Nigel Calder, FRAS, FAAAS
Nigel Calder,
FRAS, FAAAS has spent a lifetime spotting and explaining the big
discoveries in all branches of science, from particle physics to human
social behavior.
After army service, graduation from Cambridge University, and two
years’ work as a research physicist for the Philips Group, he began his
apprenticeship as a science writer on the original staff of the New
Scientist in 1956. He became editor of that magazine in 1962. Since
1966, he has worked as an independent author and television
scriptwriter. For his work for BBC-TV in scripting and sometimes
presenting a long succession of science specials filmed world-wide
and typically 2 hours in duration with accompanying books, Nigel won
the UNESCO Kalinga Prize for the Popularization of Science. These and
other programmes for BBC-TV spanned the years 1966 (Russia: Beneath
the
Sputniks) to 1981 (The Comet is Coming!).
As a member of the Initiative Group for the Foundation Scientific
Europe, Maastricht, from 1986 to 1989, he was general editor of its book
Scientific Europe, with contributions from 92 distinguished
scientists
and engineers in 20 countries. After an interlude reconnoitering and
scripting a worldwide TV series
Spaceship Earth for Channel 4,
Nigel
returned to the European theme. From 1991 to 2006, much of his work was
for the European Space Agency, communicating the results and plans of
its science programme in books, live TV broadcasts, videos, online
video talks, exhibitions, and press releases.
His output of books continued, including the following books:
1994
Comets: Speculations and Science — reissue as a Dover
Classic
of
his 1981 BBC book
The Comet is Coming!
1997
The Manic Sun for Pilkington Press etc., about the Sun’s role
in
climate change, including the discovery of the link via cosmic rays.
2003
Magic Universe: The Oxford Guide to Modern Science for Oxford
UP,
etc. At 300,000 words and three years in the writing, this was
short-listed for the Aventis Prize for Science Books.
2005
Einstein’s Universe for Penguin UK & USA, etc., a reissue for
“Einstein Year” of a popular guide to general relativity first
published
in 1979, with an updating Afterword.
2005 Albert Einstein’s
Relativity: The Special & the General Theory was
issued as a Penguin Classic, with Nigel’s explanatory Introduction.
2007
The Chilling Stars: A New Theory of Climate Change for Icon,
etc.,
joint author with Professor Henrik Svensmark of the Danish National
Space
Institute. Ten years after
The Manic Sun, it carries forward the
story
of cosmic rays and climate change. It was updated with a Postscript in
2008.
His most recent television production credit is as script
consultant for
The Cloud Mystery (2008), a 52-minute film for
Mortensen Film, Copenhagen. The shooting script for a 90-minute film
Abdus Salam that he wrote about the Nobel-prizewinning Pakistani
physicist, for Kailoola Productions, New York, awaits funding for the
filming.
He’s a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society (Council Member 2001–04)
and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
(for his TV work). He was a founding patron of the National Space
Science Centre, Leicester (2001), President of Section X of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science (1984), member of the
Planning Council, International Ocean Institute, Malta (1983–90), and
Chairman of the Association of British Science Writers (1960–62).
Nigel has given advice and assistance about public information to the
Nobel Foundation, the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs,
the International Council of Scientific Unions, the UK Particle Physics
and Astronomy Research Council, UNESCO, CERN, the European Molecular
Biology Laboratory, and the OECD.
With a literary by-product of half a lifetime of family cruising under
sail, he won the Best Book of the Sea award for The English Channel
at the London Boat Show. He is a former Vice-President of the Cruising
Association, London (1982–85).
Read
Why is science so sloooow,
An experiment that hints we are wrong on climate change, and
CERN experiment confirms cosmic ray action.
Read his
blog.