The most prestigious science book prize in Britain has been won by a solo female writer Gaia Vince for the first time in its 28-year history. Gaia Vince, a journalist and broadcaster based in London, was named the winner of the 2015 Royal Society Winton prize for Science Books at a ceremony in London.
The award puts her name at the top of a long list of previous winners that includes some of the greats of science writing, such as Stephen Hawking, Stephen Jay Gould, Jared Diamond, James Gleick and Bill Bryson.
Gaia Vince
- Vince quit her job as an editor at the journal, Nature, to spend more than two years travelling the world to research her book, Adventures in the Anthropocene: a Journey to the Heart of the Planet We Made.
- Vince sought out people and places most disrupted by humanity’s plundering of Earth’s resources.
- She visited slums in Colombia, and clambered down a silver mine in Bolivia.
- Vince becomes the first woman as sole author to win the Royal Society book prize, worth £25,000 this year.
- The book is illustrated with photographs taken by Vince’s partner, Nick Pattinson, who captured remarkable shots.
- In 1997, the award was given to Alan Walker and Pat Shipman, who co-wrote The Wisdom of Bones.
Anthropocene
Anthropocene was a proposed term for the present geological epoch (from the time of the Industrial Revolution onwards), during which humanity has begun to have a significant impact on the environment.
Meaning of Epoch – a particular period of time in history
What is Anthropology?
