Philip Ball

is a London-based freelance science writer and author of numerous books on a wide range of science-related subjects, including The Devil’s Doctor: Paracelsus and the World of Renaissance Magic and Science and The Music Instinct: How Music Works, and Why We Can’t Do Without It. His most recent book is Unnatural: The Heretical Idea of Making People (Random House 2011).

Articles

Playing God

Discussions of scientific innovation are haunted by images of Frankenstein’s monster or Faust’s diabolic pact, says Philip Ball. We will never have an honest and open debate about in vitro fertilization or cloning until we can distinguish mythical fears from real and present dangers.