Other Works

Bio-inspiration (also known as biomimetics) is the new engineering:
nature's own nanotechnology. Instead of – in its crudest terms – welding
large pieces of hard 'dry' right-angled metal together, scientists,
architects and engineers are taking a leaf from nature's book by building
intricate structures with surprising new properties, using the kind of
'wet' self-assembly techniques nature has perfected over millions of
years of evolution.

The quest to match the amazing adhesion of the gecko's foot is just one
of many examples of this new ‘smart’ science. In The Gecko's Foot we
also discover how George de Mestral's brush with the spiny fruits of the
cocklebur inspired him to invent the hook-and-loop fastener usually
known by its trade name Velcro; how unfolding leaves, insect wings and
space solar panels share similar Origami folding patterns; how the self-
cleaning leaves of the Sacred Lotus plant have spawned a new industry
of self-cleaning surfaces; and how the photonic crystal, perhaps the
most important innovation since the transistor, was actually invented by
the humble sea creature Aphrodita aeons ago.

• The new 'smart' science of Bio-inspiration is going to produce a plethora
  of products over the next decades that will transform our lives, and
  force us to look at the world in a completely new way. It is science we
  will be reading about in our papers very soon; it is the science of
  tomorrow’s world.

The Gecko’s Foot

Times

"...not only interesting and informative, but delightful....This book fills us
with wonder at what we know, and with excitement at what we might find
out."

Georgina Ferry, The Guardian

'What is novel about this book is its focus on structure... Forbes is
consciously trying to blur the distinction between a proper awe for the
intricacy and beauty of Nature's nanostructures and an appreciation of
the ingenuity of human engineers who try to emulate them, and he
usefully demolishes the case for any remaining paranoias about self-
replicating nanobots.'

Hugh Aldersey-Williams, The Independent

'Forbes gives a sense of scientists not as laboratory drudges but as a
band of wide-eyed innocents alert to all in nature and the arts. . . He has
succeeded splendidly.'

PopularScience.co.uk

• This has to be one of the best popular science books of 2005. Highly
  recommended.'

Nature

'The general readers for whom this book is intended will enjoy it, and it
will give them some appreciation of a fascinating field.'

Brendan Kelly, The Sunday Business Post

'Forbes conveys this excitement well...Ultimately, this is a book about the
majesty of nature and man's intermittently successful efforts to adapt its
mechanisms to meet some of his evolved needs.'

Focus Magazine

"...a lively and inspirational book...as entertaining as a box of assorted
sherbets - each essay fizzes in its own delicious way."

Washington Times

"Comprehensive and surprisingly readable, "The Gecko's Foot" offers a
fascinating account of a new frontier. .His writing is remarkably clear and
scientific concepts are usually explained well enough for lay people to
understand..."

San Diego Union-Tribune

• "Forbes' wonderfully entertaining book. "

Nature has perfected the art of deception. Thousands of creatures all over
the world – including butterflies, moths, fish, birds, insects and snakes –
have honed and practiced camouflage over hundreds of millions of years.
Imitating other animals or their surroundings, nature’s fakers use mimicry
to protect themselves, to attract and repel, to bluff and warn, to forage and
to hide. The advantages of mimicry are obvious – but how does ‘blind’
nature do it? And how has humanity learnt to profit from nature’s ploys?

Dazzled and Deceived tells the unique and fascinating story of mimicry and
camouflage in science, art, warfare and the natural world. Discovered in the
1850s by the young English naturalists Henry Walter Bates and Alfred
Russel Wallace in the Amazonian rainforest, the phenomenon of mimicry
was seized upon as the first independent validation of Darwin’s theory of
natural selection. But mimicry and camouflage also created a huge impact
outside the laboratory walls. Peter Forbes’s cultural history links mimicry
and camouflage to art, literature, military tactics and medical cures across
the twentieth century, and charts its intricate involvement with the
perennial dispute between evolution and creationism.

• As Dazzled and Deceived unravels the concept of mimicry, Forbes
  introduces colourful stories and a dazzling cast of characters – Roosevelt,
  Picasso, Nabokov, Churchill, and Darwin himself, to name a few – whom its
  mystery influenced and enthralled. Illuminating and lively, Dazzled and
  Deceived sheds new light on the greatest quest: to understand the
  processes of life at its deepest level.

Dazzled and Deceived

Veronica Horwell, The Guardian

"Forbes … sees with lovely clarity that nature, like art, is a bricoleur, a
tinkerer, and that the thrill of it all is not in a stately grand design … but in
life’s multiple choices, chances and smallscale experiments: so many
possibilities."

Tim Newark, The Financial Times

"Forbes tells brilliantly this exciting and colourful story with good
anecdotes, bizarre characters and intriguing evidence."

