Ideas Roadshow: 8 books

Nima Arkani-Hamed takes us inside the world of a working theoretical physicist, sharing his frustration at how physics is communicated to the general public, while revealing how he hopes to be steered towards the truth without experiment to guide him.

Who are the stewards of our past? What does it take to sift through the rubble and reconstruct a comprehensive picture of human events? In clear, candid and captivating tones, Sir John Elliott tells us how an undergraduate encounter with a 17th century painting led him on a lifelong odyssey to become one of the greatest Spanish historians of our age.

In the last twenty years, cosmology has unexpectedly emerged as one of the most exciting and dynamic fields of modern science. From astoundingly precise measurements of the cosmic microwave background to the ongoing mysteries of dark energy and dark matter, modern cosmology is unquestionably in the...

When C.P. Snow delivered his 1959 Rede Lecture on The Two Cultures what was he doing? Acutely diagnosing a debilitating anti-scientific strain in contemporary Britain? Or bombastically trotting out self-serving clichés to an uncritical public? We met up with renowned Cambridge literary...

The notions of ‘environmental sustainability’ and ‘big business’ sometimes seem as incompatible as oil and water. Andrew Hoffman, Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan's Ross School of Business, however, is certain that this synthesis is possible. But for it...

Everyday we are confronted with choices; most are relatively mundane, but occasionally we must carefully weigh different options and struggle to determine “good” from “bad”, and “right” from “wrong”. These notions emanate from, and are influenced by a system of values, a system of...

How did the First Crusade happen? What could have suddenly caused tens of thousands of knights, commoners and even nuns at the end of the 11th century to leave their normal lives behind and trek thousands of miles across hostile territory in an unprecedented vicious and bloody quest to wrest Jerusalem...

For over 20 years now, Dr Miguel Nicolelis has been blurring the line between science fiction and science fact, developing increasingly sophisticated ways of harnessing the thoughts of rats, monkeys and humans to drive mechanical devices in the rapidly emerging field of brain-machine interfaces....