Simon Singh lists gambling as a hobby. But he's no risk-taker. Forget slot machines. For Singh, it's blackjack and poker, memory and counting cards - the science of beating the bank. Singh lives science, even through his hobby. His friends are scientists and science journalists. He reads science books for pleasure, and his job is explaining science to the uninitiated. He's even put on a live show, Theatre of Science, in London's West End, during which a million-volt lightning bolt was created for the first time on a theatre stage. 'Science and technology are all around us and so many issues relate to them,' he says. 'Stem cell research, genetically modified food, climate change ... The more people understand science and maths the better positioned they are to make judgments about their family's health, policies they may vote on - all kinds of things.' Singh, 41, was born in Britain to migrants from Punjab in India. At the age of nine, he decided he wanted to be a scientist - specifically, a nuclear physicist - and made considerable progress towards that goal. He studied physics at the Imperial College of London, then did a PhD at Cambridge University, during which time he spent three years at the European Centre for Particle Physics in Geneva. But he decided he didn't have what it took to be a great scientist and a pioneer. 'It was a question of looking at what you like to do and what someone will pay you to do - also what you are uniquely qualified to do. 'I thought that, in addition to my research skills, I could interpret science for people and amuse people, and that's something that maybe not too many people can do.' He joined the BBC's science department as a producer and director in 1990 and is now regarded as one of the world's leading communicators on science subjects. In 1996, Singh directed the Bafta-winning and Emmy-nominated documentary Fermat's Last Theorem, about a puzzle that had baffled mathematicians for three centuries and the shy, British-born Princeton University professor who solved it. He then wrote a book on the subject that was translated into 25 languages and became a No 1 best-seller in Britain - the only book about maths to have done so. It has sold half a million copies, and was hailed as a readily understandable account of complex maths concepts usually incomprehensible to the lay person. Similar praise has been lavished on subsequent works such as The Code Book, in which he immerses him-self in the world of cryptography and secret communications, and Big Bang, which tackles the origin of the universe. Singh becomes so engrossed in his subjects that, as a result of his research, he moves from knowing the bare bones of a subject to becoming an expert on it. Take cryptography, for instance: 'I didn't know much, but I had enough to do a complete outline. Now I know enough to get to a cryptography conference on the Gold Coast and talk to 800 security experts.' The book led to a five-part television series in Britain. Singh says he spends up to three years researching his subjects. 'I'm lucky I can do it full time,' he says. 'Ninety per cent of writers have a university job. Each book gives me a cushion while I write the next one. I don't have to start writing straight away.' Singh waits until a topic excites him. The idea for his latest book on the origin of the universe came from a conversation with someone in an airport. 'They were bored and curious and didn't know anything about it, and it struck me they should.' Singh realised no one had written about the history of the Big Bang theory along with the science. Grabbing a piece of paper in the airport he started scribbling. Within a few hours he had an outline. The story begins with the theoretical foundations laid by Albert Einstein and his general theory of relativity. 'Unless I have a beginning, middle and end I don't start,' he says. 'There are some science writers who are great scientists in their own right and they write about evolution or cosmology. Every time I write a book I start from scratch. I try to remember the bits that confuse me.' Explaining the confusing bits in layman's language and peppering his explanations with anecdotes - even personal snippets about the scientists whose work he's discussing - is the key to Singh's success. 'I meet people on the train who say, 'The reason I'm studying maths is because I read your book as a teenager'.' People who hated maths and science at school pack his lectures, buy his books and listen to him on the radio. He's just signed up for a third, five-episode BBC radio series on maths. Singh knows how important it is to hold people's attention. When visiting schools, he often takes along an original, code-breaking Enigma machine from the second world war and encourages students to try it to 'see real history'. He even talks about games of chance in some of his lectures. 'Blackjack is pure maths,' he says. 'By card counting you can gain an edge - but it's hard work.' Big Bang: The Most Important Scientific Discovery of All Time and Why You Need to Know About It by Simon Singh (Perennial, $130)
