December 19, 2025 · 7:15 am

Philip Ball is one of the best English science writers and with certainty one of the most if not the most prolific. He churns out books and article, with radio programs thrown in along the way, at a rate that is absolutely mindboggling. We here at the Renaissance Mathematicus exposed the secret of his production rate several years ago. Like Santa, who had gnomes in his workshops at the North Pole producing all those toys, Ball has a team of gnomes chained to writing desks in the cellars of Ball mansion busily scribbling away at his next publications.

A couple of years back the gnomes embarked on the production of a series of history of science coffee table books, richly illustrated volumes explaining the history of science for the non-expert. If you are looking for a last minute Christmas present, perhaps for a teenager fascinated by science, or just somebody who would like to delve into the history of science, without doing battle with an academic text, then these volumes are highly recommended.

The first volume to make its way out the gnomes production centre was The Elements: A Visual History of Their Discovery (Thames & Hudson, 2021) a beautifully illustrated book that takes the reader from the story of the four classical elements of Ancient Greece down to the artificially created atomic elements of the twentieth century.

Telling the story of the discovery of each element or group of elements along the way. Unfortunately, I feel obliged to point out that this, otherwise wonderful book, has a flaw. It seems that somewhere during the editing phase, the story of the discovery of mercury slipped through a gap and failed to make it into the published work. However, despite this highly regrettable lapsus the book is a delight to read and highly informative.

In 2023, the gnomes turned their attention to the world of experimental science and delivered up Beautiful Experiments: An Illustrated History of Experimental Science (University of Chicago Press). This one truly delivers what the title promises.

The book has alternating chapters and interludes. The chapter looks at a set of historical experiments united by a common theme. For example, the theme of the first chapter is How Does the World Work and starts with Eratosthenes measuring the size of the world, followed by Foucault demonstrating diurnal rotation. Moving into modern physics we have Michelson and Morley attempting to detect the ether followed by Arthur Edington proving relativity. The first interlude asks the metaphysical questions, what is an experiment? and what makes a good experiment? We return to the world and the violation of parity, closing with the discovery of gravitational waves.

This pattern is repeated in What Makes Things Happen?, with the interlude The Impact of New Techniques. The third chapter asks What is The World Made From?, and its interlude questions the books title, What is a Beautiful Experiment? Chapter four is a theme from the history of science that is of particular interest to me, What is Light? and its interlude looks at The Art of Scientific Instrumentation. Moving on in chapter five we have the pregnant question, What is Life?, and an interlude about Thought Experiments. The book stays with the life sciences for the final chapter, How Do Organisms Behave, this time there is no interlude.

This book takes on a massive topic about which one could write a multi-volume encyclopaedia and masters it magnificently with a fine examples of classical experiments clearly explained and some intriguing metaphysical speculations about the nature of experimentation clearly expressed for the non-philosopher.

In 2025, the gnomes struck again with a truly magnificent volume, Alchemy: An Illustrated History of Elixirs, Experiments, and the Birth of Modern Science (Yale University Press).

All three books are beautifully illustrated but the alchemy volume takes the quality of the illustrations to a whole new level, which is due to the nature of the topic and the available pictures. On a general note, this is an excellent introduction to the history of alchemy. Despite the excellent work done by historians over the last half century explaining the rich and influential history of alchemy, there are still large numbers of people, who think that alchemy is just a bunch of crazies trying to turn lead into gold. This volume tells the real complex story of the discipline in non-academic terms for the lay reader.

There are chapters on the origins of alchemy in different period and cultures. Other chapters look at specific aspects of the topic such as chrysopoeia (the quest for gold) the uses of alchemy, the alchemical laboratory and others. In between are informative potted biographies of the leading figures in the history of alchemy. Towards the end the book handles the historically important transition from alchemy to chemistry, a topic that for far too long was swept under the carpet with the claim that the two had nothing to do with each other.

All three books have good indexes and a short but good list of suggestions for further reading. They are all excellently produced and are both pleasant to look at and to read. For the quality, all three are very reasonably priced and won’t require you to take out a second mortgage. Philip Ball is to be congratulated for having trained his gnomes to produce such desirable books.