It is often supposed that Lovelock was a sort of hippie, but he worked for NASA in the 1960s, then MI5 and MI6; then Shell, whom he warned about the danger to the environment of fossil fuels... read more
We did a podcast with the brilliant Clare for his previous book, Heavy Light. Here, he moves further from his own experience to look at how the system could work better. He is a joy to read.
An exceptional examination of the ways to fight global warming, by a professor of earth science at Stanford University, sharp enough to dispel the paralysis of climate apathy.
VM was the author of The Map of Knowledge, a compelling account of the survival of the ancient classics in the Muslim world, and their re-emergence in the West. Now she turns her attention t... read more
Freud is the primary focus here, but we also encounter Klimt, Schiele, Herzl, Empress Sisi and many others in this fine account of the new understanding of the mind that arose from Vienna at... read more
Brilliant detective work by this French paleoanthropologist, who has studied Neanderthal traces from the Arctic to the Mediterranean and argues that their intelligence was different from our... read more
A grand tour of the 'big five' wipe-outs in history, with names such as 'the Carnian Pluvial Event' and 'the Great Dying'. These are tough days at the office of nomenclature.