Neuroscientist Anil Seth: ‘We risk not understanding the central mystery of life’
The professor of cognitive and computational neuroscience discusses his work to develop a scientific explanation for how the brain conjures consciousness
Dear Diary: how keeping a journal can bring you daily peace
Writing a diary is a great way to offload – and, if memory fails, it’s a wonderful window on the past
Femi Fadugba: ‘There’s no reason why Peckham couldn’t be the theoretical physics capital of the world’
The physicist‑turned-YA novelist talks about choosing to set The Upper World in south London, and how it was snapped up by Daniel Kaluuya for Netflix. Plus read an extract
Could ‘antigenic drift’ and ‘antigenic sin’ set back the fight against Covid?
The government scientific advisory group Sage has warned that both processes would complicate how we handle the virus
As an author, I felt useless in the pandemic. So I trained to be a vaccinator
Inspired by a desire to be good and help others during the pandemic, novelist Sarah Perry trained to vaccinate people. But what does it mean to be good when there is so much bad faith?
Jeanette Winterson: ‘The male push is to discard the planet: all the boys are going off into space’
The writer’s new essay collection covers 200 years of women and science. She discusses burning books and the ensuing Twitter storm, the end of her marriage, and why a move into politics could be next
Spike: The Virus v the People review – Sage scientist’s revelatory Covid memoir
Jeremy Farrar’s account of the spread of the pandemic, in particular his view of government policy and fears about the virus’s origins, is genuinely shocking
Lisa French obituary
Archaeologist involved all her life with Mycenae and an authority on the ancient Greek culture’s terracotta figurines
The Case for Love by AK Benjamin review – inside the minds of the severely unwell
The neuropsychologist and author articulates the thoughts of profoundly disabled patients in an imaginative, beautifully written study of consciousness and the fragility of life
Vaxxers by Sarah Gilbert and Catherine Green; Until Proven Safe by Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley – reviews
The story of the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine is part manifesto for good science communications, part biomedical thriller, while a smart history of quarantines makes their utility resoundingly clear
The Greatest Adventure by Colin Burgess review – a history of human space exploration
From the first race to the moon to the plutocrats’ search for the next Earth, a story of great risks offers rewards
Nightmare Scenario review: Trump, Covid and a lasting national trauma
Yasmeen Abutaleb and Damian Paletta of the Washington Post show how bad things got – and how they could have been worse
Ancestors by Alice Roberts review – a story of movement and migration
A brilliant scientific storyteller reads stone, pottery and bones to bring us the latest moving updates about our prehistoric ancestors
Preventable review: Andy Slavitt indicts Trump over Covid – but scolds us all too
The ex-Biden adviser is preaching to the converted. A deeper dive would have told more about why the disaster was possible
Connections by Karl Deisseroth review – artful insights into the brain
The psychiatrist and neuroscientist exploits cutting-edge technology to illuminate emotions and mental illness in these vivid case studies