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A crucial new book by a pioneer of behaviour genetics My Review in The Times of Robert Plomin’s new book: For a long time there was an uncomfortable paradox in the world of behaviour genetics. The evidence for genes heavily influencing personality, intelligence and almost everything about human behaviour got stronger and stronger as more […]

Two fine new books on the journeys of birds and the first ornithologist     This is recent Times feature article I wrote on the incredible new discoveries of what seabirds get up to far from land, and on the man who first visited seabird colonies with a scientific eye in the 1660s. It’s sometimes […]

How the UK held off regulation that could have killed a life-saving technology My recent Times essay on the history of vaping and why the UK became such a hub of electronic cigarettes: Britain is the world leader in vaping. More people use ecigarettes in the UK than in any other European country. It’s more […]

The plot to prevent Brexit is not being honest My Times column on the parliamentary battle over Brexit: Dominic Grieve, MP, and Viscount Hailsham are clever barristers both, and agreeable company. I was at Oxford with one, sit in the Lords with the other, and count them as friends. But what they are up to […]

A House of Lords report on the opportunities for artificial intelligence My Times column on artificial intelligence: As a member of the House of Lords select committee on artificial intelligence, whose report is released today, I was struck by two things during the course of our inquiry: how well placed Britain could be to take […]

How public and private bureaucracies stifle innovation My Times column on the rent-seeking crony-capitalists who stifle innovation: While the world economy continues to grow at more than 3 per cent a year, mature economies, from Europe to Japan, are coagulating, unable to push economic growth above sluggish. The reason is that we have more and […]

Urban wildlife is expanding and evolving faster than expected My Times column on the evolution of urban wildlife:   Easter Monday bank holiday feels like a good moment to put aside politics and consider something far more portentous: evolution. Recently I was walking alongside a canal in central London, surrounded by concrete, glass, steel and […]

True meritocracy is a state in which success is determined by heredity My Times column on genes, intelligence and selective schools: The good news is you can save on school fees. A new study finds that selective schools add almost nothing to the exam results of students, because the advantages teenagers come out with are […]

Unlimited cheap energy would transform society My Times column on Britain’s energy options:   Until 2004 Britain was a net energy exporter. Today, it imports about half its energy. Some of that, in the form of coal and liquefied natural gas, comes directly from Russia, which also supplies a third of Europe’s gas through pipelines. […]

The bias towards bad news is getting worse, and affecting how we act My Times column on the how pessimism bias affects the way we think:   ‘Deadly new epidemic called Disease X could kill millions, scientists warn,” read one headline at the weekend. “WHO issues global alert for potential pandemic,” read another. Apparently frustrated […]