In Search of Us by Lucy Moore review – the first anthropologists, warts and all

The eccentric adventures, academic insights and many prejudices of 12 pioneering scholars

Dame Deborah James obituary

Frank, warm and funny podcaster and campaigner who raised millions for bowel cancer charities

Brainwashed by Daniel Pick review – do great minds really think alike?

From The Simpsons to QAnon via The Stepford Wives, the psychoanalyst’s absorbing study of mind control is part media studies, part political history

Bi by Julia Shaw review – the past and present of a maligned minority

A tour of the science, culture and history of bisexuality that ranges from the vehemently political to the charmingly weird

‘I’m certainly open to criticism’: David Wengrow and the trouble with rewriting human history

Wengrow and his late co-author David Graeber caused a sensation with their revisionist view of humankind’s development. But then came the attacks…

Animal magic: why intelligence isn’t just for humans

Meet the footballing bees, optimistic pigs and alien-like octopuses that are shaking up how we think about minds

‘Dinosaurs are not us’: book reveals how mammals came to rule the world

Steve Brusatte writes of the evolutionary twists, catastrophes and luck that led to the warm-blooded animals of today

Why do we forget books we’ve read? We ask an expert

Dr Sean Kang, a cognitive psychologist, says the information is still there, but it’s tucked away in long-term memory

Beyond Measure by James Vincent review – worth its weight in gold

This enlightening book reveals the importance of scales and rulers to humanity’s survival – and how measurement can be used for inhumane purposes

Julia Shaw: ‘I had so many questions about bisexuality’

The psychologist is known for her work on the criminal mind, but wrote her new book to answer her own questions about her sexuality

Beyond our ‘ape-brained meat sacks’: can transhumanism save our species?

The 21st century will be make or break for humanity, says Oxford University transhumanist Elise Bohan. If we get it right, she thinks we might find something better

‘We cannot live without love’: when Dr Love met Dr Loneliness

Stephanie and John Cacioppo were two neuroscientists specialising in love and loneliness. When they married, they put theory into practice. But when John died suddenly, would her science save her?

Meet the former Nazi rocket scientist who all too accurately saw the future

As well as serving in the SS and a second act as a Nasa engineer, Wernher von Braun wrote a Martian sci-fi novel with a prescient twist…

Preventable by Devi Sridhar review – a resolutely global view of Covid

One of the best-known public intellectuals of the pandemic gives her account of two years that shook the world

The big idea: why we need to rewrite the history of female bodies

Centuries of prejudice have led to bad science, physical suffering and missed potential