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The Bodley Head has two of the books on the shortlist for the £25,000 Royal Society Winton Prize for Science Books.
Serving the Reich: The Struggle for the Soul of Physics under Hitler by Philip Ball and The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine's Deepest Mystery by George Johnson are both on the six-strong shortlist, alongside John Brownes's Seven Elements that Have Changed the World: Iron, Carbon, Gold, Silver, Uranium, Titanium, Silicon (Weidenfeld & Nicolson); Pedro G Ferreira's The Perfect Theory: A Century of Geniuses and the Battle over General Relativity (Little, Brown); Mark Miodownik's Stuff Matters: The Strange Stories of the Marvellous Materials that Shape Our Man-made World (Viking); and Gulp: Adventures of the Alimentary Canel by Mary Roach (Oneworld).
Professor Nicky Clayton FRS, chair of the judges, said: "The judges had to think long and hard about which books to include on the shortlist this year. With so much good science writing out there at the moment, it was incredibly difficult to select only six. Whether we realise it or not, science is inextricably part of our culture and the books we have selected for the shortlist emphasise the central role it plays in all of our lives."
Also on the judging panel are mathematician Dr Nathalie Vriend, ITN head of factual Emma Read, writer Michael Frayn, and neuroscientist Lone Frank.
The winner will be announced at a public event at the Royal Society on 10th November 2014.