We live in troubled times, but can fear be a force for good?

Anxiety is an obvious response to world events. But what if fear is actually a motivational emotion driving change? Here, author Robert Peckham reveals why the history of fear is the history of hope

On my radar: Carlo Rovelli’s cultural highlights

The physicist and philosopher of science on the lessons the Roman empire holds for us today, the mystery of black holes, and his favourite beat poet

Evelyn Fox Keller obituary

American theoretical physicist, philosopher and writer who viewed the history of science and gender through a feminist lens

How Roger Deakin’s love of water inspired me

The great nature writer and outdoor swimmer has been a huge inspiration to many with his focus on ponds, lakes and rivers

Anthony Stevens obituary

Analyst and psychiatrist who proposed a science of human nature that embraced psychology, anthropology and medicine

The Maniac by Benjamín Labatut review – genius and madness in the shadow of the atomic bomb

The Chilean author’s assured fictionalised portrait of the visionary Hungarian scientist who contributed to the Manhattan Project and laid the foundations of modern computing is darkly intelligent and feverishly propulsive

I’ve Been Thinking by Daniel C Dennett review – an engaging, vexing memoir with a humility bypass

The veteran US philosopher renowned for his theories of consciousness is an intriguing figure but too prone to ‘professorial preening’

‘Stronger than steel, stretchier than rubber’: the quest to harness the power of spider silk

Spiders don’t make good domestic animals, and not many like walking into their webs in the garden, but scientists dream of a future where spider silk may revolutionise medicine

How I learned to tell my own story as a South Asian woman

As a child, I wanted to belong, but didn’t see brown girls like me in culture. I’d like space for our stories to be told, too

Misophonia: what’s behind the phenomenon that makes certain sounds unbearable?

Stress and anxiety triggered by sounds from clocks to pigeons to popcorn affects one in five people in the UK. A new book from Dr Jane Gregory, who experiences misophonia, asks why

Running marathons helped me write my novel

The sport helped with my tenacity, and my creativity too

His friend’s murder rocked Hua Hsu’s life – and made him the person he is today

Twenty-five years after the senseless killing of his friend, the author and journalist finally feels a sense of peace

The Fatal Breath: Covid-19 and Society in Britain by David Vincent review – a moving account of the plague of our times

This bold and forensic history of the pandemic, drawing on previously unpublished diaries, underlines the sheer scale of suffering, with the poor and isolated particularly badly hit

The Coming Wave by Mustafa Suleyman review – a tech tsunami

The co-founder of DeepMind issues a terrifying warning about AI and synthetic biology – but how seriously should we take it?

Nobel Foundation reverses decision to invite Russian ambassador to awards

Foundation backtracks on earlier announcement that representatives from Russia, Belarus and Iran would be invited