Brian Clegg

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Brian Clegg

Goodreads Author


Born
in Rochdale, The United Kingdom
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Member Since
August 2011

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Brian's latest books, Ten Billion Tomorrows and How Many Moons does the Earth Have are now available to pre-order. He has written a range of other science titles, including the bestselling Inflight Science, The God Effect, Before the Big Bang, A Brief History of Infinity, Build Your Own Time Machine and Dice World.

Along with appearances at the Royal Institution in London he has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science, has contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Brian has Masters degrees from Cambridge University in Natural Sciences
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Brian Clegg It's a good question - part of the problem is, of course, even establishing what consciousness is - as I mention in my book What Do You Think You Are?…moreIt's a good question - part of the problem is, of course, even establishing what consciousness is - as I mention in my book What Do You Think You Are? some suggest that there is no such thing.

At the very least neuroscience has a strong influence on consciousness, but I don't think we can say definitively either way.(less)
Brian Clegg It's Halloween and the doorbell rings in the dark, dark night. I've run out of sweets for trick or treat.…moreIt's Halloween and the doorbell rings in the dark, dark night. I've run out of sweets for trick or treat.(less)
Average rating: 3.68 · 10,523 ratings · 1,358 reviews · 162 distinct worksSimilar authors
Dark Matter and Dark Energy...

3.96 avg rating — 961 ratings — published 2019 — 8 editions
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A Brief History of Infinity...

3.57 avg rating — 836 ratings — published 2003 — 13 editions
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Inflight Science: A Guide t...

3.49 avg rating — 480 ratings — published 2011 — 27 editions
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Before the Big Bang: The Pr...

3.86 avg rating — 418 ratings — published 2006 — 16 editions
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Game Theory: Understanding ...

3.23 avg rating — 488 ratings10 editions
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Gravitational Waves: How Ei...

4.05 avg rating — 358 ratings — published 2018 — 9 editions
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30-Second Quantum Theory: T...

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3.77 avg rating — 375 ratings — published 2014 — 21 editions
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The Universe Inside You: Th...

3.71 avg rating — 370 ratings — published 2012 — 15 editions
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The God Effect: Quantum Ent...

3.67 avg rating — 371 ratings — published 2006 — 9 editions
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Big Data: How the Informati...

3.18 avg rating — 407 ratings13 editions
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More books by Brian Clegg…

The Small Assassin - Ray Bradbury ****

It's a shame that the literati picked up on Fahrenheit 451, arguably one of Bradbury's less effective books to enthuse over, as it has got him labelled in some circles as a science fiction writer, where he was primarily a brilliant writer of fantasy. This collection of short stories features a number that could be described as fantasy, but as there are also some that don't have a fantasy eleme Read more of this blog post »
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Published on November 25, 2025 02:25
Instant Brainpower: Tune Up... Instant Creativity: Simple ... Instant Teamwork: Motivate ... Instant Time Management (In... Instant Stress Management: ... Instant Negotiation: Reachi... Instant Motivation: Encoura...
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3.31 avg rating — 39 ratings

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3.78 avg rating — 27 ratings

Brian’s Recent Updates

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The Christmas Clue by Nicola Upson
The Christmas Clue
by Nicola Upson (Goodreads Author)
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This entertaining Christmas mystery novella is genuinely different. Nicola Upson likes using real people as her detectives - she has a whole series where the detective is Josephine Tey (the 'golden age' writer whose detective at one point solves the ...more
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The Giant Leap by Caleb Scharf
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This is surely Caleb Scharf's most personal work - and certainly quite different from some of his earlier output, such as his excellent Gravity's Engines. In part this is a technological exploration of space travel, not unlike Final Frontier, but it ...more
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Murder at Mistletoe Manor by F. L. Everett
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There's a classic feel to Murder at Mistletoe Manor: a group of disparate strangers, trapped in a small hotel by heavy snow, face a murder. But here there's no Hercule Poirot to sort things out - the closest we have to a detective is a journalist who ...more
Brian Clegg rated a book really liked it
Quantum 2.0 by Paul C.W. Davies
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Unlike the general theory of relativity or cosmology, quantum physics is an aspect of physics that has had a huge impact on everyday lives, particularly through the deployment of electronics, but also, for example, where superconductivity has led to ...more
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Death at the Village Christmas Fair by Debbie  Young
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There's nothing like a good Christmas mystery this time of year - and this is nothing like one. Debbie Young's book is to a good Christmas mystery what a made-for-streaming Christmas movie is to It's a Wonderful Life. It is bland fare, if suitably fe ...more
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Whalesong by Miles  Cameron
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When I read Miles Cameron's Artifact Space back in 2021 I was very impressed - somehow, I've not kept up the author who, for me comes closest to Alastair Reynolds in writing intelligent, engaging space opera. As a result it was a delight to return to ...more
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Crush by James Riordon
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Sometimes when reading a book, just like being in any other relationship, you have to say ‘It’s not you, it’s me.’ Unfortunately, I really struggled to get on with James Riordon's eccentric take on gravity.

It's not that the main areas of the topic ar
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Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards
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Starting this book by Martin Edwards can be a touch intimidating as it explicitly challenges the reader to solve two mysteries and a couple of cipher-like puzzles - but there's no need to panic as it's perfectly readable without putting yourself out ...more
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The Future of Seeing by Daniel K. Sodickson
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At first glance a book about imaging technology sounds like one of those promotional titles that technology companies make about themselves that no one will ever read - but with a light, approachable touch, Daniel Sodickson takes us from the imaging ...more
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Hyperion by Dan Simmons
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There are some big gaps in my SF reading, particularly between mid 80s and the early 2000s - this novel from 1990 is hailed as a masterpiece, but I'm afraid it largely left me cold. I can see why it was well received - it's very clever, but for me it ...more
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Quotes by Brian Clegg  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“Newton’s law of gravitation. That’s all you need (with a spot of calculus to crunch the numbers) to work out how the Earth will orbit the Sun or how an apple will fall if you let it go at a certain height. The only trouble is that Newton had no idea how this gravity thing worked. His model was simply: ‘There is an attraction between bits of stuff, and let’s not bother about why.”
Brian Clegg, Gravitational Waves: How Einstein's spacetime ripples reveal the secrets of the universe

“Famously, Einstein said that his ‘happiest thought’ occurred here: ‘I was sitting in a chair in the Patent Office at Bern when all of a sudden a thought occurred to me. If a person falls freely he will not feel his own weight. I was startled.’ By thinking of someone falling, for example in a plummeting lift, Einstein had realised that it was impossible to distinguish acceleration and the pull of gravity. And working through the mathematical implications of this made it clear that gravity was an effect that could be produced by a distortion of space and time.”
Brian Clegg, Gravitational Waves: How Einstein's spacetime ripples reveal the secrets of the universe

“The year 1992 should have been remembered as the 700th anniversary of the death of a man who changed the world. Yet the occasion passed without note. Few know of the remarkable achievements of someone who, more than any other, can be said to have invented science.”
Brian Clegg, Roger Bacon: The First Scientist

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