Name George Johnson | Role Journalist | |
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Born January 20, 1952 (age 72) ( 1952-01-20 ) Fayetteville, Arkansas Occupation Science writer, journalist Notable credit(s) Writer for The New York Times; author of several books Relatives Dr. J.E. Johnson (father) & Dorris Matthews Johnson (mother) Education American University, University of New Mexico People also search for Jonathan Losos, Peter H. Raven, Kenneth A Mason, George B. Johnson Books The Ten Most Beautiful, Fire in the Mind: Science, Miss Leavitt's Stars, A Shortcut Through Time: The, Strange Beauty: Murray G | ||
George Johnson (born January 20, 1952) is an American journalist and science writer. He is the author of nine books, including The Cancer Chronicles (2013), The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments (2008) and Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics (1999), and writes for a number of publications, including The New York Times. He is a two-time winner of the science journalism award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. His books have been short-listed three times for the Royal Society science book prize. His column, "Raw Data," appears in The New York Times.
Contents
Johnson is one of the co-hosts (with science writer John Horgan) of "Science Faction," a weekly discussion on the website Bloggingheads.tv, related to topics in science. Several prominent scientists, philosophers, and bloggers have been interviewed for the site.
Colbert Report
On Thursday, May 7, 2008, Johnson appeared on the Stephen Colbert show to promote his new book, entitled "The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments". During his appearance, Johnson convinced Colbert to touch the spark produced by one of the electricity experiments. Colbert shocked his hand yelling obscenities that were bleeped out but appeared to be fine after the incident.
Works
Awards
His ninth book The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine's Deepest Mystery was on the shortlist for the 2014 Royal Society Prize for Science Books.
Previously shortlisted for the prize were Strange Beauty: Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in 20th-Century Physics (2001) and Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith, and the Search for Order (1997).
In 2014 three of his pieces for The New York Times about the science of cancer won the AAAS Science Journalism Award. He won the award in 2000 for three articles about complexity and high-energy physics.