Eric Scerri was educated at the Universities of London, Cambridge and Southampton. He then obtained a PhD in the History & Philosophy of Chemistry from King's College, London. After postdoctoral fellowships at the London School of Economics and Caltech Scerri joined the UCLA faculty in 2000, where he teaches chemistry, history & philosophy of science.

He is the author of three award-winning books with Oxford University Press, namelyThe Periodic Table, Its Story and Its Significance,A Very Short Introduction to the Periodic Tableand most recentlyA Tale of Seven Elements. In addition Scerri has published two books of his own collected research papers on the history & philosophy of chemistry and as well as co-editing three further books on the philosophy of chemistry. His books have been translated into fifteen languages, and he is currently working on two new books. He is also is the founder and editor-in- chief of the journalFoundations of Chemistry.

Scerri's research includes topics such as the extent to which chemistry is reduced to quantum mechanics and the historical and philosophical significance of the periodic system.He has appeared on radio and television and at lectures in countries all round the world and has published numerous articles in professional journals as well as more popular magazines includingScientific American, American Scientist, New Scientistetc.

Lee McIntyre is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University and an Instructor in Ethics at Harvard Extension School. He holds a B.A. from Wesleyan University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. He has taught philosophy at Colgate University, Boston University, Tufts Experimental College, Simmons College, and Harvard Extension School. He is Coordinating Editor of the journalFoundations ofChemistry. Formerly Executive Director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, McIntyre has also served as a policy advisor to the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard and as an Associate Editor in the Research Department of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He is the author ofLaws and Explanation in the Social Sciences(Westview Press, 1996) andDark Ages: The Case for a Science of Human Behavior(MIT Press, 2006), which won the Silver Award for Philosophy inForeWord Magazine'sBook of the Year Awards for 2006. He is the co-editor (with Michael Martin) ofReadings in the Philosophy of Social Science(MIT Press, 1994) andPhilosophy of Chemistry(Springer, 2006) (with Eric Scerri and Davis Baird). He has also written numerous philosophical essays that have appeared inSynthese, Philosophy of the Social Sciences, Teaching Philosophy, Perspectives on Science, Biology and Philosophy, Critica,andTheory and Decision, as well as articles that have appeared inThe Humanist, The Times Higher Education SupplementandThe Chronicle of Higher Education.