MY FAMILY have been farmers for generations in Punjab. In 1938, my grandfather left his village of Thakarki and settled in Somerset in the southwest of England. In 1950 my parents emigrated to Taunton. A few years later they moved to Wellington. Barely, five miles from where I was born was Milverton, the birthplace of Thomas Young, a polymath who made breakthroughs in wave theory of light. He studied at Emmanuel College Cambridge. Years later, I attended the same college. Of course, I failed to make any significant contributions to the foundations of physics. At the age of nine I declared I wanted to be a nuclear physicist. Bizarrely, I do remember the moment. Although I considered being a glam rocker and a footballer as well, I stuck to my scientific ambitions. I have always loved watching TV. Early 1970s (post-Apollo era) was great for time for scientists on the box; Patrick Moore, James Burke, Carl Sagan, Magnus Pyke and Heinz Wolff.

I started writing through television—when one makes TV programmes you start by writing an outline, a script and narration. So, I began to learn about structure, balance and plot. Later when I thought about writing a book, all the things I learnt on television were transferred into the books. Whether it’s TV, radio, lecturing, writing books or articles, the principles are the same. You have to understand the subject, be concerned about the subject matter and know how to tell a story. I knew about Fermat’s Last Theorem as I had written a programme about it. I was already familiar with the idea. One day, I realised that code breaking was an important subject, one that was both historical and topical and that nobody had written about it. The idea just hit me. I think that it is great to have some idea of what you want to do with your life. I was lucky that I realised that my future lay in science, so I knew where to concentrate my efforts. I studied A-levels in mathematics, physics and chemistry. I planned to study physics at Imperial College, University of London, and thanks to my teachers I managed the grades. I had originally applied to Cambridge University, but they rejected me. In hindsight, it was probably one of the best things that ever happened to me. Before starting my physics degree at Imperial College, I spent a year at GEC Hirst Research Centre, Wembley. It was an interesting year as it helped me to grow and realise that my future did not rest in industrial R&D.

Instead, I aimed for a career in academia. While working for my degree, a few more serendipitous events helped me and set me on my current course. The first time I wrote was for student newspapers and newsletters—namely Schrodinger’s Cat and Otto—for the physics department. I did not write with an intention of being either a writer or a journalist, but it turned out to be my stepping stone. After my second year of studying physics, I spent the summer at the University of Delaware, US, as a part of a student exchange programme. Also between Imperial College and my PhD, I spent a couple of months teaching at Doon School, India. I taught in order to live in India. My teaching experience at Doon proved to be invaluable, as I learned how to explain scientific concepts with clarity to people unfamiliar to a concept. My PhD in experimental particle physics was based at Cambridge, but I spent most of my three years working at the European Centre for Particle Physics (CERN), Geneva. I worked as part of the UA2 collaboration, which had previously won the Nobel Prize for discovering the W and Z bosons. CERN has a network of ‘accelerators’, which smashed particles together, (matter and antimatter travelling almost at the speed of light). In the case of my experiment, we were colliding protons and antiprotons, in the hope that the intense energy from the impact would create other particles.

There is a particle called the top quark, and we hoped that the collisions would create some of these hitherto unseen particles. We ran our experiment for a couple of years, without success. Nevertheless, by its absence, I could deduce something about the top quark, so I was still able to complete my thesis. (Incidentally, the top quark would be eventually discovered at America’s Fermi Laboratory in the early 1990s, years after I finished my PhD.)

My three years at Cambridge and CERN were challenging and stimulating. I met people who were on a different planet when it came to understanding and researching physics—it would be they who would go on to make their names as pioneers. As for me, it was time to change. I had always enjoyed talking about and explaining science, so I took the decision to move towards a career in journalism and science communication. Since I have always loved television and felt that this was the most influential medium, so I started applying for a job at the BBC. It helps not being the brightest person in the world. I seem to have a talent for interpreting science for a lay person and for other scientists.

When I finished my PhD, I knew I was not the brightest person and would never get the Nobel. If I could not be a physicist, I would write about it—I decided. The most satisfying aspect of writing is learning new things. I did not know about code breaking before writing The Code Book, and now I know lots of stuff. While writing Fermat’s Last Theorem I explored a new mathematical world that I had somehow missed during my education. And right now I am learning about cosmology. It is fun.

Turning my hand to alternative medicine, I also published a book called Trick Or Treatment? that included a chapter on the history of chiropractic therapy (manipulation of the spine to realign the back), which was invented by grocer and healer Daniel David Palmer in 1890s America. Inspired by the ‘miraculous’ recovery of a deaf man whom he treated by manipulating his back, Palmer said that 95 per cent of all diseases are caused by trapped vertebrae. Suddenly, the therapy (comes from the Greek word for hand) became a near religion. Palmer practised vigorous ‘racking’ on his own children, which led to him being arrested. Palmer’s ideas caught on. In 1925, the British Chiropractic Association (BCA) was set up and clinics opened specialising in the treatment. Chiropractors were able to ‘cure’ ailments. Recently, the association claimed children suffering from colic, eating problems, ear infections and asthma can be helped with chiropractic therapy. Though General Medical Council and Royal College of General Practitioners advocate its use—especially for back pain—scientists say there is no evidence that chiropractic spinal manipulation is better than other forms of back massage.

This has led to widespread debate, with some doctors refusing to refer patients to chiropractors, claiming it can even cause harm. I always questioned whether chiropractors could achieve the results they claimed. Later, in a column for the Guardian, I wrote that the therapies were ‘bogus’—and trouble began. I was slapped the biggest libel suit in the history of Britain. Eventually, I managed to win the case and today there is a law that makes libel charges against individuals, a bit more difficult task to perform. Hopefully, the law works in favour of scientific minds trying to put their viewpoints forward.

But getting back to the act of writing a book—it all begins with an angle. Do not ask me what the angle is. I do not look for ideas, they just seem to materialise. The first thing after the angle is to find a structure; a beginning, a middle, a twist (?) and an end. What are the chapter breakdowns? And then I have to define a schedule because writing a book may seem like a huge task, unless you break it down. Then it is less intimidating. If you think—I want to write the first section of the first chapter, and I want to write it in two weeks—that seems like a reasonable amount of work to do.

That’s not too frightening. And in order to stick to the schedule, it is important not to get choked with too much to do. I can not afford to spend a couple of months trying to understand or explain a particular idea. If a problem seems unsolvable even after a couple of months, I just move on and come back to it when the first draft is finished.