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I write on a wide variety of topics from the broad perspective of the relationship between the arts and sciences. The aim is to break down the barriers between what the British scientist and novelist C. P. Snow identified half a century ago as the Two Cultures.
I am the author of The Story of Mathematics, published by Cassells, Princeton University Press and numerous foreign language editions. The book ia actually two books running in parallel; a general introduction to the history of mathematics and a visual history of the cultural representations of mathematics. I was also a contributing author to The Science Book (Cassells), a beautifully illustrated journey through key scientific discoveries, and to the conference proceedings publishes as Matematica e Cultura (Springer Verlag).
Have lectured at The Science Museum, London, as well as at conferences in Venice and Bologna on mathematics and culture. In Venice I also had the great pleasure of translating for the director Peter Greenaway.
For my work in promoting mathematics to a wider audience I was awarded a COPUS grant by The Royal Society and British Association for the Advancement of Science, a UK Millennium Award and a Gulbenkian Foundation grant. I was also one of the key advisers to the government on what later became Maths Year 2000, with especial interest in promoting mathematical awareness outside of the traditional routes, such as within museums and art galleries as well as shopping malls. During that time I appeared on BBC Breakfast television to promote the initiative, as well as presenting a short series of programmes for the then BBC Education channel.
I have taught mathematics and physics in a number of schools and colleges, as well as at undergraduate level. Educated at Oxford University and The Open University, my PhD in the history of mathematics at Middlesex University was somehow submerged under the weight of other projects. It was, however, the catalyst for all that followed.