Joseph Delaney used to be an English teacher, before becoming the best-selling author of the Spook's series, which has been published in 30 countries and sold over 4.5 million copies worldwide. The first book, The Spook's Apprentice, was adapted into a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges and Julianne Moore.

Joseph Delaney

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Lindsey Fitzharris

In The Butchering Art, historian Lindsey Fitzharris recreates a critical turning point in the history of medicine, when Joseph Lister transformed surgery from a brutal, harrowing practice to the safe, vaunted profession we know today. 
 
Victorian operating theatres were known as 'gateways of death', Fitzharris reminds us, since half of those who underwent surgery didn't survive the experience. This was an era when a broken leg could lead to amputation, and surgeons were still known to ransack cemeteries to find cadavers. And in squalid, overcrowded hospitals, doctors remained baffled by the persistent infections that kept mortality rates stubbornly high. 
 
At a time when surgery couldn't have been more dangerous, an unlikely figure stepped forward: Joseph Lister, a young Quaker surgeon. By making the audacious claim that germs were the source of all infection - and could be treated with antiseptics - he changed the history of medicine forever. With a novelist's eye for detail, Fitzharris brilliantly conjures up the grisly world of Victorian surgery, revealing how one of Britain's greatest medical minds finally brought centuries of savagery, sawing and gangrene to an end.

The Butchering Art

Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine

Maggie Aderin

From a childhood in Camden to the frontiers of space, an inspirational memoir from space scientist, presenter of The Sky at Night, and bestselling author Maggie Aderin. 
 
'I'd toast the moon and look at the sky... I think it draws us to it; we wonder what lies beyond.' 
 
Maggie Aderin's destiny was always written in the stars. From the age of three, inspired by The Clangers, her dream was to go into space. Throughout a chaotic childhood, ricocheting between divorced parents and acrimonious custody battles, she attended thirteen schools in fourteen years – but while her environment regularly changed, her fascination with the Universe did not. It became enmeshed in her desire to succeed as a scientist even when her school careers advice was to become a nurse. 
 
Starchild is Maggie’s emotionally honest and revealing memoir, telling a story of education and prejudice, adversity and ambition, motherhood and the moon – all recounted in her characteristically warm and relatable style. From being the only Black woman on her physics course at Imperial College London, to her groundbreaking work on the James Webb and Gemini telescopes, to starting her own public speaking company and sharing the wonders of science with thousands of children every year, Maggie’s story will inspire you to never give up on your dreams.

Starchild

My Life Under the Night Sky

Bryan Sykes

Bryan Sykes, the world's first genetic archaeologist, takes us on a journey around the family tree of Britain and Ireland, to reveal how our tribal history still colours the country today. 
 
In 54BC Julius Caesar launched the first Roman invasion of Britain. His was the first detailed account of the Celtic tribes that inhabited the Isles. But where had they come from and how long had they been there? When the Romans eventually left five hundred years later, they were succeeded by invasions of Anglo-Saxons, Vikings and Normans. Did these successive invasions obliterate the genetic legacy of the Celts, or have very little effect? 
 
After two decades tracing the genetic origins of peoples from all over the world, Bryan Sykes has now turned the spotlight on his own back yard. In a major research programme, the first of its kind, he set out to test the DNA of over 10,000 volunteers from across Britain and Ireland with the specific aim of answering this very question: what is our modern genetic make-up and what does it tell us of our tribal past? Are the modern people of the Isles a delicious genetic cocktail? Or did the invaders keep mostly to themselves forming separate genetic layers within the Isles? 
 
As his findings came in, Bryan Sykes discovered that the genetic evidence revealed often very different stories to the conventional accounts coming from history and archaeology. Blood of the Isles reveals the nature of our genetic make-up as never before and what this says about our attitudes to ourselves, each other, and to our past. It is a gripping story that will fascinate and surprise with its conclusions.

Blood of the Isles

James Watson

James Watson, the co-discoverer of the structure of DNA and author of the international bestseller The Double Helix, tells the story of the amazing molecule since its discovery fifty years ago, following modern genetics from his own Nobel prize-winning work in the fifties to today's Dolly the sheep, designer babies and GM foods. Professor Watson introduces the science of modern genetics, along with its history and its implications, in this magnificent guide to one of the most triumphant achievements of human science.

