Peter Forbes

Book review: Proto – How One Ancient Language Went Global Proto-Indo-European gave birth to a plethora of modern languages, but there remains a question mark over its origins

@heliconiuscydno.bsky.social on the "fantastic odyssey of our languages and the migrating peoples that carried them"

City St George’s Narrative Non-Fiction. Course starts Tuesday 20 January “It was a real joy getting to work alongside people from all over the world and the diversity of the group was fantastic for challenging and extending my own writing.” (recent student) www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/prospective-...

“To writers seeking a jumpstart, I recommend the Narrative Nonfiction course taught by @heliconiuscydno“ - Ciaran Thapar, Penguin author and former student. Starts Jan 20 www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/prospective-...

City St George’s Narrative Non-Fiction. New course starts Tuesday 20 January: “Peter is a really good, experienced tutor with a long and distinguished publishing history; the perfect teacher for this course” (recent student). www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/prospective-...

City St George’s Narrative Non-Fiction. New course starts Tuesday 20 January: “To writers seeking a jumpstart, I recommend the Narrative Nonfiction course taught by @heliconiuscydno“ - Ciaran Thapar, Penguin author and former student. www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/prospective-...

Thank you for the RT Eva - Happy New Year

Now booking: Narrative Non-fiction (NNF) at City. Alumni books books from Penguin, Faber, Granta etc. New course starts Tuesday 20 January: “Terrific teacher! Encouraging, practical, demystifying and lots of specific feedback” (recent student)
www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/prospective-...

My review of Laura Spinney’s Proto in the latest New Humanist

Love The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything? Readers pick 100 books like The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything... Readers who loved The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything share their favorite books like The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything (by Peter Brannen). 

A great book list from Shepherd on the Story of CO2 is the Story of Everything. Declaration of interest: I'm one of the recommenders shepherd.com/books-like/t...

Q&A for the Sunday Post on my book Thinking Small and Large: How microbes made and can save our world.
www.pressreader.com/uk/the-sunda...

My W&A in the Sunday Post (print) today on Thinking Small and Large: How microbes made and save our world www.sundaypost.com

The best books on the new understanding of carbon dioxide’s pivotal role in 4 billion years of Earth history Peter Forbes shares the 5 best books on new understanding of carbon dioxide’s pivotal role in 4 billion years of Earth history. Have you read The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything?

The astonishing deep role of carbon dioxide in 4 million years of life revealed in several powerful books recently. Every living thing is made from CO2 and our industrial civilisation depends on the CO2 captured and stored by many milliennia of ancient photosynthesis: shepherd.com/best-books/n...

The best books on the new understanding of carbon dioxide’s pivotal role in 4 billion years of Earth history Peter Forbes shares the 5 best books on new understanding of carbon dioxide’s pivotal role in 4 billion years of Earth history. Have you read The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything?

The deep history of carbon dioxide is powerful explainer for 4 billion years of earth history and a vital way of understanding the world now. It’s at the heart of my Thinking Small and Large and the 5 books highlighted here: shepherd.com/best-books/n...

How close are we to a cure for Huntington’s? Twenty-five years after the discovery of the gene behind Huntington’s disease, Peter Forbes reports on the potential first treatment for…

Seven years ago I wrote a backgrounder on Huntington’s disease at a time of great hope for treatment and/or cure: medium.com/mosaic-scien...
Those hoped were dashed but now there is a real breakthrough:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

Dramatic news of a treatment for Huntington's disease
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Last 7 places on City St George’s Narrative Non-Fiction Sept 30. “To writers seeking a jumpstart, I recommend the Narrative Nonfiction course taught by @heliconiuscydno.bluesky.social” - Ciaran Thapar, Penguin author and former student. www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/prospective-...

How Humanity Amplified Life’s Quest for Energy | Quanta Magazine A planetary perspective on the relationship between life and energy, and the emergence of a life form whose influence extends across the entire biosphere — presenting us with an awesome opportunity.

