Phil Ball, award winning Science writer and freelance journalist and editor for Nature magazine will present
Gain or white noise? Exploring the ethics of applied sciences in contemporary fiction.

Contemporary literary novels rarely examine the impact of industrial engineering on our lives. But two works that do so – Richard Powers’ Gain and Don DeLillo’s White Noise, both of which consider the effects of industrial chemistry – reveal that the ethical and societal issues raised by applied science can potentially be handled with more subtlety and sophistication than is usual in journalistic treatments. I will look at how these two books do that, and will lead a discussion of other examples – please be prepared to nominate your favourites!

More details on Phil Ball and his latest publications can be found here.