UCL professor’s masterpiece wins Zoological Society of London Award

Award-winning science writer and geneticist Professor Steve Jones (UCL Biology) has added another prize to his growing collection. Professor Jones's latest book - Coral: A Pessimist in Paradise - has won the Zoological Society of London/Thomson Reuters Award for Communicating Zoology. Professor Jones received the award at a presentation ceremony at the society's London headquarters on Tuesday 16 June. His book links science with history, politics and myth, taking in Captain Cook, Gauguin on Tahiti and atomic bombs on Bikini Atoll. It considers chaos, tsunamis and genetic disease on desert islands, and compares the ancient trade of coral for diamonds with today's oil industry. Uncovering some of the truths that coral reveals about Earth's chequered past and uncertain future, it illustrates how its fate is a warning that the human race, too, may be close to the point of no return. Professor Jones said: 'I'm pleased indeed to be honoured by the Zoological Society of London - after all, Queen Victoria herself when she visited them in 1842 was less than amused: 'The Orang Outang is too wonderful - he is frightfully, and painfully, and disagreeably human'.