Series: New Human Frontiers

Neuroscience, with its astounding new technologies, is uncovering the workings of the brain and, with this, perhaps the mind. The 'neuro' prefix spills out into every area of life, from neuroaesthetics to neuroeconomics, neurogastronomy, and neuroeducation. With its promise to cure physical and social ills, the government sees neuroscience as a tool to increase the 'mental capital' of the children...

Free-roaming killer drones stalk the battlespace looking for organic targets. Human combatants are programmed to feel no pain. High-power microwave beams detonate munitions, jam communications, and cook internal organs. Is this vision of future war possible, or even inevitable? In this timely new book, Can Science End War?, Everett Carl Dolman examines the relationship between science and war. Historically, science...

Following centuries of debate about nature and nurture, the discovery of DNA established the idea that nature (genes) determines who we are, relegating nurture (environment) to icing on the cake. Since the 1950s, the new science of epigenetics has demonstrated how cellular environments and certain experiences and behaviours influence gene expression at the molecular level, with significant implications for health...

The trend that began with ATMs and do-it-yourself checkouts is moving at lightning speed. Everything from driving to teaching to the care of the elderly and, indeed, code-writing can now be done by smart machines. Conventional wisdom says there will be new jobs to replace those we lose – but is it so simple? And are we ready? Technology writer...

Since the discovery of the structure of DNA and the birth of the genetic age, a powerful vocabulary has emerged to express science’s growing command over the matter of life. Armed with knowledge of the code that governs all living things, biology and biotechnology are poised to edit, even rewrite, the texts of life to correct nature’s mistakes. Yet, how...

Today, we are far less likely to die from infection than at any other time in history, but still we worry about epidemics, the menace of antibiotic resistance and modern 'plagues' like Ebola. In this timely new book, eminent bacteriologist Hugh Pennington explores why these fears remain and why they are unfounded. He reports on outright victories (such as smallpox),...

As humans continue to degrade and destroy our planet’s resources, leading to predictions of total ecological collapse, some (such as the entrepreneur Elon Musk) now suggest that a human colony elsewhere may be our species’ best hope for survival. Adam Morton examines extra-terrestrial colonization plans with a critical eye. He makes a strong case for colonization – just not by...