This is the website of Mark Brake, author, broadcaster, futurist, and communicator of science.

Mark is a freelance academic, working out of the UK, who writes popular science books, and has done science communication work in film, television, print, and radio on five continents.  He has communicated science for NASA, Seattle’s Science Fiction Museum, the BBC, the Royal Institution, the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Nature, the British Council, the British Film Institute, Sky Movies, and the National Science Museum of Thailand.

This summer, Mark is doing an author tour of the UK, in association with The Reading Agency’s Summer Reading Challenge, MacMillan, and BBC Learning.

You can find out more about Mark’s other work in About.

‘Space Hoppers’ Summer Reading Tour

Mark and his colleague, Jon Chase, are this summer embarked on a UK tour to promote The Summer Reading Challenge, in association with The Reading Agency and MacMillan, the publishers of the Space Hoppers book.  Events in theatres and libraries are still running throughout the UK, from Perth in Scotland, down to Poole, in Dorset.  Any enquiries are warmly welcomed and can be directed through our Contact page.

Space Hoppers Book, Out Now!

Mark has been recently involved in a new television program, and spin-off book, for the BBC.

The series, Space Hoppers, is a brand new seven x 30-minutes interplanetary adventure in which intrepid travellers investigate worlds beyond our planet and try to find out exactly what you would need to do to take a holiday in outer space, do a bit of space hopping.  They will delve into the wonders of the Solar System, blending global adventures with explosive experiments, and quirky animation with state-of-the-art CGI.

Each episode explores a holiday-related theme, from holidays in the Sun to volcano-spotting. The search will take in extreme environments, wild weather and the best places in the Solar System to ‘enjoy’ a bit of snow and ice.  Science rapper Jon Chase appears throughout the series, directing the explosive experiments, and performing a specially commissioned rap for each episode.

Mark, who acted as science advisor to the program, has also written the spin off title for the series. The book helps explore the Sun, ice, volcanoes, comets, extreme weather, extreme distances and water on Earth and in the Solar System. The book is also packed with experiments that can be done at home.

2010 is Year of Science at the BBC.  Timed to coincide with the Royal Society’s 350thanniversary, Space Hoppers is part of the recently launched year-long series of programmes and activities in a celebration of science.

Also Out Now

Mark had two new books published late last Autumn by MacMillan.  Both books are more academic in nature, and both can be bought through Amazon.  The books are Revolution in Science: How Galileo and Darwin Changed Our World, and Introducing Science Communication

Book Project: Galileo and Darwin

‘Different Engines’

Mark’s first book, Different Engines: How Science Drives Fiction and Fiction Drives Science, written with Neil Hook, was published in 2007 by MacMillan Science. It’s the first popular science book to explore the relationship between science and science fiction. Read more about Different Engines in Books.