In this short film – shot by Podularity’s George Miller after he’d interviewed Marcus Chown for our Faber Podcast – the author of We Need to Talk About Kelvin and Afterglow of Creation (now reissued in a handsome new edition) responds to the question first posed by Enrico Fermi – the Italian physicist who developed the first nuclear reactor – about the apparent absence of extraterrestrial life: “Where is everybody?”.

‘I am constantly amazed at how much stranger science is than science fiction.’ - Marcus Chown

Marcus Chown’s books include The Never-Ending Days of Being Dead, Quantum Theory Cannot Hurt You (which the Guardian called a ‘limousine among popular science vehicles’ (!)), and now We Need to Talk about Kelvin. He has the great knack of being able to make science both popular and fun – which is probably why he’s recently been appearing on the BBC4 show ‘It’s Only a Theory’:

His new book We Need to Talk about Kelvin is in shops now, and to mark publication he’s embarked on what we think is a first for a Faber author – a guest-blogging tour. Here’s where you can find him:

22 November: Chez Aspie – D J Kirkby’s Blog

1 December: Top 4 Bonkers things about the universe | physics.org

2 December: David Maybury | Blog » Marcus Chown | making your head hurt with logic

6 December: Sue Guiney: Writing Life

7 December: » Interview with Marcus Chown ~ We’re talking about Kelvin

9 December: Gaskella

11 December: The Book of Lost Nights

15 December: teen librarian

15 January: Super Collider Weekly

[Many more legs in pipeline ...]

And when he’s not ‘on tour’, you can always find Marcus on Twitter.