Robert Macfarlane on The Snow Geese by William Fiennes
Fiennes’s travels across the American interior not only open our eyes to the migratory journey of snow geese, but also vividly capture the lives of the places and people he encountersMy favourite pages...
View ArticleIvor Grattan-Guinness obituary
Energetic historian of mathematics and logicWhen Ivor Grattan-Guinness, who has died aged 73 of heart failure, became interested in the history of mathematics in the 1960s, it was an area of study...
View ArticleBooks of the year 2014
The twenty-three books this scientist read this year, offered as a guide to the interested and the waryIt is New Year’s Day and I should be looking forward but I’ve been busy – and delayed by the flu –...
View ArticleBooks in 2015: the essential literary calendar
New novels by Kazuo Ishiguro, Jonathan Franzen and Toni Morrison; film versions of Suite Française and Alan Bennett’s Lady in the Van; the 150th birthdays of Alice in Wonderland and WB Yeats – we look...
View ArticleNew books party: the BES edition | @GrrlScientist
Thanks to the British Ecological Society, I am sharing some scholarly and academic-type books about all sorts of interesting biological topics, including ecological speciation, emerging infections,...
View ArticleCosta biography award 2014: H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
Read the opening pages of the winning memoir, describing the author’s attempts to train a goshawk as a way of coping with her grief for her father, described by judges as ‘unique and beautiful book...
View ArticleFlicker: Your Brain on Movies by Jeffrey Zacks – how Hollywood has changed...
An actor on a screen throws a punch. We, watching, duck. What’s going on? This is a revelatory guide to the neuroscience of filmThese days, human beings are nowhere more at home than in front of a...
View ArticleNew books party: Books that arrived recently | @GrrlScientist
This week, I share two books with you; a readable collection of essays written by the foremost authorities in neuroscience about the future of the brain, and a lovely book of poetry and art that...
View ArticleThe Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins by Hal Whitehead and Luke Rendell –...
Do cetaceans have a sense of right and wrong? Yes. And religion? PerhapsOn my last visit to the Azores– those black volcanic islands set adrift in the middle of the Atlantic – the underwater...
View ArticleChurchill’s Bomb review – how Britain attempted to be first into the nuclear age
Graham Farmelo’s follow-up to The Strangest Man is a fascinating study packed with big charactersAfter two major 2014 books that featured “new insights” into Winston Churchill and those around him,...
View ArticleThe Teenage Brain review – a science-based bid to understand an ‘alien species’
A neuroscientist’s attempt to produce a parental study aid on teenagers is accessible and well-pacedOne unwanted side effect of parenting teenagers has persistently bothered me over the years, this...
View ArticleThe Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert review – ‘kill half of what you see’
A vivid and urgent warning about humanity’s effect on the rest of the planetIn 2002, the Nobel-winning scientist Paul Crutzen was at a meeting where the chairman kept using the term “Holocene” to...
View ArticleNew books party: books that arrived last week | @GrrlScientist
This week, I share three books with you; a compelling and engaging exploration of what nature does for Britain, a witty look at the many weird, wonderful and enchanting members of the animal kingdom,...
View ArticleNicholas Carr: 'Are we becoming too reliant on computers?'
The must subtle of our human skills remains well beyond the reach of programmers, but we must be wary of surrendering too much power to machinesAre humans necessary? The answer to that question would...
View ArticleDaniel J Levitin Q&A: ‘We’ve created more information in the past few years...
The author of The Organized Mind explains how naps, calendars and periods away from the internet can all help focus our mindThe Organized Mind extractWhat inspired you to write The Organized Mind?My...
View ArticleThe Brain’s Way of Healing: Stories of Remarkable Recoveries and Discoveries...
Can Parkinson’s be cured by walking, or blindness by ‘higher judo’? These cures and their emphasis on the patient’s willpower and moral fibre are, at best, bizarreA new spirit is taking hold of modern...
View ArticleOn my radar: Sam Harris’s cultural highlights
The neuroscientist, author and philosopher on the Tesla Model S, Brazilian jiujitsu and his fear that the machines will take over…Sam Harris is an American neuroscientist, author and philosopher. His...
View ArticleHelen Macdonald: the six books that made me
H Is for Hawk, which has won the Costa book of the year, portrays a writer in urgent dialogue with the natural world. Which were the books that opened her eyes to nature?Three months ago the fieldfares...
View ArticleThe story of computing - podcast
Tony Hey talks to Ian Sample about the Computing Universe, his book with Gyuri Papay, on the evolution of computers Continue reading...
View Article'Smear for smear' campaign leaves many uncomfortable | Vicki Jamieson
The current #smearforsmear campaign may be well intended but risks overlooking and even trivialising the seriousness of the situation for many women. Let’s change the way we do this It’s Cervical...
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