Profile Books has snapped up Proof: The Uncertain Science of Certainty by Adam Kucharski.
Publishing director Cecily Gayford and editorial director Izzy Everington acquired world all-language rights from Peter Tallack at Curious Minds, and Profile has sold US rights to Basic Books. Profile Books will publish Proof in March 2025.
“How do we know what’s true,” the synopsis says. “The author of the bestselling The Rules of Contagion [Wellcome Collection] searches over 2,000 years of history and science to find out. In Proof, statistician and epidemiologist Adam Kucharski spans science, politics, philosophy and economics, to explore how truth emerges — and why it falters.”
Everington said: “Proof will be Adam’s third book with Profile and his most ambitious yet. In exploring how truth and facts emerge across history and across disciplines, Proof is a book that speaks to that deeply human pursuit to better understand the world around us, and it is one that I am very excited and proud to be publishing.”
Kucharski is an associate professor at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, a TED senior fellow, and winner of the 2016 Rosalind Franklin Award Lecture and the 2012 Wellcome Trust Science Writing Prize. “Throughout my career, I’ve faced the urgency of separating truth from fiction, whether investigating pandemics or confronting misinformation,” he said. “But what tools do we need to show something is true? How do we convince others? And, crucially, what happens when these methods fail? These are questions that span science, medicine, business, law, policy and more. In an era where truth feels ever more fragmented and certainty ever more elusive, I’m excited to share Proof as the essential guide to how we got here — and where we’re going next.”
