(1946-    ) UK physicist, science writer and sf author whose scientific nonfiction is perhaps more distinguished than his sf. His novel Fireball (1987) has Antimatter pellets impacting Earth and creating chaos; although their actual source is an Alien spacecraft, they are interpreted by the USA as a Soviet weapon. The ideas are interesting, the thriller elements routine. However, his academic science books, signed P C W Davies, and his popular science books, signed Paul Davies, are very good. In the former category are Space and Time in the Modern Universe (1977), The Forces of Nature (1979), The Search for Gravity Waves (1980) and The Accidental Universe (1982), among others. In the latter category are The Runaway Universe (1978; vt Stardoom 1979), Other Worlds (1980), The Edge of Infinity (1981), God and the New Physics (1983), The Matter Myth (1991) with John Gribbin, The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World (1992), The Last Three Minutes: Latest Thinking About the Ultimate Fate of the Universe (1994), About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution (1995), Are We Alone?: Philosophical Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life (1995), How to Build a Time Machine (2001) and Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe is Just Right for Life (2007), among others. The speculations tend more towards the theological in the later works. The pungency of Davies's theological/cosmological writings is confirmed by the award to Davies in 1995 of the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion worth over one million US dollars, a prize in its field comparable to the Nobel Prize. [PN/DRL]

see also: Cosmology; Metaphysics; Parallel Worlds; Scientists.

Paul Charles Williams Davies

born London: 22 April 1946

died

works

• Fireball (London: William Heinemann, 1987) [hb/]

nonfiction (selected)

• The Runaway Universe (New York: Harper and Row, 1978) [nonfiction: hb/]
  • Stardoom: A Scientific Account of the Beginning and the End of the Universe (London: Fontana, 1979) [nonfiction: vt of the above: pb/]
• Other Worlds: A Portrait of Nature in Rebellion. Space, Superspace and the Quantum Universe (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1980) [nonfiction: hb/]
• The Edge of Infinity: Where the Universe Came From & How It Will End (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981) [nonfiction: hb/]
  • The Edge of Infinity: Naked Singularities and the Destruction of Spacetime (London: J M Dent and Sons, 1981) [nonfiction: vt of the above: hb/]
• God and the New Physics (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983) [nonfiction: hb/]
• Superforce: The Search for a Grand Unified Theory of Nature (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1981) [nonfiction: hb/]
• The Matter Myth: Towards 21st-Century Science (London: Viking, 1991) with John Gribbin [nonfiction: hb/]
  • The Matter Myth: Beyond Chaos and Complexity (London: Penguin Books, 1991) with John Gribbin [nonfiction: vt of the above: hb/]
• The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992) [nonfiction: hb/]
• The Last Three Minutes: Latest Thinking About the Ultimate Fate of the Universe (New York: Basic Books, 1994) [nonfiction: hb/]
• About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995) [nonfiction: hb/]
• Are We Alone?: Philosophical Implications of the Discovery of Extraterrestrial Life (New York: Basic Books, 1995) [nonfiction: hb/]
• How to Build a Time Machine (London: Allen Lane, 2001) [nonfiction: hb/]
• Cosmic Jackpot: Why Our Universe is Just Right for Life (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2007) [nonfiction: hb/]

links

Previous versions of this entry

• 30/06/2008