Gail Vines, New Scientist

"The natural armoury of deceptions as depicted in Dazzled and Deceived
is astounding, and the history of research into the phenomenon is just as
surprising.”

Steven Vogel, American Scientist

"Dazzled and Deceived tells a fine story. It is a delight . . . I unhesitatingly
recommend the book to both scientists and nonscientists."

Marek Kohn, The Independent

"An intriguing and fluent narrative."

• Reviews go here…

This is my 2014 book, co-authored with the sculptor Tom Grimsey and
published by Papadakis. Tom’s Giants of the Infinitesimal exhibition,
exhibited at MOSI Manchester and the Magna Centre, Sheffield, led to
this collaboration.

• In this fully illustrated book we present a snapshot of this rapidly
  evolving field: from the omnicompetent potential of graphene, through
  nano energy solutions and desalination technologies, to astonishing
  optical effects and superstrong materials. Nanoscience also shows the
  astonishing beauty of the nanoworld, both natural and synthetic: from
  the iridescence of butterfly wings and peacock feathers to self-
  assembled nano “flowers”.

Nanoscience

Professor Mark Miodownik, author of Stuff Matters and regular
contributor to BBC2’s Science Club

"Many have tried and failed to write engaging and compelling books about
nanotechnology. Forbes and Grimsey succeed because they take the
reader on a tour of the highlights, and in their company it is like visiting an
exquisite grotto: compelling, mysterious and extremely beautiful. If you
don’t come away from this book feeling intellectually exhilarated, then
you need to stay in more."

Nature

"Lucid text and visuals combine to dazzling effect in this introduction

to nanotechnology."

Physics World

"This nanoworld can be stunningly beautiful and the book Nanoscience:
Giants of the Infinitesimal demonstrates this with over a hundred
gorgeous images drawn from across the discipline....it provides a good
overview of what individual nanoscientists are doing to explore this
mesmerizingly beautiful world."

Mail Online

"Nanoscience: Giants of the Infinitesimal, has selected some of the best
images from the field to reveal how nature's hidden beauty could be
replicated by humans."

• NanoScience has been reviewed or featured in Nature, Physics World,
  Chemistry World, BBC Focus, Mail Online, Metro, How it Works,
  Nanotechnology Now, Shortlist and Laboratory News, and The Argus

Andrei Khlobystov, Chemistry World Review

“Scientists influenced by William Morris have said that an area of science is worth
studying only if it is useful or beautiful. This book compellingly demonstrates that
nanoscience is both.

An almost fantastical array of the latest research highlights from leading laboratories
around the world is cleverly intertwined with some historical facts and general scientific
concepts, all embellished with art and poetry. The fact that nanoscience originates from
several traditional disciplines – including chemistry, physics and biology – is fully
reflected in the content and structure of this book, making its scope incredibly wide and
truly cross-disciplinary.

Any practising scientist or engineer, or a student of those subjects, should find this book
inspiring because it brings together the latest achievements in the field, creating a real
sense of the direction this research is taking. Furthermore, the authors often make
interesting and sometimes surprising links between seemingly unconnected topics (for
example, soap bubbles, zeolites and living cells) that may help to stimulate the readers
to think outside the box in their own research.

Descriptions of different nanomaterials and explanations of their functional properties
and applications are clear but extremely brief, so footnotes with some references to the
original publications reporting these examples would have been appreciated by the
research community.

The book will be equally attractive to non-expert readers who may have only vague
interest in nanoscience and nanotechnology. Their initial curiosity will definitely be
fuelled by the exciting academic research and the real-life practical applications of
nanostructures ranging from construction materials to electronic devices and medicines.
While the book does not teach the basic concepts of nanoscience explicitly, it definitely
has a significant educational value for a new generation of scientists and engineers.

• Overall, the book is a visual and intellectual feast for academic and non-expert readers
  alike.”

About

Peter Forbes is a science writer who has written
many articles and reviews for the Guardian,
Independent, The Times,Daily Mail, Financial
Times, Scientific American, New Scientist, Aeon,
New Humanist, New Statesman, and other
magazines.

He was editor of the Poetry Society's Poetry Review
from 1986-2002, and edited Scanning the Century:
The Penguin Book of the Twentieth Century in Poetry
(Viking, 1999). In 2001 he translated Primo Levi's The
Search for Roots(Penguin Press). The Gecko’s Foot, a
book on the new science of bio-inspired materials,
was published by Fourth Estate in 2005 and was long-
listed for the Aventis Prize. Dazzled and Deceived:
Mimicry and camouflage (Yale University Press) won
the 2011 Warwick Prize for Writing. Nanoscience:
Giants of the Infinitesimal, co-authored with Tom
Grimsey, was published by Papadakis in 2014. He
teaches the Narrative Non-fiction short course at City
St George's University of London.