Essay in 2008

Technological developments in astronomy have long helped to answer some of the greatest questions tackled by humanity, recounts Owen Gingerich.

The movement of people into societies that offer a better way of life is a more powerful driver of cultural evolution than conflict and conquest, say Peter J. Richerson and Robert Boyd.

Mathematical models can reveal how prosocial human behaviour — and even social intelligence and language — have evolved, argues Martin A. Nowak.

Anniversaries of Charles Darwin's life and work have been used to rewrite and re-energize his theory of natural selection. Janet Browne tracks a century of Darwinian celebrations.

Generosity and solidarity towards one's own may have emerged only in combination with hostility towards outsiders, says Samuel Bowles.

We must discover why cognitive differences are related to morbidity and mortality, argues Ian Deary, in order to help tackle health inequalities.

Language evolved as part of a uniquely human group of traits, the interdependence of which calls for an integrated approach to the study of brain function, argue Eörs Szathmáry and Szabolcs Számadó.

Financial engineers have put too much faith in untested axioms and faulty models, says Jean-Philippe Bouchaud. To prevent economic havoc, that needs to change.

Fundamental misunderstandings about classification can lead scientists down unproductive or dangerous paths, argue Jeffrey Parsons and Yair Wand.

Atheism will always be a harder sell than religion, Pascal Boyer explains, because a slew of cognitive traits predispose us to faith.

Why does a developing nation have such an ambitious space programme? Subhadra Menon traces its foundations back to the work of one visionary physicist 60 years ago.

The 1980s saw plenty of discussion on sequencing the human genome. But, according to Charles DeLisi, one conference was crucial for converting an idea to reality.

John Houghton chaired the tense IPCC meeting without which there would be no Kyoto Protocol. Here he recalls how science won the day.

Two decades ago, Deng Xiaoping welcomed nations to an international meeting in Beijing. Mohamed Hassan recalls how China's leaders set out their plans for the nation to rejoin the world's scientific elite.

Agriculture in developing countries was transformed when scientists met aid officials and convinced them to invest in research. Lowell S. Hardin was there, and believes today's food crisis demands a similar vision.

The California meeting set standards allowing geneticists to push research to its limits without endangering public health. Organizer Paul Berg asks if another such meeting could resolve today's controversies.

François de Rose chaired the meeting that founded Europe's premier facility for experimental nuclear and particle research. Here he relives the five days of drama that changed the world of physics.

The first mass data crunchers were people, not machines. Sue Nelson looks at the discoveries and legacy of the remarkable women of Harvard's Observatory.

A tug-of-war between the mother's and father's genes in the developing brain could explain a spectrum of mental disorders from autism to schizophrenia, suggest Christopher Badcock and Bernard Crespi.

To understand how mirror neurons help to interpret actions, we must delve into the networks in which these cells sit, say Antonio Damasio and Kaspar Meyer.