Category Archives: Science
Jeevan Vasagar – The Surge – The Race Against the Most Destructive Force in Nature
The one with the comedy dog The Surge is a trenchant analysis of the destructive power of water, a clarion call for recognising imminent dangers, and a panoramic narrative of human catastrophe and hubris. Some passages present as a cross … Continue reading
Paul Davies – Quantum 2.0: The Past, Present and Future of Quantum Physics
Reality doesn’t exist … probably … “Quantum physics is, without doubt, the most disruptive technological transformation in history.” “Really?” you say, “And what has quantum physics done for us?” Electronics. Computers. GPS. Hi-definition television. Smartphones. Lasers. Transistors. Lists of what quantum … Continue reading
Nicholas Wright – Warhead: How the Brain Shapes War and War Shapes the Brain
War. Huh! (Dum dum dum!) What’s our brain good for? “Human brains were not built for comfortable lives”, writes Nicholas Wright. Which rather raises the question, what were they built for? Well, among other things, “Every human brain is built … Continue reading
Thomas Levenson – So Very Small: How humans discovered germs, uncovered infectious diseases, and deluded themselves that we had conquered them
“A gentleman’s hands are [always] clean” Infectious diseases caused by bacteria have killed well over half of all humans who have ever lived on Earth. Historically, bacterial infections have started major pandemics such as the bubonic plague, which is estimated … Continue reading
Mike Jay – Free Radicals – How A Group of Romantic Experimenters Gave Birth to Psychedelic Science
I mean, you’ve got’a laugh, aintcha! Nitrous Oxide made “a picaresque journey from laboratory to lecture hall, variety palace to dentist’s chair.” A substance that does not exist in nature, it fairly blew the minds of the radical scientific community … Continue reading
Jerry Brotton – Four Points of the Compass: The Unexpected History of Direction
Where are we?!? Why deep South but far North? Why do some maps orient East or South, but never West? When did direction change from being where things came from to where we were going? Is the North Pole a … Continue reading
Posted in Cultural History, History, Philosophy, Politics, Science
Tagged Books, Hiagh, Podcast, science, Tim
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Robin Choudhury – The Beating Heart: The Art and Science of Our Most Vital Organ
What lies within? Every culture places the heart at the centre of personhood. It beats independently of our volition and when it stops we are dead. But if it were no more than a muscular pump it would hardly feature … Continue reading
Posted in Cultural History, History, Philosophy, Religion, Science
Tagged Books, Heart, Hiagh, Medicine, Podcast, science, Tim
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Marcus Chown – A Crack In Everything: How Black Holes Came in from the Cold and Took Cosmic Centre Stage
Black holes aren’t black! If there is one thing everybody knows about black holes it is that they are so dense that even light can’t escape. And yet, as Marcus Chown explains, black holes are some of the most prodigiously … Continue reading
Adrian Mackinder – Death and the Victorians
The origins of modern death Let’s face it – nobody did death like the Victorians. From Highgate Cemetery to the high drama of seances, from Jack the Ripper to Madame Blavatsky, from Waterloo Station to Brookwood Cemetery (there was an … Continue reading
Mike Jay – Psychonauts: Drugs and the Making of the Modern Mind
Don’t knock it ’till you’ve tried it! 😉 We are familiar with some of the names: William Burroughs in the 1950’s. Timothy Leary in the ‘60’s, Hunter S Thompson in the ‘70’s, those two guys who started the craze for … Continue reading
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Lawrence Krauss – The Known Unknowns: The Unsolved Mysteries of the Cosmos
Lawrence Krauss – Head Of Zeus – £20.00 Professor Lawrence Krauss has made major contributions to the field of theoretical physics and is one of the world’s great scientific communicators with a gift for illuminating complex ideas. His new book, … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy, Science
Tagged big bang, cosmos, einstein, infinity, quantam science, Schrodiger, science, time
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Rachel Gross – Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage
Rachel Gross – W W Norton – £19.99 There comes a time in every woman’s life when her body bumps up against the limits of human knowledge. In that moment, she sees herself as medicine has seen her: a mystery. … Continue reading
Dr Thomas Halliday – Otherlands: A World in the Making
Dr Thomas Halliday – Allen Lane – £20 Otherlands is a kind of travel book, traveling in time and across the globe, pushing back through the last half-billion years, showing you ever stranger beasts and more and more unfamiliar landscapes. … Continue reading
Prof Francesca Stavrakopoulou – God An Anatomy
Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou – Picador – £25 “Once upon a time, in the book of Genesis, humans were made in the visual image and likeness of God. It was a social, as well as a corporeal correspondence, celebrating both the … Continue reading
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Liz Williams – Miracles of Our Own Making: A History of Paganism
Liz Williams – Reaktion Books – £15.95 In her discussion of Stonehenge, Liz Williams writes: “There is a legend that Merlin simply flew the entire circle from Ireland, which I think we can rule out.” This is typical of her … Continue reading
Posted in Cultural History, History, Humour, Philosophy, Religion, Science
Tagged Aleister, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Club, coven, Crowley, druid, druids, Harry Potter, Hellfire, Liz, Madame Blavatsky, magic, occult, Pagan, Paganism, potions, religion, sourcery, spells, The Golden Dawn, warlock, wika, Williams, Witch, witchcraft, wizad
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Chris Kirkham – Decoherence: A Quantum Whodunnit
Chris Kirkham – Wallace Publishing – £8.99 You have to salute a debut novel that swaggers its ambition. Boasting the subtitle “A quantum whodunnit”, Decoherence duly boasts chapters called ‘Entanglement’, ‘Wave Function’, ‘Entropy’ and so on. Our hero, Sirius Peabody, … Continue reading
Ross Barnett – The Missing Lynx – The Past And Future Of Britain’s Lost Mammals
Ross Barnett – Bloomsbury £16.99 15,000 years ago, Britain was a very different place. The ice age was ending, and the country was lush and untamed. Sea level was then so low that Dogger Bank, in the North Sea, was … Continue reading
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Robert Elliott Smith – Rage Inside The Machine – The Prejudice of Algorithms and How to Stop The Internet Making Bigots of us All
Robert Elliott Smith – Bloomsbury £20.00 In the privacy of my complacency, I am pleased to count myself moderately bright – not Stephen Fry clever but, you know, able to tie my own shoelaces and read without moving my lips. … Continue reading
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Robert Newman – Neuropolis: A Brain Science Survival Guide
Since his Entirely Accurate Encyclopaedia of Evolution, Robert Newman’s entirely iconoclastic re-examination of the evidence has excited readers and listeners with its unashamed linking of the science with wider issues, specifically socio-political ones. In his latest book, Neuropolis – a brain science … Continue reading
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Mike Jay – High Society: Mind-Altering Drugs in History and Culture
Our noble species has a fraught relationship with intoxicants, narcotics, stimulants and hallucinogens. We crave their mind-altering powers, but once they become woven into the fabric of our cultures, we have to either come to terms with them, or make … Continue reading
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