The Secret of Life, Fully Revised and Updated

Spencer Wells

Around 60,000 years ago, a man, identical to us in all important respects, walked the soil of Africa. Every man alive today is descended from him. How did he come to be father to all of us - a real-life Adam? And why do we come in such a huge variety of sizes, shapes, types and races if we all share a single prehistoric ancestor? 
 
In this fascinating book, Spencer Wells shows how the truth about our ancestors is hidden in our genetic code, and reveals how developments in the cutting-edge science of population genetics have made it possible not just to discover where our ancestors lived (and who they may have fought, loved, learned from and influence) but to create a family tree for the whole of humanity.

The Journey of Man

A Genetic Odyssey

Sebastian Seung

Connectome, by Sebastian Seung is 'One of the most eagerly awaited scientific books of the year ... intellectually exhilarating, beautifully written, exquisitely precise yet still managing to be inspirational' Irish Times 
 
What really makes us who we are? In this groundbreaking book, pioneering neuroscientist Sebastian Seung shows that our identity does not lie in our genes, but in the connections between our brain cells - our own particular wiring, or 'connectomes'. 
 
Everything about us - emotions, thoughts, memories - is encoded in these tangled patterns of neural connections, and now Seung and a dedicated team are mapping them in order to uncover the basis of personality, explain disorders such as autism and depression, and even enable us to 'upload' our brains. This book reveals the secrets of the brain, showing how our connectome makes each of us uniquely ourselves. 
 
'With the first-person flavour of James Watson's Double Helix, Connectome gives a sense of the excitement on the cutting edge of neuroscience' New Scientist 
 
'Witty and exceptionally clear ... beautifully explained ... the best lay book on brain science I've ever read' Wall Street Journal 
 
'Seung is about to revolutionise brain science' The Times 
 
'The reader is swept along with his enthusiasm' The New York Times 
 
Sebastian Seung is Professor of Computational Neuroscience at MIT and an Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He has made important advances in robotics, neuroscience, neuroeconomics, and statistical physics. His research has been published in leading scientific journals, and also featured in The New York Times, Technology Review, and The Economist.

Connectome

How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are

Nichola Raihani

'A phenomenally important book' Lewis Dartnell, author of Origins 
 
Why do we live in families? 
Why do we help complete strangers? 
Why do we compare ourselves to others? 
Why do we cooperate? 
 
The science of cooperation tells us not only how we got here, but also where we might end up. In The Social Instinct Nichola Raihani introduces us to other species who, like us, live and work together. From the pied babblers of the Kalahari to the cleaner fish of the Great Barrier Reef, they happen to be some of the most fascinating and extraordinarily successful species on this planet. What do we have in common with these animals, and what can we learn from them? The Social Instinct is an exhilarating, far-reaching and thought-provoking journey through all life on Earth, with profound insights into what makes us human and how our societies work. 
 
'A pleasing juxtaposition of insightful scientific theory with illuminating anecdotes' Richard Dawkins 
 
'Surprising, thoughtful and, best of all, endlessly entertaining' Will Storr, author of The Science of Storytelling 
 
'A superb book about how important cooperation is' Alice Roberts, author of Ancestors

The Social Instinct

What Nature Can Teach Us About Working Together

How Cooperation Shaped the World

James Poskett

In this major retelling of the history of science from 1450 to the present day, James Poskett explodes the myth that science began in Europe. 
 
The blinkered Western gaze focusing on individual 'genius' - Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, Einstein - was only one part of the story. The reality was an utterly global, non-linear pattern of cross-fertilization, competition, cooperation and outright conflict. Each rupture in history carved fresh channels for global exchange. 
 
Here, for the first time, Poskett celebrates how scientists from Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific were integral to this very human story. We meet Graman Kwasi, the African botanist who discovered a new cure for malaria; Hantaro Nagaoka, the Japanese scientist who first described the structure of the atom; and Zhao Zhongyao, the Chinese physicist who discovered antimatter.

Horizons

A Global History of Science

Along with Francis Crick, James Watson was the discoverer of the double helix structure of the DNA molecule, realising both how it was able to reproduce itself and how, through its immense variety, it was able to pass on genetic instructions from one generation to the next. Their discovery paved the way for fifty years of explosive scientific achievement of extraordinary importance, both in strictly scientific terms and in its technological and social significance. 
 
