Brian Clegg

Brian is a writer of popular science books, with a background in experimental physics. The topics he writes on range from infinity to how to build a time machine. He has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous magazines and newspapers, including Nature, BBC Focus, BBC History, Good Housekeeping, The Times, The Observer, Playboy, The Wall Street Journal and Physics World. Brian has given sell-out lectures at the Royal Institution in London and has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science. He has also contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. Brian is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a Member of the Institute of Physics, was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Bristol University and is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site.

Recent articles by Brian Clegg

Close-up of a person wearing a futuristic-looking headset.

10 ingenious inventions about to change our world forever

From nano-medics, to digital twins and space janitors

Dotts on Donimoes with a Donimo Effect

What is gravity? A guide to nature's most mysterious force (and what we still don't know)

Everyone knows that what goes up must come down. But why? Gravity, it turns out, is full of surprises…

A beginner's guide to Feynman diagrams © Getty Images

A beginner's guide to Feynman diagrams

In this extract from Ten Patterns That Explain The Universe, science writer Brian Clegg explains how Richard Feynman's eponymous diagrams not only illustrate complex particle interactions, but can make calculations easier, too.

What is light? © Getty Images

What is light?

Is light a wave or a particle? How is it created? And why can’t humans see the whole spectrum of light? All your questions answered.

13 amazing facts about tardigrades, the world's toughest animal © Getty Images

The world's toughest animal | 16 tremendous tardigrade facts

From the bottom of the ocean to the depths of space, is there nowhere water bears can't live?

What is rocket science?

The theory behind blasting something into space isn’t as complicated as you might think. Putting it into practice, however, is a little bit trickier.

The Long March-5 rocket carrying an orbiter, lander and rover as part of the Tianwen-1 mission to Mars lifts off from the Wenchang Space Launch Centre in southern China's Hainan Province © Noel Celis/AFP via Getty Images

A history of rocket science

From steam powered devices in Ancient Greece to man's first steps on the Moon, this is the history of rocket science.

What is the human body made of? © Getty Images

What is the human body made of?

At its simplest, the body is made up of just four types of particle.

Earth core structure. Elements of this 3d image furnished by NASA

Earth's core | What lies at the centre and how do we know?

We live on the surface of a dense, rocky ball, but science has allowed us to peer deep within its core.

© NASA/Tony Gray

Rocket science for beginners

Rocket science might seem a daunting subject, but it doesn't have to be so complicated – here's our quick explainer.

Black holes: how did we discover these 'dark stars'? © Getty Images

Black holes | What are they and how did we discover them?

Fiction depicts black holes as yawning voids that lurk in deep space, gobbling up anything in their path, but how does science explain these 'dark stars'?

Danish seismologist Inge Lehmann, shown in 1932 © The Royal Library, National Library of Denmark, and University of Copenhagen University Library

Inge Lehmann | The Danish scientist who discovered Earth has a solid inner core

Between 1929 and 1939, seismologist Inge Lehmann compared various data sets from earthquakes to conclusively prove what was at the Earth's core.

Wild ideas: Dark matter might be under our feet © Scott Balmer

Wild ideas in science | Dark matter might be under our feet

Most of the Universe is made up of dark matter. The problem is, we haven’t found it. But one team thinks we could discover its imprints lurking in rocks.

Desperately seeking missing matter © Getty Images

Desperately seeking missing matter | The search for 95 per cent of the Universe

The Universe contains a huge amount of matter that we can't see. All we know for sure is that it doesn't interact with regular matter - so how can we find it?

The origin of life: a new theory suggests physics holds the answer © Getty Images

The origin of life | Can physics explain how it all began?

Move over, biology. There’s a new theory about how life first emerged from the primordial goo, with physics enjoying a starring role.

The particle detectors probing the Universe © HAWC Observatory

The particle detectors probing the Universe

Whether deep underground or perched on a volcano, particle detectors help scientists to unravel the mysteries of the cosmos.

Quantum theory: the weird world of teleportation, tardigrades and entanglement © Getty Images

Quantum theory: the weird world of teleportation, tardigrades and entanglement

The famous thought experiment Schrödinger's Cat might not be as absurd as its creator originally intended.

What is Schrödinger's Cat? © Getty Images

What is Schrödinger's Cat?

Can a cat be dead and alive at the same time? If it helps explain quantum physics, then why not!

© NASA

Understand water science

It’s one of the strangest substances in the Universe, but we wouldn’t exist without it. From H20 to the water cycle, understand the wonderful science of water.