Sigma Imprint sample

Bloomsbury’s popular science imprint, Sigma A celebration of great writing, with a roster of brilliant new authors Sigma – making serious science seriously accessible

Helen Pilcher - page 5

David Hone - page 6

Laurie Winkless - page 7

Helen Scales - page 2

Tom Jackson - page 3

Jules Howard - page 1

Amy Shira Teitel - page 4

Kate Devlin - page 8

Kat Arney - page 6

Pía Spry-Marqués - page 8

Chris Woodford - page 2

Sue Armstrong - page 1

Nicola Temple - page 3

Becky Wragg Sykes - p. 7

Victoria Herridge - p. 4

rights@bloomsbury.com

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25/03/2014 16:39

Sex on Earth A Celebration of Animal Reproduction Jules Howard Since sex first took place – one billion years ago – the world has become ever more colourful, ringing with elaborate songs, epic battles, and rallying cries as male and female desires collided. Right now, warring hordes are locking horns, preening feathers, questioning their mate’s fidelity. Birds are singing, flowers bloom. A million females choose; a billion penises ejaculate (or snap off); a trillion sperm battle, block and tackle. Sex made planet Earth sexy.

Written in a brilliantly engaging style by biologist Jules Howard, Sex on Earth takes us on a thrilling journey through the ins and outs of animal reproduction.

Jules Howard is a zoologist, writer and broadcaster. He is a features writer for BBC Countryfile magazine, and a regular contributor to the Guardian, the Independent, and BBC Wildlife, for whom he is a judge for the Wildlife Writer of the Year award. His TV work incorporates regular appearances on Inside Out, BBC Breakfast and The One Show.

October 2014 HARDBACK / 9781408193419 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781408193426 / £14.99 paperback / 9781408193433 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 80,000

www.juleshoward / @juleshoward

P53 The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code Sue Armstrong All of us have lurking in our DNA a most remarkable gene. Its job is straightforward – to protect us from cancer. This gene – known simply as p53 – scans our cells to ensure that they grow and divide without mishap.

Cancer cannot develop unless p53 itself is damaged and malfunctioning.

Not surprisingly, p53 is the most studied gene in history.

This book is the story of medical science’s mission to unravel the mysteries of p53. A timely tale of scientific discovery, p53: The Gene that Cracked the Cancer Code charts our understanding of a disease that affects one in three of us at some point in our lives.

Sue Armstrong is an author and broadcaster. A former New Scientist journalist, Sue has undertaken regular assignments for the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNAIDS, writing about women’s health issues and the AIDS pandemic, among many other topics. She has also worked on major Radio 4 documentaries, focusing on topics such as ageing, alcoholism, obesity and cancer.

NOVEMBER 2014 HARDBACK / 9781472910516 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472910530 / £14.99 paperback / 9781472910523 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 80,000

@armstrong_sue bloomsbury sigma

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Atoms Under the Floorboards The Hidden Science in Your Home Chris Woodford Is it better to build skyscrapers like wobbly jellies or stacks of biscuits?

Can you burn your house down with an electric drill? How many atoms would you have to split to power a lightbulb?

May 2015 HARDBACK / 9781472912220/ £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472912244 / £14.99 paperback / 9781472912237 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 85,000

Atoms under the Floorboards answers all these questions and hundreds more. Using the modern home as a springboard, the book introduces the reader to the fascinating and surprising scientific explanations behind a variety of common (and often entertainingly mundane) household phenomena, from gurgling drains and squeaky floorboards to rubbery custard and shiny shoes. Readers will discover an entirely new appreciation of the science that underpins their lives, while gaining a broad introduction to fundamental scientific concepts like forces, motion, energy, and materials.

Chris Woodford has been a professional science and technology writer for 25 years.His best-sellers include Cool Stuff and Cool Stuff Exploded. www.explainthatstuff.com

Snails’ Tears and Thunderstones The Secret Life and Curious Afterlife of Seashells Helen Scales The shell-making molluscs are among the most successful animals on the planet. They live extraordinary lives in many strange places; they provide food and homes for other animals, and across the ages, their shells, sculpted by evolution and mathematics, have become powerful symbols of sex and death, prestige and war.