From Dolly the sheep to GM foods to designer babies, science-related newspaper headlines have been dominated by the implications of their work. In DNA, now fully updated and revised to include new findings in gene editing, epigenetics and agricultural chemistry, as well as two entirely new chapters on personal genomics and cancer research, Watson tells the story of this pioneering research and its impact on the world in which we live, from its beginnings to the present day. This is the most comprehensive and authoritative exploration of DNA’s impact – practical, social, and ethical – on our society and our world.

The Story of the Genetic Revolution

Joanne Ruthsatz

Kimberly Stephens

'[AN] IMPORTANT BOOK' TEMPLE GRANDIN 
 
Over the course of her career, psychologist Joanne Ruthsatz has assembled the largest-ever research sample of child prodigies. Their accomplishments are epic. One could reproduce radio tunes by ear on a toy guitar at two years old. Another was a thirteen-year-old cooking sensation. And what Ruthsatz’s investigation revealed is noth&shy;ing short of astonishing. Though the prodigies aren’t autistic, many have autistic family members. Each prodigy has an extraordinary memory and a keen eye for detail—well-known but often-overlooked strengths associated with autism. 
 
Ruthsatz proposes a startling possibility: might the abilities of child prodigies stem from a genetic link with autism? And could prodigies - children who have many of the strengths of autism but few of the challenges - be the key to a long-awaited autism breakthrough? 
 
This inspiring book about extraordinary children, indomitable parents and a researcher's unorthodox hunch is essential reading for anyone interested in the brain and human potential.

The Prodigy's Cousin

The family link between Autism and extraordinary talent

Maggie Aderin-Pocock

Simon Guerrier

Emma Price

'The nation's go-to woman for all things space... her joy for the subject is boundless' – The Guardian 
 
Take a new look at the world around you. 
 
What is a planet? Is there life on Mars? What makes Earth so special? 
 
Questions about our Solar System have fascinated us for centuries. Based on the latest scientific research, The Story of the Solar System will help you see the planets around us in a whole new light. Using colourful and easy-to-follow infographics, each planet becomes a character with a story of its own to tell, from Jupiter the King of the Solar System to ice oddity Uranus and outlier planet-but-not-a-planet Pluto. 
 
As space scientist Maggie Aderin-Pocock shows us, the story of Earth is best understood as part of its larger family, and The Story of the Solar System will bring that family to life.

The Story of the Solar System: A Visual Journey

Shane O'Mara

From neurons to nations, Talking Heads is a stunning survey of the science of human connection and communication. 
 
'Delightfully well-written' IRISH TIMES 
'Intriguing ... Makes for an enjoyable read' NEW SCIENTIST 
'Full of good stories' TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT 
 
Talking to each other is a primal behaviour. It&rsquo;s a key part of what makes us human. Yet the science of human connection has largely remained a mystery. Only recently have scientific advances allowed us to peer into the purpose of conversations and uncover their extraordinary impact. 
 
In this groundbreaking book, the first of its kind written by a leading neuroscientist, Professor Shane O&rsquo;Mara expertly reveals how talking affects all our lives. What does it mean that we mostly think, and speak, in five-minute bubbles around the present moment? Is the fact that we instinctively trust what others say empowering or a hindrance? And how do our very nations begin as conversations? 
 
Moving from the personal to the social and ultimately towards an urgent and radical new perspective on the defining phenomenon of our times, populist nationalism, Talking Heads is the story of how conversation shapes us and constructs our worlds &ndash; and how, together, we can talk our way into a better tomorrow.

Talking Heads

How Conversation Shapes Us

The New Science of How Conversation Shapes Our Worlds

Duncan Harding

A likeable young girl burns her family home to the ground 
 
A man has no memory of the night he killed his wife 
 
A teenager’s visions have murderous effect 
 
One question binds the cases of Dr Duncan Harding, Britain’s top forensic psychiatrist: Why? 
 
Growing up in a violent home, Harding became a doctor to be good and kind. His journey brought him to psychopaths, to the limits of his compassion and to the darkest corners of his own troubled past. 
 
But he’s never turned away nor given up hope. Mesmerising, insightful and redemptive, The Criminal Mind is his unforgettable story.

