John Emsley author of The Consumer's Good Chemical Guide: A jargon-free guide to the chemicals of everyday life, was awarded the L10,000 Rhone-Poulenc science book prize. The book was chosen out of 92 entries which included big names like Arthur C. Clarke The Snows of Olympus and Steven Pinker The language instinct. This is also one of those rare occasions that a non-academic books has won this prize. According to the chairman of the judges Simon Jenkins Emsley's book is the best read for ordinary non-scientific person.

The most amazing pop-up science book written by Jay Young was adjudged the best junior science book. Young ended up writing this book after an initial interest in origami. With every turn of the page experiments pop up in his book. Says Young, "I became convinced that conventional text books weren't the only way to learn about science.