Quantum Leaps: 100 Scientists Who Changed the World

Quantum Leaps tells the history of scientific discovery, from the astronomical calculations of the Ancient Greeks to Tim Berners-Lee's creation of the internet.

Jon Balchin’s association with famous scientists extends beyond merely writing about them. He grew up in Issac Newton country. As a boy, he fished in the English village where the great physicist spent his childhood. In his teens, Jon attended the same historic grammar school in Grantham, Lincolnshire where Newton had studied more than three centuries earlier. The scientist’s mischievous boyhood signature remains carved in the school library’s stonework even today.

The author obtained his higher education at the University of London, the institution where Rosalind Franklin undertook her pioneering work into the structure of DNA. It was also whilst at university Jon cut his writing teeth, editing his college newspaper.

Jon graduated in 1997 and, after a period working for the American oil giant ExxonMobil, became a full-time writer in summer 2001. Science is his first full-length non-fiction text. Jon’s first novel is also nearing completion. His other published work includes poetry, as well as celebrity, science and travel features. The twenty-nine year old now lives in Surrey, England with his partner. Aside from writing, his passions are both playing and watching soccer, and travelling.