Jean-Pierre Rogel is a reporter for DZcouverte, a popular science program on Radio-Canada, the French-language counterpart to CBC-TV. He also writes for QuZbec Science magazine. Born and educated in France, he immigrated to Canada in the mid-1970s and has been living in Montreal since. It is his fourth book. Nigel Spencer, the translator, has won two GovernorGeneral Awards for his translations of Marie-Claire Blais.