Are you a busybody, a hunter or a dancer? A new book about curiosity reveals all

Twin academics Perry Zurn and Dani S Bassett fought to forge idiosyncratic paths through academia… then put that knowledge to use in a seven-year study of how we learn

The big idea: do animals have emotions?

Can we really intuit an animal’s feelings, or are we merely projecting our own?

‘I just go into my head and enjoy it’: the people who can’t stop daydreaming

Psychiatrists may soon recognise ‘maladaptive daydreaming’ as a clinical disorder. But what is it, and how can it be treated?

Cosmologist Laura Mersini-Houghton: ‘Our universe is one tiny grain of dust in a beautiful cosmos’

As her new book on the origins of the universe is published, the Albanian-American scientist explains how her work on multiverse theory influenced Stephen Hawking

And Finally by Henry Marsh review – from doctor to patient

Fearlessly frank and endearingly geeky reflections on life and death by a neurosurgeon diagnosed with cancer

Joined Up Thinking by Hannah Critchlow review – the power of collective cognition

A lively examination of communal endeavour and the technological advances that could spur greater cooperation

‘Magic bookmark’ revealed as key to augmented reality books

Scientists have revealed their latest work on hardware that can supply the kind of background information, familiar with ebooks, for paper volumes

The big idea: are we living in a simulation?

Could the universe be an elaborate game constructed by bored aliens?

‘There is hope’: expert writes guide to tackling procrastination

Psychology professor draws on 20 years of studying often crippling issue that can affect sufferers’ careers and even health

‘You can’t say that!’: how to argue, better

A good debate isn’t about one person declaring victory, it’s about both people making a discovery, says psychologist Adam Grant

Elusive by Frank Close review – the brilliance of physicist Peter Higgs

An illuminating guide to the man and the science behind the Higgs boson – and how its discovery ‘ruined’ his life

Am I Normal? by Sarah Chaney review – it’s OK to be strange

An examination of the 200-year-old history of the notion of ‘normal’ and its power to alienate and oppress

From Hitchhiker’s Paranoid Android to Wall-E: why are pop culture robots so sad?

‘Sentient’ AI seems to shoulder the weight of the world. Maybe we humans want it that way

Rooted by Sarah Langford; Regenesis by George Monbiot reviews – how to fix farming

Modern agriculture isn’t working. Two energising books come up with contrasting solutions

The big idea: should we worry about sentient AI?

A Google employee raised the alarm about a chatbot he believes is conscious. A philosopher asks if he was right to do so