Science

Shahidha Bari would like more light and shade in this personal account

Alison Stokes on natural catastrophes and the need to use collective wisdom to cope with them

Peter J. Smith on non-Lit Crit efforts to find the method in the Danish prince’s madness

Laurence Coupe on a grand indictment of the ‘Western epistemological error’

Noel-Ann Bradshaw on a work that unlocks maths’ power and beauty by weaving it into an inspirational autobiography

Andrew Briggs on an effort to cast down faith-based reasoning

Jules Pretty on a combined autobiography of a field biologist and celebration of nature

John Gilbey is reunited with fondly remembered computer hardware that never achieved market success

Philip Murphy on an analysis of addictions, to both legal and illegal substances, with respect to the role of power

A. W. Purdue on the leader who saw the nuclear future but let it slip

Donna Drucker on the relationship between intelligence and sex

Jon Turney is dispirited by the rhetoric of collapse in a sober analysis of two global crises

Tony Mann examines the argument that miscalculations can lead to triumphs

Medical advances have coincided with a decline in healthcare for all, finds Dita Wickins-Drazilova

Andy Miah on the pros and cons of humanity 2.0

Victoria Bateman counts the costs when there’s not enough to go around

Margaret Weitekamp on a woman who helped get the US space programme off the ground

Alison Stokes enjoys a tour of the physical and metaphorical lands of fire and brimstone

Tara Brabazon on building difference online

Erik-Jan Bos finds that the mystery surrounding a famous painting opens a new window on the French philosopher’s world and life

Simon Mitton finds much to admire in a grand tour of our home galaxy

The international hunt for chemistry’s ‘missing links’ makes for an engrossing tale, finds Alan Rocke

Jon Turney on the latest scientific findings regarding interactions between life and our planet that do not support the Gaia theory

Joanna Depledge is disturbed by advice to be passive in the face of human-induced apocalypse

Laurence Coupe celebrates efforts to rethink urban spaces to give them an ecological dimension

Robert J. Mayhew on how people need to recover their ability to find their way without using technology

Graham Farmelo on a scientific giant’s debt to his wife

Euan Clarkson discusses a scientific discipline’s literary foundations

Angela Vanhaelen on the fascination and fear aroused by 18th-century mechanical figures

John Gilbey on a stimulating discussion of the definition of a widely used term

Alec Ryrie on an intriguing book that doesn’t do what it says on the tin

Bryony Randall lauds an insightful and overdue study of literary representations of parenting

A rogue’s gallery stopped the ‘crippler’, but for how long? asks Helen Bynum

Simon Underdown on a key battle between science and religion

Michael Berry is unpersuaded by a radical theory that tries to reinstate the concept of absolute time

Patient H. M.’s personal tragedy was humanity’s gain, says Morgan Barense

Steven Schwartz considers some sound investment decisions

Tim Birkhead on bird fanciers’ engagement with nature

Jules Pretty explores the oceans that haunt our imaginations

Science ministers from the G8 group of the world’s richest countries have jointly endorsed the need to increase access to publicly-funded research.

Robert J. Mayhew lifts off with a true balloon enthusiast

Pamela Klassen measures hospitals’ sacred dimensions

Jon Turney on the generator of the AC power grid

Lewis Dartnell regrets that a discussion of extreme life forms focuses on faint possibility rather than wondrous reality

Averil Macdonald on a US system of collaborative learning in which facilitator students help their peers to learn

Euan Clarkson is inspired by a detailed history and guide to the richest cluster of fossilised remains

Unsolicited emails can be a costly nuisance, says John Gilbey

Michelle Harvey agrees with inspiring advice to young science researchers to never forget what initially attracted them to the discipline

Simon Underdown discusses an evolutionary counterfactual

Tim Birkhead on the first comprehensive documenter of North American birds

Tristan Bekinschtein recommends a challenge to our notions of consciousness and cognition

Margaret Weitekamp on a historical study of the relationship between religion and spaceflight

Eric Michael Johnson reviews the argument that human moral feelings have been shaped by natural selection

Marilyn Young on the harrowing history of a chemical used to kill hundreds of thousands of people

Howard Segal pieces together the fascinating history of a key innovation in US manufacturing

Camilla Power enjoys a demolition of prelapsarian pseudoscience

Luciana Astiz on how seismology evolved from the combined observations of scientists and citizens

Steve Redhead takes a byte from a fascinating but flawed analysis

Isabelle Szmigin on how big companies sustain their profits first, and the environment second

Steve Yearley assesses a timely critique of controversial plans to manage climate change