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Self Comes to Mind: Constructing the Conscious Brain by Antonio Damasio - review

Steven Rose examines a neurologist's attempt to explain why we have conscious selvesConsciousness has become a hot topic for brain scientists. Once, we were content to leave the interminable mind/brain...

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Lynn Margulis obituary

Evolutionary biologist whose innovative work has become mainstreamLynn Margulis, who has died following a stroke aged 73, was a world-renowned evolutionary biologist, professor of geoscience at the...

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Mind Wars by Jonathan D Moreno – review

How the military want to control our brainsScience long ago struck its Faustian bargain with the military. From Archimedes and Leonardo to the physicists of the Manhattan project, Vietnam's electronic...

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London's Shard opens to fanfare, but not for the common man

Copland tune inaugurates western Europe's tallest building, but its luxury hotel and £30m apartments show how exclusive it isTwelve laser beams will radiate from the 310m-high pinnacle of London's...

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Drone Warfare: Killing by Remote Control by Medea Benjamin – review

A well-researched, angry book that is also a call to armsThroughout history, some forms of war and weaponry have been viewed with greater horror than others. Even ancient civilisations tried to codify...

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Stephen Hawking's boycott hits Israel where it hurts: science | Hilary Rose...

What really winds up Israel is that this rejection comes from a famous scientist, and it is science that drives its economy, prestige and military strengthStephen Hawking's decision to boycott the...

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Intuition Pumps and Other Tools for Thinking by Daniel C Dennett – review

The American philosopher Daniel C Dennett leads us through his ultra-Darwinian approach to what it means to be humanThere's something refreshingly hands-on about American philosophers. Not for them the...

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Mindwise by Nicholas Epley – review

You think you know what your friends or colleagues make of you? Wrong! How should we think about the minds of others?What to expect of a book with such a title? In this neuroscience-obsessed age, the...

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Truly Human Enhancement by Nicholas Agar and Humanity Enhanced by Russell...

Living to 120, sure, but 500? – it can't be right. Steven Rose on designer babies, smart drugs and the ethics of becoming superhumanFantasies of human enhancement have a long history, from early myths...

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The Ancient Origins of Consciousness by Todd Feinberg and Jon Mallatt review...

An evolutionary history shows how consciousness is key to human survivalWhat does it mean to say that I am conscious? For sure, consciousness is a protean term, with multiple meanings. Among its...

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A Day in the Life of the Brain by Susan Greenfield review – a new approach to...

Greenfield considers the brain processes behind the experience of a single day – as ‘you’ work, engage in fantasies, walk the dog, and so on. But is it an exercise worth doing?Yet another book about...

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Governing from the skies by Thomas Hippler review – drones and dystopia

This global history of aerial bombing considers the consequences of a century of death dropped from planesOn 1 November 1911, during Italy’s campaign to capture Libya from the Ottomans, Giulio Gavotti,...

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Letters: Tam Dalyell obituary

Richard Norton-Taylor writes: I first got to know Tam Dalyell well during the 1982 Falklands war and his tenacious questioning of Margaret Thatcher’s government over the circumstances surrounding the...

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From Bacteria to Bach and Back by Daniel C Dennett review – consciousness...

There is no ‘hard problem’ and consciousness is no more mysterious than gravity, Dennett claims in this study of the evolution of mindsDon’t be fooled by the title; there is little about bacteria, only...

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Growth and Form by D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson review – centenary of a...

Honeycombs, snail shells, a tiger’s stripes … The celebrated study of how physical forces and mathematical laws affect natural selection has just been reissuedAsked to name the most significant book...

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Letters: Sir Patrick Bateson obituary

Steven Rose writes: I first met Pat Bateson in the late 60s, as we shared a mutual interest in the brain mechanisms involved in learning and memory. We became firm friends, and it was the start of a...

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Is there still time to save the Open University from slow strangulation? |...

Plans to cut staff and courses threaten the OU’s specific mission of making tertiary education open to allThe report that the Open University plans to axe more than a third of its courses and slash its...

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Letter: Tim Halliday obituary

When Tim Halliday joined us in the biology department (as it was then called) at the Open University in 1977, he brought with him not only his love of all things amphibian but also a passionate...

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The Scientific Attitude by Lee McIntyre review – a defence against denial,...

In a world of ‘alternative facts’ respect for evidence must lie at the heart of any scientific endeavourWhat is the scientific attitude? In 1941, at the lowest point of the war, the developmental...

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Richard Lewontin obituary

Pioneering biologist and geneticist whose research showed the emptiness of traditional biological concepts of raceThe American scientist Richard Lewontin, who has died aged 92, was intimately involved...

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