MY LATEST POSTS
A mad magnet tale
This story of the generation of an ultra-strong magnetic field (https://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/magnetic-field-record-set-with-a-bang-1200-tesla) and the subsequent disaster reminds me of a story that I was told by a very prominent...
Life, REF, and the half-loaf principle
One of my favourite writers is the Russian-born Englishman S.J. "Skid" Simon. Unless you are a bridge player, you have probably never heard of him, although he wrote many murder mysteries in the period before the Second World War, the best-known being "A Bullet in the...
The World Needs Complexity Thinking
I was proud to be a finalist (14 finalists out of 2702 entrants from 122 countries; https://globalchallenges.org/en/our-work/the-new-shape-prize/finalists) in the recent Global Challenges New Shape competition , which sought suggestions for new approaches to the...
Chickens’ Guts and Chefs’ Tools
Art imitating nature: how chefs treat seeds in just the same ways that seed-eating birds have been doing for millions of years: https://youtu.be/RMuAx4XVa08 My talk at the 2018 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. Start at 2'50" if you want to avoid the...
MY LATEST POSTS
MINI STORIES FROM SCIENCE
A mad magnet tale
This story of the generation of an ultra-strong magnetic field (https://spectrum.ieee.org/nanoclast/semiconductors/nanotechnology/magnetic-field-record-set-with-a-bang-1200-tesla) and the subsequent disaster reminds me of a story that I was told by a very prominent...
STRAY THOUGHTS
Life, REF, and the half-loaf principle
One of my favourite writers is the Russian-born Englishman S.J. "Skid" Simon. Unless you are a bridge player, you have probably never heard of him, although he wrote many murder mysteries in the period before the Second World War, the best-known being "A Bullet in the...
PLANNING FOR LIFE’S CRISES
The World Needs Complexity Thinking
I was proud to be a finalist (14 finalists out of 2702 entrants from 122 countries; https://globalchallenges.org/en/our-work/the-new-shape-prize/finalists) in the recent Global Challenges New Shape competition , which sought suggestions for new approaches to the...
FOOD & GASTRONOMY
Chickens’ Guts and Chefs’ Tools
Art imitating nature: how chefs treat seeds in just the same ways that seed-eating birds have been doing for millions of years: https://youtu.be/RMuAx4XVa08 My talk at the 2018 Oxford Symposium on Food and Cookery. Start at 2'50" if you want to avoid the...
MY BOOKS
My books are aimed to help people see and understand the world through a scientist’s eyes, with a good leavening of humour, anecdote and the personal stories.
TESTIMONIALS
“Fisher is a master story-teller, making difficult scientific concepts seem simple through elegant exposition. Crashes, Crises and Calamities addresses the challenge of disaster prediction … by a brilliant and engaging integration of diverse scientific perspectives.”
Simon A. Levin, Moffett Professor of Biology, Princeton University; author of Fragile Dominion“[Rock, Paper, Scissors is a] tour de force of exposition, with many amusing and enlightening vignettes of the application of game theory to real-world interactions in the home, amongst friends, in business, and in international relations.”
Professor Robert Marks, Winner of computer tournament on strategies for effective cooperation“Scientists are constantly trying to make science accessible to the general public, but rarely are they as successful as physicist [Len] Fisher.”
Library Journal Review“From locusts watching Star Wars to Murphy’s Law of Management, The Perfect Swarm hits all the buttons … a wonderful tour through the new mathematics of swarms, flocks and crowds.”
Ian Stewart, Author, Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities