Philip Ball

Popular science writer and broadcaster Phil Ball explores new thinking on biology that is revealing life to be a far richer and more ingenious affair than we had guessed and opening extraordinary new possibilities.

Ball says there is no single place to look for how life works. It is a system of many levels —genes, proteins, cells, tissues, the immune system and the nervous system — each with its own rules. Ball says this knowledge opens new possibilities, including redesigning and reconfiguring living systems and the extraordinary ability to guide and select the outcome. Some believe this could even lead to the ability to regenerate limbs and organs and even create lifeforms that evolution has never imagined.

Ball is a freelance writer and broadcaster and was an editor at Nature for 20 years. His book Critical Mass won the Aventis Prize for Science Books and his other works include H2O: A Biography of Water and The Music Instinct.

Owen Mumford Ltd are supporters of the festival’s science and medicine programme and the festival’s annual award for science and innovation.