(reading time: 3 mins) Understanding something that runs contrary to ‘common sense’ is often about finding the right form of words, in this case The Monty Hall problem. Here’s a quick description of the problem…

(reading time: 18 mins) In the third and final episode of the excellent BBC series ‘Atom – The Illusion of Reality’ Dr Jim Al-Khalili asks the apparently unanswerable question: We are made of the same…

(reading time: 7 mins) Is free will an illusion? Some recent neurological experiments have hit the headlines with that conclusion. The studies reveal that the conscious mind is sometimes slow to recognize a course of…

(reading time: 19 mins) For the majority of western history the only mind considered worthy of examination was the human mind. This is in part because we lacked the tools to examine how other animals…

(reading time: 3 mins) Cancer is a dreadful illness. The conventional treatments can be harsh and unpleasant to endure, and perhaps there should be a better way. Many people have claimed the power of thought…

(reading time: 30 mins) How real is your existence? Is your world constantly re-inventing itself around you? Or is human life no more mysterious than an actor playing a part on a lifeless stage set?…

(reading time: 9 mins) What’s a long distance to run? 10,000 metres? A marathon? A 100 mile ultra-marathon in mountainous terrain, barely stopping through day and night for 20 hours? There is a growing understanding…

There are two questions in modern philosophy, which I believe are largely created by a failure to compensate for the nature of human perception. The (non) hard problem of consciousness Philosophers like Daniel Dennet who…

(reading time: 10 mins) Could infrared be the renewable alternative to gas central heating for Britain’s ageing housing stock? As my twenty five year old combi-boiler approaches the end of its life, I’ve been looking…

(reading time: 2 mins) No, don’t yawn. You’ll set me off….. As infectious yawning is only found in apes and humans, the unanswered question of why we do it keeps drawing in the research dollars.…