麻豆约拍

Former consultant editor at Nature, Philip Ball is the author of several popular books on science, including works on the nature of water, pattern formation in the natural world, colour in art, and the science of social and political philosophy. His latest book is Invisible: The Dangerous Allure of the Unseen.

Writer, lecturer and broadcaster Kenan Malik examines the invisible but surprisingly powerful frameworks which steer science and scientists. Kenan has a background in both neuroscience and philosophy of science and has written widely on the philosophy of mind, theories of human nature, political philosophy, and race and immigration. His latest book is a history of ethics called The Quest for a Moral Compass.

A painting by Raphael showing famous philosophers, including, on the left, Ibn Rushd (Averroes)

Susan Blackmore is a psychologist and writer researching consciousness, memes, and anomalous experiences. She writes for several magazines and newspapers, is the author of over 60 academic articles, about 80 book contributions, and half-a-dozen popular science books. She asks how new developments in neuroscience can help us understand that powerful, but invisible driver of our actions: consciousness.

High visibility vests are not enough! Science writer and keen cyclist Philip Ball wants to make vulnerable road users more visible to drivers of motorised vehicles by developing a small wearable transmitter: this would give an audible warning to a driver that he is approaching a living being on the road. It would work through the car radio, much like the RDS system works now, over-riding anything else that the driver might be listening to.