HIGHFIELD, Roger

PERSONAL:

Married.

ADDRESSES:

Home—London, England.

CAREER:

Daily Telegraph (newspaper), London, England, science editor. Organizer with the British Broadcasting Corp. (BBC) of experiments involving hundreds of thousands of participants, conducted under the title "Megalab."

AWARDS, HONORS:

British Press Award; two Glaxo science-writing awards; medical journalism award.

WRITINGS:

NONFICTION

(With Peter Coveney) The Arrow of Time: A Voyage through Science to Solve Time's Greatest Mystery, W.H. Allen (London, England), 1990, Fawcett Columbine (New York, NY), 1991.

(With Paul Carter) The Private Lives of Albert Einstein, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1994.

(With Peter Coveney) Frontiers of Complexity: The Search for Order in a Chaotic World, Fawcett Columbine (New York, NY), 1995.

The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1998.

The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works, Viking (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Ian Wilmut) After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning, Norton (New York, NY), 2006.

Contributor to periodicals, including Esquire.

SIDELIGHTS:

Roger Highfield is the science editor of the London Daily Telegraph and regularly contributes articles on scientific subjects to that newspaper. He has also published several books, with subjects ranging from cloning, to time, to the physics of cooking Christmas dinner. His first book, which was written in collaboration with Peter Coveney, The Arrow of Time: A Voyage through Science to Solve Time's Greatest Mystery, explores theoretical ideas about time. Specifically, it asks whether time truly moves in a linear fashion, always advancing into the future, or if it moves in all directions at once. The theories of quantum mechanics and relativity suggest that time is without direction and is symmetrical, yet the field of thermodynamics holds to the notion that time cannot run backwards. This would seem to be proven by everyday experience, as there are many things that, once done, cannot be undone. The authors support this theory, and they suggest reinterpretations of relativity and other concepts in ways that take into account a linear view of time. Genevieve Stuttaford, reviewing the book for Publishers Weekly, found that it did not go far enough in offering proofs of the author's theories, but called it "nonetheless stimulating." The book proved popular with a wide audience, becoming a best seller.

Highfield and his coauthor Paul Carter took a close look at the personal life of one of the world's most renowned scientists in The Private Lives of Albert Einstein. Einstein, who formulated the theory of relativity, has long been seen as a gentle, kindly, almost childlike genius. While he may have possessed some of those qualities, Carter and Highfield's research shows that Einstein also had a callous, selfish, even cruel side that was carefully hidden from the public, not only by Einstein himself but by those concerned with his legacy, even after his death. Analyzing his letters and other source material, they show Einstein as a negligent husband who downplayed his wife's considerable contributions to his work. He married his fellow student, Mileva Maric, who was herself highly intelligent; before the marriage, she bore Einstein's child, a daughter, who was then given up for adoption. Their next child, born after their marriage, suffered from mental illness but was nevertheless a gifted musician. He ended up in a mental hospital in Switzerland; his father did not visit him. Einstein interpreted his wife's nervous breakdown as a ploy to entrap him, and he divorced her in 1919. "Gone is the illusion of Einstein as a kind and modest philanthropist. Instead this biography presents a grandiose, complacent and patronizing tyrant who had a fierce temper and arrogance bordering on hubris," commented an Economist reviewer. The authors seem to display "a touch of the tabloids" in their eagerness to unearth Einstein's weaknesses and failings, according to Susan Aldridge in the New Statesman & Society, who nevertheless welcomed the book because it assesses the man "as a human being."

Highfield teamed with Peter Coveney to write his next book, Frontiers of Complexity: The Search for Order in a Chaotic World. They present the concept of complexity theory, which states that a system can be more than the sum of its parts. In other words, an ant colony is more than simply a set of thousands of ants, and an embryo is more than a collection of cells. Complexity theory is a relatively new field, and according to Peter Tallack in the New Statesman & Society, it is not known yet if there will be any useful application of it to modern life. Yet, he stated, the authors of this book "demonstrate a genuine understanding of the field, and go out of their way to explain how the underlying mathematics works. This is by far and away the most comprehensive, accurate and lively introduction to the subject, and a fertile source for those who want to dig deeper."

A lighter note was struck with the books The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works and The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey. In the former, Highfield uses the popular "Harry Potter" fantasy series by J.K. Rowling to launch a playful discussion of subjects including genetics, mythology, biology, and more. The first half of the book analyzes phenomena in Harry's universe, such as flying broomsticks and Flavor Beans, while the second half takes a look at the roots of magical thought. It is an "utterly fascinating take on the subject," according to Sally Estes in Booklist, one that might well draw Potter fans more deeply into the study of science. In The Physics of Christmas, Highfield examines the science behind cooking the holiday turkey, wonders how it is possible for Santa to visit so many homes in one night, and asks why Rudolph's nose is red. Highfield is "the best sort of guide: he is brimming with facts, but he doesn't use them to bludgeon the mystery out of Christmas," stated Sharon Begley in Newsweek.

Highfield returned to a more serious topic when he collaborated with Ian Wilmut, the scientist responsible for producing the world's first cloned animal, a sheep named Dolly. Their book, After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning, includes elements of Wilmut's autobiography as well as the scientific and moral issues raised by the sheep and those who came after her. A Kirkus Reviews writer described this book as "the how of cloning, beautifully told by optimists who believe that wise heads and good science will justify the whys."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, April 15, 1994, Donna Seaman, review of The Private Lives of Albert Einstein, p. 1493; October 1, 1995, Brenda Grazis, review of Frontiers of Complexity: The Search for Order in a Chaotic World, p. 240; October 15, 2002, Sally Estes, review of The Science of Harry Potter: How Magic Really Works, p. 369; January 1, 2003, review of The Science of Harry Potter, p. 794; May 15, 2006, Donna Chavez, review of After Dolly: The Uses and Misuses of Human Cloning, p. 7.

Economist, October 20, 1990, review of The Arrow of Time: A Voyage through Science to Solve Time's Greatest Mystery, p. 111; September 11, 1993, review of The Private Lives of Albert Einstein, p. 89.

Kirkus Reviews, April 15, 2006, review of After Dolly, p. 400.

Kliatt, November, 2003, Janet Julian, review of The Science of Harry Potter, p. 39.

Library Journal, June 15, 2006, Mary Chitty, review of After Dolly, p. 101.

New Statesman & Society, September 3, 1993, Susan Aldridge, review of The Private Lives of Albert Einstein, p. 37; November 24, 1995, Peter Tallack, review of Frontiers of Complexity, p. 37.

Newsweek, December 14, 1998, Sharon Begley, review of The Physics of Christmas: From the Aerodynamics of Reindeer to the Thermodynamics of Turkey, p. 52.

Publishers Weekly, April 5, 1991, Genevieve Stuttaford, review of The Arrow of Time, p. 129; March 14, 1994, review of The Private Lives of Albert Einstein, p. 56; September 25, 1995, review of Frontiers of Complexity, p. 39; September 30, 2002, review of The Science of Harry Potter, p. 60.

Science, February 18, 1994, David Cassidy, review of The Private Lives of Albert Einstein, p. 997; June 20, 2003, Marc Lavine, review of The Science of Harry Potter, p. 1880.

Science News, November 23, 2002, review of The Science of Harry Potter, p. 335.*