‘Vitalism’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vitalism) as a theory of life, and to which the author alludes here, is not part of modern science. Life is a form of matter based on a self-replicating molecule. There is nothing supernatural or metaphysical about it. Nick Lane (http://www.nick-lane.net/) tackles the question of how life evolved on Earth by exploring the deep link between energy and […]
The Vital Question Read More »
The human brain is not an undifferentiated lump of jelly. It is in fact divided into 2 distinct hemispheres, left and right. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lateralization_of_brain_function) These are joined by a bundle of nerve fibres known as the corpus callosum. Psychiatrist Iain McGilchrist (http://www.iainmcgilchrist.com/) sets out to inform us about this, and other facts, about the neurophysiology of the brain. Beyond
The Master and His Emissary Read More »
The terms ‘gene’, ‘genetics’, ‘genetic engineering’, ‘gene therapy’, ‘GM crops’ etc. have been current in the media and everyday conversation for a good while now. They are bandied around more than the science behind them is understood. Fortunately, there is a good crop of books for the general reader to gain some understanding. Examples are Matt
Have you ever been baffled or intimidated by what physicists tell us about the fundamental structures of the universe? Well, snap. Without a very sophisticated understanding of mathematics most of it is over our heads. Some leading physicists have tried to offer books for the general reader. One was Richard Feynman with his celebrated best-seller Six
Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Read More »
Anne Enright (born 11 October 1962, http://sbr.lanark.co.uk/wp-content/images/The-Green-Road-Anne-Enright.jpg) is an Irish author. She has published novels, short stories, essays, and one non-fiction book. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, her novel The Gathering won the 2007 Man Booker Prize. She has also won the 1991 Rooney Prize for Irish Literature, the 2001 Encore Award
Lawrence Osborne (http://www.lawrenceosborne.net/) is the author of the novel Ania Malina, a book about Paris, Paris Dreambook, the essay collection The Poisoned Embrace, and a controversial book about autism called American Normal. He has also written three travel books published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux between 2004 and 2009: a book about wine, The Accidental Connoisseur,
Hunters in the Dark Read More »
Tessa Hadley (http://www.bathspa.ac.uk/our-people/T.Hadley) is the author of five highly praised novels, Accidents in the Home, which was shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award, Everything Will Be All Right, The Master Bedroom, The London Train and Clever Girl. She has also written two collections of stories, Sunstroke and Married Love. She lives in London and is
Kent Haruf (http://www.whiting.org/awards/winners/kent-haruf#/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_Haruf) was an award winning writer from Colorado. This posthumously published novel explores mature love in small-town America. Like all his work, the prose is precise and calm but the emotional strength is very affecting. Addie Moore lives in the small town of Holt, Colorado. One day she pays an unexpected visit to
Our Souls at Night Read More »
Lauren Groff (http://laurengroff.com/) is a young American novelist and short story writer. She has had stories published in the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, Five Points, and Ploughshares, and the anthologies Best New American Voices 2008, and Best American Short Stories 2007, 2010 and 2014 editions. Fates and Furies (2015) starts with honeymoon sex on