November 2015 HARDBACK / 9781472911360 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472911377 / £14.99

Shells offer an accessible way to reconnect people with nature, helping heal the rift between ourselves and the living world. Snails’ Tears and Thunderstones is a biography of the seashell. It shows why nature matters, and reveals the secrets of these wonders of calcium carbonate that you can hold in the palm of your hand.

paperback / 9781472911384 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 85,000

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Following her doctorate on the biology of the humphead wrasse, Helen Scales tagged sharks in California, catalogued marine life in the Andaman Sea, and studied the coral reefs of the South Pacific, before becoming an author and presenter of science programmes on BBC Radio 4. Her credits include regular appearances on Inside Science and Home Planet, and a coveted spot on The Museum of Curiosity. helenscales.com / @helenscales

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Chilled How the Refrigerator Changed the World ... and Might Do So Again Tom Jackson The refrigerator in your kitchen is one of the true wonders of 20th century science – life-saver, food-preserver and social liberator, while the science of refrigeration is crucial, not just in transporting food around the globe but in a host of branches on the scientific tree. Refrigeration and its discovery provides the remarkable backdrop to Chilled, the story of how science managed to rewrite the rules of food. It tells us how the technology whirring behind every refrigerator is at play, unseen, in a surprisingly broad sweep of modern life, and has been crucial in some of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the last 100 years, from the discovery of superconductors to the search for the Higgs boson.

Tom Jackson is a science writer who specialises in recasting science and technology into lively historical narratives, told through the deeds of the people that discovered them. After almost 20 years of writing nonfiction, Tom has uncovered a wealth of stories that help to bring technical content alive and create new ways of enjoying learning about science.

July 2015 HARDBACK / 9781472911438 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472911421 / £14.99 paperback / 9781472911445 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 85,000

tomjackson.weebly.com / @jinjatom

Sorting the Beef from the Bull The Science of Food Forensics Richard Evershed and Nicola Temple Horsemeat in burgers, melamine in infant’s milk, artificial colours in our fish and fruit … as our urban lifestyle takes us further away from our food sources, there are increasing opportunities for dishonest, profitmaking short-cuts. Food adulteration costs the food industry billions of dollars each year; the price to consumers may be even higher, with some paying for these crimes with their health and, in some cases, their lives.

This book explains the scientific tools used in the fightback against the fraudsters. It explores the arms race between scientists and adulterers, and looks at the up-and-coming techniques that will help battle food fraud in the future. Sorting the Beef… brings the full story of a fascinating and under-reported applied science to light.

AUGUST 2015 TRade paperback / 9781472911339 / £12.99 EBOOK / 9781472911346 / £10.99 paperback / 9781472911353 / £9.99

Richard Evershed FRS is Professor of Biogeochemistry at the University of Bristol. Having been at the forefront of analytical chemistry for more than thirty years, his methodologies have been crucial in the fight against food fraudsters. Nicola Temple is a biologist, conservationist and science writer.

Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 80,000

www.nicolatemple.com / @nicolatemple bloomsbury sigma

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The World’s Smallest Mammoth Victoria Herridge Few of the tourists basking on a Cypriot beach or hiding from the sun in a Sicilian villa realise that not so long ago their Mediterranean paradise was a very different place. Just six thousand years ago, these islands abounded with an extraordinary animal: an elephant, just like the living version, with big ears and straight tusks, but differing in one amazing way – it was roughly the size of an large dog. These tiny tuskers shared their island homes with a suite of bizarre beasts, including minihippos, giant swans, mega-hedgehogs and micro-elk.

august 2015 HARDBACK / 9781408847831 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781408847848 / £14.99 paperback / 9781472911230 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 85,000

In The World’s Smallest Mammoth, Victoria Herridge tells the story of the discovery of these animals and their lives. She explores why these beasts evolved time and again, how they lived, and what happened to the last of them.

Victoria Herridge has spent her research career trying to understand how, when and why dwarf elephants evolved on Mediterranean islands.

She is based at the Natural History Museum, London. @ToriHerridge

Breaking the Chains of Gravity The Story of Spaceflight before NASA Amy Shira Teitel NASA’s history is a familiar story, culminating with the agency successfully landing men on the Moon in 1969. But NASA’s prehistory is a rarely told tale, one that is largely absent from the popular space-age literature but that gives the context behind the lunar program. America’s space agency wasn’t created in a vacuum; it drew together some of the best minds the non-Soviet world had to offer.

SEPTEMBER 2015 HARDBACK / 9781472911179 / £16.99 TRADE PAPERBACK / 9781472911186 / £12.99 EBOOK / 9781472911193 / £14.99 paperback / 9781472911247 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD WORD COUNT: 85,000

From Wernher von Braun fleeing the ruins of Berlin to the Mercury programme, tests of new technologies by pilots such as Neil Armstrong and, in the shadow of Sputnik, the final creation by Dwight D. Eisenhower of NASA, Breaking the Chains of Gravity tells the story of NASA’s roots in an engaging and accessible way, against a backdrop of nazism, communism and imminent nuclear annihilation.

Amy Shira Teitel is an author and expert in the history of science, with a lifelong passion for spaceflight. An accomplished science communicator, Amy regularly appears on Discovery News and Al-Jazeera. amyshirateitel.com / @astVintageSpace

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A is for Arsenic The Poisons of Agatha Christie Kathryn Harkup Fifteen novels. Fifteen poisons. Just because its fiction doesn’t mean its all made-up ...

