Books
Tremors in the Blood
Murder, Obsession and the Birth of the Lie Detector
Out on April 14, 2022 (Mudlark/HarperCollins)
Henry Wilkens burst through the doors of the emergency room covered in his wife’s blood. But was he a grieving husband, or a ruthless killer who’d conspired with bandits to have her murdered?
To find out, the San Francisco police turned to technology, and a new machine that had just been invented in Berkeley by a rookie detective, a visionary police chief, and a teenage magician with a showman’s touch.
John Larson, Gus Vollmer and Leonarde Keeler hoped the lie detector would make the justice system fairer – but the flawed device soon grew too powerful for them to control. It poisoned their lives, turned fast friends into bitter enemies, and as it conquered America and the world, it transformed our relationship with the truth in ways that are still being felt.
As new forms of lie detection gain momentum in the present day, Tremors in the Blood reveals the incredible truth behind the creation of the polygraph, through gripping true crime cases featuring explosive gunfights, shocking twists and high-stakes courtroom drama.
Touching on psychology, technology and the science of the truth, Tremors in the Blood is a vibrant, atmospheric thriller, and a warning from history: be careful what you believe.
Praise for Tremors in the Blood
“A wonderful book … tells the story of the lie detector, from the first, gripping murder case for which it was conceived, up to its use today in the justice system.”
The Guardian
“Tremors in the Blood, a cautionary tale about the limits of technology and the fallibility of humans, is as dramatic as any thriller”.
The Times
“Certainly demonstrates how easily the polygraph can be manipulated…deploys its twists and maintains suspense with some skill….Katwala tells his various tales with admirable lucidity….rich with colourful incidental detail.”
The Telegraph
"A gripping and densely reported account of a little-known period of history, with implications for how we understand science to this day. I was hooked."
Sirin Kale, feature writer for The Guardian
"Katwala manages to bring history alive in this riveting delve back into the archives, placing you right at the heart of one of the most consequential – and controversial – inventions in criminal history."
Chris Stokel-Walker, author of TikTok Boom and YouTubers
"A gripping, forensically detailed account that reads more like a mystery than history."
Angela Saini, author of Superior and Inferior
“With a cinematic narrative style that often reads more like a thriller than a work of history…Katwala charts how the (polygraph) machine tore apart the lives of the men who invented it, and explores how it led to the deaths of many more who failed to pass its test.”
New Statesman
“A thrilling, page-turning near-novelisation of the development of what we now know as the polygraph…Katwala’s meticulous archival research, centred around two high-profile US murder cases – those of Henry Wilkens and Joseph Rappaport – is worthy of any thriller.”
The Spectator
The Athletic Brain
How Neuroscience is Revolutionising Sport
August 2016 (Simon & Schuster)
Sport changes your brain. The minds of elite athletes can pull off feats of anticipation and co-ordination that amateurs would find impossible. The athletic brain has been trained through hours and hours of practice - years of sweat and toil. But what if there were a shortcut to training your brain?
Cognitive training tools offer the tantalising possibility of breaking the '10,000-hour rule'. Top-level athletes and teams are increasingly tapping into new knowledge of the brain to develop tools and techniques that can offer a shortcut to sporting success, or push the boundaries of performance beyond its current limits. Increasingly, these tools are becoming available to the ordinary amateur, revolutionising the ways in which anyone can improve their skills.
Based on interviews with top athletes and the scientists working at the cutting edge of our knowledge, Amit Katwala provides a fascinating insight into the possibilities that are becoming open to us all. He takes us to see how Borussia Dortmund's 'Footbonaut' and touchscreen-based games in the NFL have been achieving excellent results. As with bestsellers such as The Chimp Paradox and Bounce, by the end of this book, readers will look at sporting performance in a new light, and be able to apply these insights to their own lives.
The Athletic Brain has been translated into Mandarin and Russian, and was featured in The Observer, the Telegraph, the i paper, and on BBC Radio 2, Radio 4 and Radio 5 Live, among others.
Quantum Computing
How It Works, And Why It Could Change the World (WIRED Guides)
June, 2020 (Random House Business)
Quantum computing has been hailed as a technological game-changer. But what precisely is it and what is its true potential?
In this superbly insightful, one-stop guide WIRED journalist Amit Katwala tells you everything you need to know about the next computer revolution. He explains the highly complex science that lies behind it. He describes the competing efforts of the likes of Google, Microsoft and Chinese companies Tencent and Alibaba to create a viable quantum computer, and the different routes they have taken to meet the immense technical challenges involved. He considers the technology's potential application in spheres as diverse as medicine, cyber security and clean energy. And he addresses the fundamental question: how close are we to seeing quantum computers become a widespread reality.
This book has also been published in translation in Taiwan, and was featured in The Financial Times, Physics World, and Custom PC magazine, among others.