The Criminal Mind

Siddhartha Mukherjee

** NEW YORK TIMES NUMBER ONE BESTSELLER ** 
 
The Gene is the story of one of the most powerful and dangerous ideas in our history from the author of The Emperor of All Maladies. 
 
The story begins in an Augustinian abbey in 1856, and takes the reader from Darwin’s groundbreaking theory of evolution, to the horrors of Nazi eugenics, to present day and beyond - as we learn to “read” and “write” the human genome that unleashes the potential to change the fates and identities of our children. 
 
Majestic in its scope and ambition, The Gene provides us with a definitive account of the epic history of the quest to decipher the master-code that makes and defines humans – and paints a fascinating vision of both humanity’s past and future. 
 
For fans of Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari, A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking and Being Mortal by Atul Gwande. 
 
‘Siddhartha Mukherjee is the perfect person to guide us through the past, present, and future of genome science’ Bill Gates 
 
‘A thrilling and comprehensive account of what seems certain to be the most radical, controversial and, to borrow from the subtitle, intimate science of our time…Read this book and steel yourself for what comes next’ Sunday Times

The Gene

An Intimate History

In The Journey of Man, renowned geneticist and anthropologist Spencer Wells traced human evolution back to our earliest ancestors, creating a remarkable and readable map of our distant past. Now, in his thrilling and thoughtful new book, he examines our cultural inheritance in order to find the turning point that led us to the path we are on today, one he believes we must veer from in order to survive. 
 
Pandora's Seed takes us on a powerful and provocative globe-trotting tour of human history, back to a seminal event roughly 10,000 years ago, when our species made a radical shift in its way of life: we became farmers rather than hunter-gatherers, setting in motion a momentous chain of events that could not have been foreseen at the time. 
 
Although this decision to control our own food supply is what propelled us into the modern world, Wells demonstrates with the latest genetic and anthropological data that such a dramatic shift in lifestyle had a downside that we're only beginning to recognize. Growing grain crops ultimately made the planet more crowded, sedentary and unhealthy. The expanding population and the need to apportion limiting resources such as water created hierarchies and inequalities. The desire to control - and no longer cooperate with - nature altered the concept of religion, making deities fewer and more influential, foreshadowing today's fanaticisms. The proximity of humans and animals bred diseases that metastasized over time. Freedom of movement and choice were replaced by a pressure to work that is the forebear of anxiety and depression millions feel today. Wells then offers a hopeful prescription for altering a life to which we were always ill-suited, changing priorities and self-destructive appetites before it's too late. 
 
A riveting and accessible scientific detective story, Pandora's Seed is an eye-opening book for anyone fascinated by the past and concerned about the future.

Pandora's Seed

The Unforeseen Cost of Civilization

David Quammen

The real story of AIDS - how it originated with a virus in a chimpanzee, jumped to one human and infected more than 60 million people - is very different from what most of us think we know. 
 
Recent research has revealed dark surprises and yielded a radically new scenario of how AIDS began and spread. Excerpted and adapted from Spillover, with a new introduction by the author, Quammen's hair-raising investigation tracks the virus from chimp population s in the jungles off the southeastern Cameroon to laboratories across the globe, as he unravels the mysteries of when, where and how such a consequential 'spillover' can happen. 
 
An audacious search for answers amid more than a century of data, The Chimp and the River tells the haunting tale of one of the most devastating pandemics of our time.

The Chimp and the River

How AIDS Emerged from an African Forest

Richard Dawkins

Born to parents who were enthusiastic naturalists, and linked through his wider family to a clutch of accomplished scientists, Richard Dawkins was bound to have biology in his genes. But what were the influences that shaped his life? And who inspired him to become the pioneering scientist and public thinker now famous (and infamous to some) around the world? 
 
In An Appetite for Wonder we join him on a personal journey from an enchanting childhood in colonial Africa, through the eccentricities of boarding school in England, to his studies at the University of Oxford’s dynamic Zoology Department, which sparked his radical new vision of Darwinism, The Selfish Gene. Through Dawkins’s honest self-reflection, touching reminiscences and witty anecdotes, we are finally able to understand the private influences that shaped the public man who, more than anyone else in his generation, explained our own origins.