Agatha Christie used poison to kill her characters more often than any other crime-fiction writer. The poison is a central part of the novel, while Christie’s choice of deadly substances was far from random; the chemical and physiological characteristics of each poison provide vital clues to identity of the murderer. A is for Arsenic celebrates the use of science in Christie’s work. It looks at why certain chemicals kill, how they interact with the body, and the feasibility of obtaining, administering and detecting these poisons, both when the novel was written and today.

Kathryn Harkup completed a degree, a PhD and a postdoc in chemistry before realising that talking and writing about science appealed more than hours slaving over a hot fume-hood. She is now a science communicator, specialising on the quirky side of science.

OCTOBER 2015 HARDBACK / 9781472911308 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472911292 / £14.99 paperback / 9781472911322 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 85,000

www.harkup.co.uk / @RotwangsRobot

Bring Back the King The Science of De-extinction Helen Pilcher If you could bring back one living being from the whole of the history of time, what would you choose? In Bring back the King, comedian and former stem-cell biologist Helen Pilcher explains the cutting-edge science that makes the resurrection of extinct animals a very real possibility, and highlights her choices from geological eras gone by, from the King of the Dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex, to the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, Elvis Presley.

Funny, intriguing and informative, Bring Back the King investigates current initiatives to resurrect entire species from their stony graves, and uses both science and willful irreverence to assess how these genetic Lazaruses might fare in their brave new world. Unique and brilliant, Bring Back the King is a book that you will simply have to read.

October 2015 HARDBACK / 9781472912251 / £16.99 TRADE paperback / 9781472912268 / £12.99 EBOOK / 9781472912282/ £14.99

A stand-up comedian for more than ten years, Helen Pilcher performed at clubs such as the Comedy Store, Jongleurs and at the Edinburgh Festival, before the arrival of children meant she couldn’t physically stay awake beyond 9pm. Unusually, Helen is also a professional science writer with a PhD in stem-cell biology, who writes for Nature and New Scientist.

paperback / 9781472912275 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 80,000

helenpilcher.com / @HelenPilcher1 bloomsbury sigma

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Herding Hemingway’s Cats Understanding How Genes Work Kat Arney The language of genes has become common parlance. We know they make your eyes blue, your hair curly or your nose straight. Newspapers tell us that our genes control our risks of cancer, heart disease, alcoholism or Alzheimer’s. Six hundred pounds will buy you your very own genome readout, neatly stored on a USB stick. And advances in genetic medicine hold huge promise. So we’ve all heard of genes, but how do they actually work?

March 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472910042 / £16.99 TRADE paperback / 9781472910059 / £12.99 EBOOK / 9781472910066 / £14.99 paperback / 9781472910073 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 85,000

Drawing on stories ranging from six-toed cats to fish hips, werewolves and zombie genes, geneticist Kat Arney explores how DNA is packed, unpacked and read, creating a companion reader to the book of life itself.

Following a doctorate and research career in genetics, Kat Arney is now Science Communications Manager for Cancer Research UK, helping people understand the disease. According to BBC America, Kat is one of the ‘Top 10 Brits Who Make Science Sexy’, and she regularly appears on national TV and radio shows to talk about the latest genetic research. katarney.wordpress.com / @harpistkat

The Tyrannosaur Chronicles The Biology of the Tyrant Dinosaurs David Hone Tyrannosaurus is by some margin the most famous dinosaur in the world.

It topped 10 tons, was more than 15m long, and had the largest head and most powerful bite of any land animal, ever.

APRIL 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472911254 / £16.99

The Tyrannosaur Chronicles tracks the rise of these dinosaurs, and presents the latest research into their biology, showing off more than just their impressive statistics – tyrannosaurs had feathers, may have hunted in groups, and fought and even ate each other. This entertaining book presents the science behind this research, and explores how they came to be the dominant terrestrial predators of the Mesozoic and, in more recent times, one of the great icons of biology.

TRADE paperback / 9781472911261 / £12.99 EBOOK / 9781472911278 / £14.99 paperback / 9781472911285 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 85,000

David Hone is Lecturer in Ecology at QMW in London. He has published more than 50 academic papers on dinosaur biology and behaviour, with a particular interest in the tyrannosaurs, while his fieldwork has included a spell working on the famous feathered dinosaur deposits of China. David’s writing credits include the BBC’s Walking with Dinosaurs. theguardian.com/science/lost-worlds / @Dave_Hone

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Dawn Chorus in Eden Humanity and Birds in Prehistory Rebecca Wragg Sykes Dawn Chorus in Eden explores the enduring and intimate relationship between people and birds, from our earliest origins to the first farmers.

Focusing on the rich archaeological record of Europe, Rebecca Wragg Sykes sketches how avian species have always been a part of human life.

