After several years as a molecular biologist, I hung up my white coat, put down my pipette and swapped the lab for the library to write about science as a visiting fellow at the Centre for the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Leeds.
My most recent book ‘Insulin – the Crooked Timber’ was published to mark the centenary of the discovery of insulin in 2022 and has been featured in both The New York Review of Books and the international science journal Nature. It reveals a tale of monstrous egos and toxic career rivalry, of which more can be heard at ‘Podcasts and Interviews’.
Meanwhile, a revised edition of my 2014 book ‘The Man in the Monkeynut Coat’ which tells the story of how, thanks to little known scientists William Astbury and Florence Bell, the humble wool fibre helped weave a path to unravelling the structure of DNA, is now out in paperback. When the book was first published it appeared in ‘The Guardian’ newspaper as one of the books of 2014 and was shortlisted for a prize by the British Society for the History of Science.
Twitter: @monkeynut_coat