An Appetite For Wonder: The Making of a Scientist

Suzanne Corkin

When he was twenty-seven, Henry Molaison underwent surgery for his epilepsy. He awoke with part of his brain destroyed, and for the rest of his life would be trapped in the moment, unable to remember anything for more than a few seconds. For nearly five decades, distinguished neuroscientist Suzanne Corkin studied Molaison and oversaw his care. In Permanent Present Tense she tells his extraordinary story, showing how his amnesia revolutionized our understanding of the brain, and also challenged our very notions of who we are.

Permanent Present Tense

The man with no memory, and what he taught the world

James Bluemel

Accompanying the 4-part documentary series from multi-award-winning filmmaker, James Bluemel.It’s been 63 years since Yuri Gagarin became the first human to ever go into space. Since then, only 676 people have followed him up there. But now with huge technological advances bridging the gap between our planet and all that lies beyond, that number is about to rise dramatically.Once Upon a Time in Space is the human story of how we’ve made it this far – the remarkable achievements, tragic losses, left-field experiments, renegade characters and ever-shifting powerplay – and where we’re about to go. 
 
Featuring stunning full-colour photography from both personal collections of astronauts and NASA’s archives, the human story of space is told through intimate and powerful testimonies from the astronauts, scientists, engineers and space tourists who have lived it.Looking ahead as we take the first steps towards becoming an interplanetary species, Once Upon a Time in Space brings you closer to the incredible story of our next stage of evolution. Life on Earth will never be the same again.

Once Upon a Time in Space

Chris Jones

On February 1, 2003, ten astronauts were orbiting the planet. Seven headed back to Earth on the space shuttle Columbia. They never made it. And the three men left behind found themselves too far from home. 
 
Chris Jones chronicles the efforts of the beleaguered Mission Control in Houston and Moscow as they work frantically against the clock to bring their men safely back to Earth, ultimately settling on a plan that felt, at best, like a long shot. Yet even amid the danger, the call of space is a siren song, and Too Far From Home details beautifully the majesty and mystique of space travel, while reminding us all how perilous it is to soar beyond the sky.

Too Far From Home

A Story of Life and Death in Space

Olga Koch

Charlie Dinkin

Olga Koch explores the world via computer science in this STEM stand-up show 
 
Comedian Olga Koch has a masters degree in the social science of the Internet and can turn almost any file into a PDF. In these three series, she looks at life through the eyes of a computer scientist, taking the universal truths you hold dear and tearing them to shreds using logic. 
 
With the help of her sassy digital assistant ALGO (played by Sindhu Vee, Tia Kofi and Rajiv Karia), she uses stand-up and storytelling to unpack concepts such as Nationality, Beauty, Health, Privacy, Fun, Intelligence, Friendship and Family. She talks us through what you need to know to become a British citizen (including what time the pubs open, and every single line-up of the Sugababes since 2007); uses recursion and Harry Styles to examine what being beautiful means; goes on a mission to get healthy, and wonders if encryption really works and why no one can set a good password. 
 
What are the fundamentals of fun? What can Colonel Sanders and the Creation Museum tell us about intelligence? Can you be best friends with a bot – or a politician? And can your family be more than just your random relations? These questions, and many more, are tackled by Olga, as she and ALGO take a hilarious journey through the inherent absurdities of our modern world. 
 
Production credits 
Written by Olga Koch and Charlie Dinkin 
Additional Material from Rajiv Karia, Cody Dahler and Kate Dehnert 
With Sindhu Vee, Tia Kofi and Rajiv Karia as ALGO 
Producer: Benjamin Sutton 
Production Co-ordinator: Katie Baum 
 
Series 1 
Nationality 
Beauty 
Health 
Privacy 
 
Series 2 
Fun 
Intelligence 
Friendship 
Family 
 
Series 3 
Love 
Religion 
Money 
Death 
 
First broadcast 8 Jul-29 Jul 2021 (series 1), 23 May-13Jun 2023 (series 2), 17 Oct-7 Nov 2024 (series 3). 
 
© 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2024 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.

OK Computer: Series 1-3

A BBC Radio 4 Stand-Up Comedy Show

Cédric Villani

“This man could plainly do for mathematics what Brian Cox has done for physics” — Sunday Times 
 
How does a genius see the world? Where and how does inspiration strike? 
 