From hominins feasting on ducks more than 100,000 years ago and feather-bedecked Neanderthal shamen, to owls painted on cave walls, the sound of the earliest music played on vulture bone pipes and tender child burials covered by swans wings, this book weaves together the archaeological evidence to bring to life the vivid story of the bond between birds and people throughout prehistory.

Rebecca Wragg Sykes is a Research Fellow at the Université Bordeaux.

Her research is focused on Neanderthal peoples and their movements across Europe. Her research, based on detailed analysis of the stone tools left in caves, has led to a new understanding of these ancient humans.

june 2016 HARDBACK / 9781408190708 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781408843895 / £14.99 paperback / 9781408843871 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 85,000

therocksremain.org / @LeMoustier

Science and the City Laurie Winkless There is a surprising amount of hidden science behind urban life, which secretly keeps things moving. Science and the City takes the reader on a journey of discovery around the great cities of the world, and describes how technological advances in fields as diverse as quantum mechanics, ergonomics and thermodynamics provide possible solutions to the urban problems of the future – 50% of the world’s population now lives in cities, and that proportion is growing fast. Can technology provide the answer to a viable megacity future?

Written in an informal and enjoyable style by Laurie Winkless, Science and the City is built on solid foundations of science fact, with a decent sprinkling of speculation on top.

Laurie Winkless is a physicist from London (via Dublin). Formerly a researcher at the National Physical Laboratory – carbon nanotubes, organic electronics and spacecraft materials were her bag – Laurie went on to research the physics of thermoelectric energy harvesting, and currently works for the media arm of the Nobel Foundation.

August 2016 HARDBACK / ISBN TBC / £16.99 EBOOK / ISBN TBC / £14.99 paperback / ISBN TBC / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 85,000

lauriewinkless.wordpress.com / @laurie_winkless

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PIG/PORK Zoology, Archaeology and Edibility Pía Spry-Marqués What is it that people in all four corners of the world find so fascinating about the pig? When did the human obsession with pigs begin, how did it develop through time, and where is it heading? Why are pigs so special to some of us, but not to others? Pig/Pork sets out to answer these and other porcine-related questions, examining human-pig interactions across the globe from the Palaeolithic to the present day.

September 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472911391 / £16.99 EBOOK / 9781472911407 / £14.99 paperback / 9781472911414 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 85,000

Packed with facts, wisdom and porker lore, and accompanied by a liberal peppering of pork recipes and the stories behind them, Pig/Pork provides a thought-provoking account of where our food comes from and how this continues to influence many aspects of our behaviour and culture.

Pía Spry-Marqués is a zooarchaeologist at the University of Cambridge, where she identifies and decodes the meaning of animal remains in archaeological deposits. Originally from Spain, Pía is predisposed to a keen understanding, awareness and love of the pig and the many tasty pork products that are so much a part of Spanish cuisine. bonesandskulls.co.uk / @zooarcher

The Colourful Past An Adventure in Light and Time Kate Devlin We are surrounded by the material culture of the people who lived before us: architecture, artworks and artefacts. But can we be certain that what we observe is the same as what the original creators of these items saw?

September 2016 HARDBACK / 9781472912770 / £16.99

Light can’t be captured in the archaeological record, of course, yet lighting conditions can completely alter our perception, leading to dramatic changes in interpretation for archaeologists, art historians and psychologists. The Colourful Past examines how our understanding of the past has often been surprisingly inaccurate, and how the latest virtualreality techniques are providing startling insights into archaeological places, objects and peoples.

TRADE paperback / 9781472912787 / £12.99 EBOOK / 9781472912794 / £14.99 paperback / 9781472912800 / £9.99 Territory: WORLD RIGHTS AVAILABLE: WORLD EXCLUDING USA/ CANADA/AUS WORD COUNT: 85,000

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Kate Devlin is a research fellow at Goldsmith’s College, London. While completing her PhD in computer graphics and visual perception, Kate began to question the validity of the images that were created as archaeological reconstructions, and she started exploring the psychology and visual perception behind realistic image generation. Since publishing the first paper in the field in 2001, Kate has become the worlds leading expert in archeology and perception. @drkatedevlin

25/03/2014 16:41

Bloomsbury’s popular science imprint, Sigma A celebration of great writing, with a roster of brilliant new authors Sigma – making serious science seriously accessible

Helen Pilcher - page 5

David Hone - page 6

Laurie Winkless - page 7

Helen Scales - page 2

Tom Jackson - page 3

Jules Howard - page 1

Amy Shira Teitel - page 4

Kate Devlin - page 8

Kat Arney - page 6

Pía Spry-Marqués - page 8

Chris Woodford - page 2

Sue Armstrong - page 1

Nicola Temple - page 3

Becky Wragg Sykes - p. 7

Victoria Herridge - p. 4

rights@bloomsbury.com

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www.bloomsbury.com

25/03/2014 16:39