Product Description Simon Mills had never actually planned to become a scientist. But he hadn't managed to avoid the eventuality either. As with most things in his life, Simon's drift into academia just sort of happened, the result of a series of coincidences and twists of fate over which he seemed to exert minimal control, regardless of whatever alternative path he might have preferred. So, instead of spending his early twenties enjoying a slow, predictable existence in the English countryside of his youth, Simon finds himself first as a reluctant post-graduate student in London, working for a quintessentially eccentric professor, and then - and much to his chagrin - propelled across the Atlantic to the USA, to pursue some harebrained experiment or other. All in the name of science. Simon lurches from one unsolicited career opportunity to another, finally getting himself caught up in an academic political battle going on half a world, and a whole scientific dimension, away from his own. Not that distance or relevant experience appear to be factors when it comes to Simon Mills' vocation. It seems fortune just won't leave him alone. From the Publisher In the tradition of British academic satire, from Kingsley Amis and Tom Sharpe to Malcolm Bradbury and David Lodge, one theme had been consistent: the protagonists hailed from the literary and liberal arts. Now, in Bubble Chamber, it's the turn of physical scientists to come in for some ridicule. Bubble Chamber is the story of what can happen when the virtuous pursuit of knowledge collides dramatically with human nature. It tracks the journey of a newcomer to this world of conflicting interests. A graduate student just entering the final year of a PhD in chemical physics, Simon Mills is catapulted into the pressure cooker of international research science. Naïve, honest and utterly convinced of his own mediocrity, Simon finds himself landing one unsolicited opportunity after another, on a path that propels him from the drizzle in London to tropical downpours in Florida, on a collision course with an academic political crisis happening a continent away and in a field supposedly quite distinct from his own. It would seem that fate has plans for Simon Mills. And success, wanted or not, just keeps on happening. About the Author SCH Thurston is a real scientist at a real university somewhere in America. When he isn't fighting academic political battles or trying to balance declining budgets, he can be found dabbling in a bit of actual research. Thurston is in the process of writing a second novel. Another academic satire, "Lem" is set in a regional university in small-town Australia. Without wanting to give too much away, the story blends space exploration with ecology and the 'green' zeitgeist, throws in a critique of public relations and media manipulation for good measure, and ends up with an utterly ridiculous take on how science is portrayed to the public at large. It is a satirical look at the interplay between journalists in the mainstream media and scientists in academic research. In Thurston's ill-considered opinion, both sides could probably do better.