The great synthesis - earth history as the story of energy, firstly biological and then human-industrial using fossil photosynthesis - is everywhere now. This is very similar to Peter Brannen's The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything
www.quantamagazine.org/how-humanity...

The Gecko's Foot: How Scientists are Taking a Leaf from Nature's Book Buy The Gecko's Foot: How Scientists are Taking a Leaf from Nature's Book Revised ed. by Forbes, Peter (ISBN: 9780007179893) from Amazon's Book Store. Everyday low prices and free delivery on eligible orders.

The Gecko’s Foot is still going strong at 20 but J. E. Gordon’s Structures: Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down is still in print at 47. And he still outsells me! www.amazon.co.uk/Geckos-Foot-...
www.amazon.co.uk/Structures-T...

The Gecko’s Foot still going strong at 20. My inspiration was J. E. Gordon’s Structures: Or Why Things Don’t Fall Down. He was THE biomimetics pioneer; I'm pleased his book and mine are both on the Cambridge Engineering syllabus. www.amazon.co.uk/Geckos-Foot-...
www.amazon.co.uk/Structures-T...

Thank you very much - it’s been a pleasant surprise to see it’s longevity

Celebrating 20 years of The Gecko’s Foot ‘The Gecko's Foot is an act of two-cultures healing. One page quotes Miroslav Holub, "immunologist and poet", the next Vladimir Nabokov, "Russian novelist and serious amateur lepidopterist".’ (The Independent, 2005)

Twenty years of The Gecko’s Foot. “Forbes is consciously trying to blur the distinction between a proper awe for the intricacy and beauty of Nature's nanostructures and an appreciation of the ingenuity of human engineers who try to emulate them.” (the 2005 Guardian review)

Narrative Non-Fiction at City St George’s. Open taster evening this Thursday. If you sign up for this there's a 10% course fee discount available until midnight the day after the open evening. Full details of registering are here: www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/news-and-eve...

How, over 4 billion years, CO2 has been the source of all Over the last few decades, many attempts have been made to identify “what it was that made us human”, including fire and cooking, milk…

The story behind CO2 being The Story of Everything
heliconiuscydno.medium.com/how-over-4-b...

First published 20 years ago, The Gecko’s Foot is today the Amazon No 1 Bestseller in Nanotechnology www.amazon.co.uk/Geckos-Foot-...

The route to publishing non-fiction is long and winding but City’s narrative Non-Fiction members increasingly make the cut: books published or forthcoming from Viking, Faber, Granta, Hachette, MIT Press, History Press. New course starts September 30 www.citystgeorges.ac.uk/prospective-...

Peter Brannen’s message, that everyone should heed: “Simply put, life is organic carbon. It's almost all C’s, H’s, and O’s…98 percent of the atoms in your body are C, H, and O.” www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0...

Peter Brannen’s message: “Carbon dioxide… isn't some niche, industrial by-product that billows from smokestacks and just so happens to be a twenty-first century regulatory bugbear… CO2 is the very stuff of life” www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0...

Carbon dioxide: the stuff of life | The Observer Carbon dioxide may have caused the climate crisis, but a new study argues it is also the ‘miracle molecule’ that made Earth habitable

Peter Brannen’s The Story of CO2 Is The Story of Everything observer.co.uk/culture/book...
shows how CO2 is the origin of every living organism: bodily makeup, its energy and, in fossilised carbon, the basis of our industrial energy, synthetic materials: plastics, fibres, chemicals, concrete.

Carbon dioxide: the stuff of life | The Observer Carbon dioxide may have caused the climate crisis, but a new study argues it is also the ‘miracle molecule’ that made Earth habitable

Readers of the print Observer will now have seen the review of Peter Brannen’s The Story of CO2 Is The Story of Everything, also here observer.co.uk/culture/book...
How astonishingly this misses the point. It isn’t just Brannen’s idea: CO2 IS all the things he says it is.