Michael Banks is the news editor of Physics World magazine. He writes and edits various articles, records podcasts, and narrates videos. He has contributed to Nature, BBC Focus, and Science Uncovered, and appeared on BBC Radio 4 and at science festivals. Michael holds a PhD in condensed matter physics.

"This is one of those brilliant books where there is an amazing fact on every page showing just how much science underpins our everyday world. I particularly liked the way that the fundamental physics being explored in high-tech laboratories around the world often ends up elucidating seemingly simple questions about cats, dogs and even football."

"Physics Around the Clock explains, in an easy and engaging way, how, from morning till night, we're surrounded by fascinating physics that hides in plain sight."

"Physics is all around us-even as we go about our seemingly mundane daily lives, as Michael Banks ably demonstrates in Physics Around the Clock. Whether it's your morning coffee, daily commute, walking the dog, cooking dinner, playing Monopoly or Texas Hold 'Em, or debating whether it's better for gunslingers to draw first while watching classic spaghetti Westerns, a physicist somewhere has studied it. And Banks is here to explain it all to you in a truly compelling read."

"A thoroughly enjoyable collection of physical curiosities that fill our everyday life from the volcano-like electrical activities of coffee grounds to bunching buses. Delightful."

Publisher: Prometheus Books

Pub date: 2026-04-07

Length: 304 pages