Cédric Villani takes us on a mesmerising adventure as he wrestles with the Boltzmann equation – a new theorem that will eventually win him the most coveted prize in mathematics and a place in the mathematical history books. Along the way he encounters obstacles and setbacks, losses of faith and even brushes with madness. 
 
His story is one of courage and partnership, doubt and anxiety, elation and despair. Of ordinary family life blurring with the abstract world of mathematical physics, of theories and equations that haunt your dreams and seeking the elusive inspiration found only in a locked, darkened room. 
 
Blending science with history, biography with myth, Villani conjures up an inimitable cast: the omnipresent Einstein, mad genius Kurt Godel, and Villani’s personal hero, John Nash. 
 
Step inside the magical world of Cédric Villani…

Birth of a Theorem

A Mathematical Adventure

James Temperton

WIRED

By the end of this century, living beyond 100 will be the rule rather than the exception. What medical breakthroughs and new technologies will make this possible? 
 
In this brilliantly wide-ranging, one-stop guide WIRED journalist James Temperton outlines the medical revolutions that are transforming healthcare. He looks at the burgeoning immune therapies that could one day cure such life-threatening diseases as cancer. He explores the science - and ethics - of genetic engineering and its potential to create 'designer babies'. He considers the role that cutting-edge medical research could play in the treatment of mental and neurological disorders ranging from depression to autism. And he addresses the fundamental question: could medical technology become so sophisticated that we witness the end of ageing?

The Future of Medicine (WIRED guides)

How We Will Enjoy Longer, Healthier Lives

Joe Keohane

In our cities, we barely acknowledge one another on public transport, even as rates of loneliness skyrocket. Online, we carefully curate who we interact with. In our politics, we are increasingly consumed by a fear of people we've never met. But what if strangers, long believed to be the cause of many of our problems, were actually the solution? 
 
In The Power of Strangers, Joe Keohane discovers the surprising benefits that come from talking to strangers, examining how even passing interactions can enhance empathy, happiness and cognitive development, ease loneliness and isolation, and root us in the world, deepening our sense of belonging. Warm, witty, erudite and profound, this deeply researched book will make you reconsider how you perceive and approach strangers, showing you how talking to strangers isn't just not a way to live, it's a way to survive.

The Power of Strangers

The Benefits of Connecting in a Suspicious World

Luke Dittrich

In the summer of 1953, maverick neurosurgeon William Beecher Scoville performed a groundbreaking operation on an epileptic patient named Henry Molaison. But it was a catastrophic failure, leaving Henry unable to create long-term memories. 
 
Scoville's grandson, Luke Dittrich, takes us on an astonishing journey through the history of neuroscience, from the first brain surgeries in ancient Egypt to the New England asylum where his grandfather developed a taste for human experimentation. Dittrich's investigation confronts unsettling family secrets and reveals the dark roots of modern neuroscience, raising troubling questions that echo into the present day.

Patient H.M.

A Story of Memory, Madness and Family Secrets

Various

Ten emblematic lectures by world-leading thinkers, specially selected by the series producer. 
 
Since 1948, the BBC's iconic annual lecture series has provided a platform for brilliant, entertaining individuals to discuss and develop their ideas on radio. The topics range from art and science to history, culture, politics and more, and each Reith Lecture - which is a little longer than a TED talk - is followed by a lively question-and-answer session showcasing the speaker's expertise, wisdom and wit. 
 
This collection brings together ten of the very best Reith Lectures, chosen by the series producer, Jim Frank. Prize-winning artist Grayson Perry argues that art can no longer shock us - we've seen it all before; bestselling novelist Hilary Mantel explores how art can bring the dead back to life; Eliza Manningham-Buller, the former MI5 director, tells us what it was like to head up the security services in the aftermath of 9/11; Tom Kirkwood asks whether ageing and death are the price we pay for sex; and Margaret MacMillan discusses the relationship between war and humanity, and the role of the soldier. 
 
In addition, Atul Gawande considers the future of medicine; Michael Sandel examines the expansion of markets; Kwame Anthony Appiah appeals for a world free of racial fixations; Vilayanur S. Ramachandran looks at the process we call 'seeing'; and Daniel Barenboim celebrates the power of music to bring us together. Illuminating, captivating and thought-provoking, these superlative radio lectures are full of insight and inspiration. 
 
