During his research career, he was the first to bounce a neutron off a soap bubble while he was working at the Institut Laue Langevin.[8]
Career
Highfield served as the science editor of The Daily Telegraph for more than 20 years.[9] During that time he set up a long running science writing award for young people,[10][11] a photography competition,[12] the 'scientists meet the media' party,[13] and organised mass experiments from 1994 with BBC's Tomorrow's World, called Live Lab and Megalab,[14] such as the 'Truth Test' with Richard Wiseman.[15]
He was the editor for the British magazine New Scientist from 2008 to 2011, where he redesigned the magazine and introduced new sections, notably Aperture and Instant Expert.[4][5]
In 2019, Highfield became the science director at the Science Museum Group.[20] For the group, he wrote a series of long-form blogs about the science of COVID-19[21] and in 2021 organised a special COVID-19 issue of the Royal Society journal Interface Focus.[22]
Supercooperators (2011), co-authored with Martin Nowak. A review published in Nature by Manfred Milinski describes the book as "part autobiography, part textbook, and reads like a best-selling novel."[39]David Willetts, in the Financial Times, described the book as an "excellent example" of using the nexus of evolutionary biology, game theory and neuroscience to understand the development of cooperation in society[40]
After Dolly (2006), co-authored with Ian Wilmut. Steven Poole in The Guardian describes the book as "an extremely lucid and readable explanation of the history of cloning and biologists' ideas for the future."[41]
The Physics of Christmas (1998); Can Reindeer Fly? (title in England). Received the world's shortest book review ("No").[43]
Frontiers of Complexity (1996), co-authored with Peter Coveney.[44]Philip Warren Anderson commented that "I believe firmly, with Coveney and Highfield, that complexity is the scientific frontier".[45][46]
The Private Lives of Albert Einstein (1993), co-authored with Paul Carter. J. G. Ballard commented in a review: "In their lucid and scrupulously researched biography, Roger Highfield and Paul Carter reveal a very different Einstein. To their great credit, these startling revelations never diminish the man but only increase our sense of wonder."[47]
The Mind Readers (2014). His account of the efforts to communicate with brain damaged patients that suffer disorders of consciousness was reproduced in other media worldwide, such as Gizmodo,[54] The Week,[55] The Independent[56] and Pacific Standard.[57] He has also written longer articles for Aeon,[58][59] and Wired.[60][61]
Awards and Honours
Highfield is a member of the Longitude Committee.[62]
↑ Hampshire, Adam; Parkin, Beth; Highfield, Roger; Owen, Adrian M. (2014). "Response to: "Higher-order g versus blended variable models of mental ability: Comment on Hampshire, Highfield, Parkin, and Owen (2012)"". Personality and Individual Differences. 60: 8–12. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2013.10.032. ISSN0191-8869.
↑ Hampshire, Adam; Parkin, Beth; Highfield, Roger; Owen, Adrian M. (2014). "Brief response to Ashton and colleagues regarding Fractionating Human Intelligence". Personality and Individual Differences. 60: 16–17. doi:10.1016/j.paid.2013.11.013. ISSN0191-8869.
↑ Rossant, Janet (28 February 2020). "When life meets research The Dance of Life Magdalena Zernicka-Goetz and Roger Highfield Basic Books, 2020. 304 pp". Science. 367 (6481): 988. doi:10.1126/science.aba2771.
↑ "A Mind Firmly Set on the Universe: Review of The Private Lives of Albert Einstein by Roger Highfield and Paul Carter, and Einstein: A Life in Science by Michael White and John Gribbin". The Daily Telegraph. "Weekend" section. 4 September 1993.
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