The Future of the Brain

I’ve a short review online with Prospect of The Future of the Brain (Princeton University Press), edited by Gary Marcus

The restoration of Chartres: second thoughts

Several people have asked me what I think about the “restoration” of Chartres Cathedral, in the light of the recent pie

Beyond the crystal

Here’s my Material Witness column from the November issue of Nature Materials (13, 1003; 2014). _______________________

Why some junk DNA is selfish, but selfish genes are junk

“Horizontal gene transfer is more common than thought”: that's the message of a nice article in Aeon. I first came acro

Chemistry for the kids - a view from the vaults

At some point this is all going to become a more coherently thought-out piece, but right now I just want to show you so

Pushing the boundaries

Here is my latest Music Instinct column for Sapere magazine. I collected some wonderful examples of absurdly complicate

Hidden truths

I had meant to put up this piece – my October Crucible column for Chemistry World – some time back, so as to have the o

The science and politics of gentrification

I figured that, after the tribulations of touching on the sensitive subject of genes and behaviour, it might be some li

Too funky in here

This piece for my Music Instinct column in Sapere magazine should be out and about in Italian any time now. I’ve talked

Genes and IQ: some clarifications

I hadn’t anticipated that my article for Prospect on the “language of genes” would spark a discussion so focused on the

Genes and IQ - as touchy as I'd expected

Well, it’s clear that Dominic Cummings is not one to use one tweet when six will do. But his gist is clear: he does not

The gene delusion

This is an extended version of my piece in the December issue of Prospect. ___________________________________________