Popular Science Feature - Four Way Interview - Nick Arnold

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Four Way Interview - Nick Arnold - October 2007

Our four-way interviews give a quick insight into the current thinking of a popular science author.

Nick Arnold is one of the world's leading popularizers of science for a younger audience. His hugely successful Horrible Science series with Scholastic has brought the joy of science to many, many young readers.

Why science?

Science is the most effective way to explain how the universe and everything in it actually works. It's a bit like a torch shining light into a very big dark room - if we didn't have science we really would be in the dark. For me as a writer, writing about science means that I am allowed to write about anything I want to - in a horribly funny way of course!

Why this book (Evil Inventions)?

I wanted to show how technology is powered by scientific discovery - plus the urge to make money. And I wanted to show how through technology science can be used to produce very good and very bad results. Some of the bad results are due to terrible accidents - when inventions produce terrible effects their inventors never imagined - and other effects were produced on purpose. this is all important stuff - and I feel very lucky as a writer to get the chance to talk about it in print.

What's next?

Horrible science is all about finding out facts about science with lots of grisly details - but I wanted to go further and actually show readers how to be horrible scientists themselves. This means giving people a chance to try their own horrible experiments using everyday objects they might have at home. So I am writing a series of horrible science handbooks - the first two - Freaky Food and Famously Foul Experiments are already in the shops and the next 2 - Beastly Body Experiments and a book about brain experiments are on the way. I have also written some jigsaw and shuffle puzzle horrible science books about the body, bugs and angry animals.

What's exciting you at the moment?

I have always believed that giving people the chance to read is terribly important - in fact I call it "the right to read". This year I have set up a book festival in a place called Appledore in North Devon, England to promote a love of reading and learning. Some of Britain's top authors have travelled to Devon to talk about their books and present shows. The festival has been a massive success and attracted thousands of people. It looks set to run every year. Now this may not seem much to do with science but I think that being able to read and write effectively is as vital to science as it is for any area of learning. If people can't read science books or if scientists can't explain themselves in writing, then how can scientific knowledge ever spread? Oh well, I guess I'm also doing my bit with horrible science!

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