Michael Gross, born in 1963, began studing chemical engineering in Karlsruhe, but moved to chemistry at the univeristies of Marburg and Regensburg. After his Ph.D. in physical biochemistry he worked seven years at the Oxford Centre for Molecular Science in the field of protein folding, including studies of Alzheimers and Parkinsons diseases. Since 1993 he started with science journalism and wrote many popular science books (Life on the Edge, Travels to the Nanoworld, Light and Life, Astrobiology), some of them in German and English language. He is now writer in science at the Birkbeck College, London, and a regular contributor to several prestigeous journals and magazins like Chemistry World, Current Biology, Chemistry and Industry, The Independent, Nature, New Scientist, Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Süddeutsche Zeitung and many more.