Simon Winchester explores topics from the urbane to the catastrophic in his bestselling nonfiction books, which include The Professor and the Madman, an intriguing behind-the-scenes story of the writing of the Oxford English Dictionary, and Krakatoa: The Day the World Exploded, August 27, 1883. The subject of his latest book, Joseph Needham, was a British biochemist best known for his work on the history of Chinese science