Production credits 
Presented, chaired and introduced by Sue Lawley 
Produced and curated by Jim Frank 
Edited by Hugh Levinson 
 
First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on the following dates: 
Tom Kirkwood: Sex and Death 18 April 2001 
Vilayanur S. Ramachandran: Synapses and the Self 9 April 2003 
Daniel Barenboim: In the Beginning was Sound 7 April 2006 
Michael Sandel: Markets and Morals 9 June 2009 
Eliza Manningham-Buller: Terror 6 September 2011 
Grayson Perry: Nice Rebellion - Welcome In! 29 October 2013 
Atul Gawande: The Century of the System 2 December 2014 
Kwame Anthony Appiah: Colour 1 November 2016 
Hilary Mantel: The Day is for the Living 13 June 2017 
Margaret MacMillan: Fearing and Loving - Making Sense of the Warrior 3 July 2018 
 
© 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd. (P) 2022 BBC Studios Distribution Ltd.

The Reith Lectures

10 of the best

J. Craig Venter

Craig Venter is no ordinary scientist, and no ordinary man. He is the first human being ever to read their own DNA &ndash; and see the key to life itself. Yet in doing so, he rocked the establishment and became embroiled in one of the biggest controversies of our age. 
 
This is the story of his incredible life: from teenage rebel and Vietnam medic, to daredevil sailor and maverick researcher, whose race to unravel the sequence of the human genome made him both hero and pariah. Incorporating his own genetic make-up into his story, this is an electrifying portrait of a man who pushed back the boundaries of the possible.

A Life Decoded

My Genome: My Life

Desmond Morris

A must-read for anyone who has ever wondered why people do what they do, from the popular author of The Naked Ape. 
 
This study concerns the city dweller. Morris finds remarkable similarities with captive zoo animals and looks closely at the aggressive, sexual and parental behaviour of the human species under the stresses and pressures of urban living. 
 
‘Compelling and absorbing...Morris is concerned with the tension between our biology and our culture, as it is expressed in power, sex, status and war games’ New York Times

The Human Zoo

Oren Harman

When George Price died in January 1975, his funeral in London was attended by five homeless men. Alongside them were Bill Hamilton and John Maynard Smith, two distinguished British evolutionary biologists. All seven men had come to mourn an eccentric American genius who helped to unpick the riddle of how altruism, or unselfish concern for the welfare of others, could exist in a world driven by survival of the fittest and who committed suicide aged just 52. 
 
In The Price of Altruism Price's personal and professional journey is intricately woven into a sweeping arc of modern politics and science that takes us from Darwin's Beagle to the court of the Russian Tsar, from Marxist manifestos to Nazi heresies, and from First World War trenches to Vietnam demonstrations. Featuring some of the most brilliant minds of the modern age, it is the riveting tale of mankind's search for the origins of kindness.

The Price Of Altruism

George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness

Gary Fildes

A Bricklayer's Guide to the Galaxy . . . 
 
The inspirational memoir of a former brickie who followed his passion for the stars and built his own observatory. 
 
Perfect for readers of Robert Macfarlane, Helen Macdonald and James Rebanks - as well as fans of Brian Cox and the BBC’s Sky at Night 
 
 
Gary Fildes left school at sixteen, got a trade like most of his mates and was soon married with four kids. His life seemed set. But he had a secret. Something he only practised late at night with a few like-minded friends. Then one day, middle age approaching alarmingly, he acted on his lifelong passion. He finally came out. As an astronomer. 
 
Today, Gary is the founder and lead astronomer of Kielder Observatory, one of the top ten stargazing sites in the world, which he also helped to build. Situated in the beautiful forests of Kielder, Northumberland, within Europe’s largest protected dark sky park, it offers some of the UK's most spectacular views of stars, planets and galaxies. 
 
An Astronomer’s Tale is Gary’s inspirational story: part memoir, part nature writing, part seasonal guide to the night sky. It is a book brimming with passion; and at a time when the world is captivated by space, it will leave you ready to get out there and explore the wonders of the skies for yourself.

An Astronomer's Tale

A Bricklayer’s Guide to the Galaxy

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24 must-read books for 9-12-year-olds

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