James Gleick Wins Winton Prize for Science Books

Posted on December 15, 2012

James Gleick was recently named the winner of 2012 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books for his book, The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood. The Winton Prize is an annual award for popular science writing.

Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell, the Chair of the judges, said in a statement, "The Information is an ambitious and insightful book that takes us, with verve and fizz, on a journey from African drums to computers, throwing in generous helpings of evidence and examples along the way. It is one of those very rare books that provide a completely new framework for understanding the world around us. It was a privilege to read."

Here is a video of Gleick talking about his book. He also talks about random numbers and how the universe is information. Take a look:

Here is a list of the six shortlisted books:

More from Science Space & Robots