Following the thread
The genome is giving up its secrets. Tim Radford on the scientist who wants to explain - not exploit - them
Why fabulate?
Our hunger for stories is limitless but, argues David Hare, the best art is conceived in response to the real world
It adds up to beauty
Equations are the cornerstone on which the edifice of science rests. Yet, argues Graham Farmelo, they can be as exquisite as the finest poetry
Robert Nozick
Leftwing political philosopher whose rightward shift set the tone for the Reagan-Thatcher era.
Buddy, can you spare a bawbee?
His reputation is safe, but what about his memorial? The morning after Burns night, with the museum honouring Scotland's greatest poet in danger of closure, James Campbell wonders if auld acquaintance will cough up in time
Recognise the weather?
Van Gogh's two years in England changed his outlook - and his paintings - for life, says Jonathon Jones
World without walls
How do we defeat global terrorism? By working together to close the gap between rich and poor, says Bill Clinton
Words from the wise
It's a good month for essay collections. Ian Pindar finds Susan Sontag getting serious, Umberto Eco waxing moral and Michael Holroyd collaborating with the dead
Carman v Carman
George Carman was the most famous legal showman of his generation. But what was he like in private life? In No Ordinary Man, discovers Alan Rusbridger, Dominic Carman puts his father on trial
To dye for
Veronica Horwell discovers how technical revolutions in colour changed the world of painting in Philip Ball's Bright Earth: The Invention of Colour and Michel Pastoureau's Blue: The History of a Colour
Blind refugee led Israel to Eichmann
Uki Goni, the Guardian's correspondent in Argentina, reveals in a new book the extraordinary truth behind the Nazi fugitive's capture.