st, the story is expanding to enfold many universes.
Parallel Worlds tells that new story. Using the latest astronomical data,
Prof Kaku explores the Big Bang, "theories of everything", our cosmic future and the human implications of this story.
The Truth About Hormones -
What's Going on when We're Tetchy, Spotty, Fearful, Tearful or Just Plain Awful
by Vivienne Parry (Atlantic Books)
Hormones rule our internal world: they control our growth, our metabolism, weight, water-balance, body clocks, fertility, muscle bulk, mood, speed of ageing, whether we want sex or not (and whether we enjoy it) and even who we fall in love with. In
The Truth About Hormones, Vivienne Parry explains how, exactly, these mysteriously powerful things affect us.
The following books made the longlist but not the shortlist for the 2006 Aventis Prize:
Venomous Earth - How Arsenic Caused the World's Worst Mass Poisoningby Andrew Meharg (
Macmillan)
Seven Deadly Colours - The Genius of Nature's Palette and how it Eluded Darwinby Andrew Parker (
Simon & Schuster)
Stalking the Riemann Hypothesis - The Quest to Find the Hidden Law of Prime Numbersby Daniel N. Rockmore (
Jonathan Cape)
The Fruits of War - How War and Conflict have Driven Scienceby Michael White (
Simon & Schuster)
The Elements of Murder - A History of Poisonby John Emsley (
Oxford University Press)
The Gecko's Foot - Bio-inspiration - Engineering New Materials from Natureby Peter Forbes (
Fourth Estate)
The Silicon Eye - How a Silicon Valley Company Aims to Make All Current Computers, Cameras, and Cell Phones Obsoleteby George Gilder (
WW Norton)
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