Michael Brooks has scratched beneath the glossy surface of science to write a revealing and thoroughly entertaining book about its practitioners. By cutting so close to the scientific bone that it spills blood, his “Free Radicals” departs violently from the textbook image of white-coated professionalism. In eight gritty and gripping chapters Brooks uncovers the anarchy at the heart of many of the most famous advances made by scientists.

Despite having a physics degree and some notion of the stretchiness of space and time in Einstein’s theory of special relativity, I’ve never felt comfortable with these ideas.

She’s here. She’s in the room. I’ve not noticed her before — not in previous years — but every now and then her presence is unmistakable. I am sitting in a lecture theatre in St Andrews University in Scotland, attending the 16th Meeting of the European Study Group on the Molecular Biology of Picornaviruses, or Europic, as it is more conveniently known.

Ian Sample’s _Massive – The Hunt for the God Particle_ is a fast-paced account of the quest for the Higgs boson, an elusive particle that is purported to solve the mystery of mass. If you were unaware that the question of mass was the least bit mysterious, you are in good company–with about 99.99% of the population of the planet for whom the matter of matter has never arisen.

I am determined to finish the third and final installment of the posts about my vacation reading before the holiday season comes to an end — which I think is tonight. I want to tell you about the biography of Huxley and Eric Ambler’s Uncommon Danger . Truth be told I have been struggling with this post.

For my second holiday read I gave in to the excitement surrounding the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and splashed out on Buzz Aldrin’s Magnificent Desolation . The book (co-written with Ken Abraham) tells of the aftermath of his visit to our dusty satellite. I have long been a fan of the moon landings, having been just about old enough to realise what was happening in the later lunar missions in the early seventies.

Just before heading off on holiday I gave notice of my intended reading matter. Pedalo-duty permitting, I hoped to get through all four books. The wind and currents of the French Atlantic coast precluded any pedalo action so the kids had to settle for surfing lessons instead, and were placed in the capable hands of an instructor.