Marcus Chown is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. Formerly a radio astronomer at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, he is now cosmology consultant of the weekly science magazine New Scientist. Marcus's first popular science book, Afterglow of Creation - runner-up for the prestigious Rhone-Poulenc Prize - was published to much acclaim in 1994. The Magic Furnace, Marcus's second book, was published in Britain in 1999. In Japan it was chosen as one of the Books of the Year by Asahi Shimbun, the world's biggest newspaper and, in the UK, the Daily Mail called it 'a dizzy page-turner with all the narrative devices you'd expect to find in Harry Potter.' His third book, The Universe Next Door, was published in 2002. 'An exuberant book - a parallel universe where science is actually fun,' wrote the Independent. Marcus lives in London with his wife, Karen.