A bit of personal news: I’ve signed a contract for my next popular science book with the University of Chicago Press! My tentative title — subject to change — is “Booms, Beer, and Blood: The story of conservation of energy,” based on a series of blog posts I did a few years ago.

The book will be a look at one of the most important principles in physics — conservation of energy — what it is, all the cool stuff we’ve learned because of it, and the story of three pivotal figures in that discovery. One was a cannon-maker, one was a brewer, and one was a medical doctor. (Hence the working title.) All three are interesting characters, and their stories say a lot about how science was done in the past and still has lessons for scientists of the present and future. Their stories actually include an INCREDIBLE amount of drama!

I’ve been researching like mad already for this, including working on preliminary translations of old letters that might never have ever been translated into English before! (I’m working through a book that is about 130 years old right now.)

I’m really excited about this project and can’t wait to share more about it with all of you!