Books & Arts

Margo DeMello is fascinated by the evocative tattoo culture among different 'tribes' of scientists.

Linnaea Ostroff examines a history of Genentech, the US company that first made biology a business.

Mathematician Persi Diaconis of Stanford University in California ran away from home in his teens to perform card tricks. As he publishes a book on the mathematics of magic, co-authored with juggler and fellow mathematician Ron Graham, he explains what makes a good trick.

Kevin Finneran hails a timely take on the debate raging over biotechnology breakthroughs in the United States.

Alison Abbott enjoys a German exhibition charting how the human head is revered by cultures worldwide.

As the new director of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge, Joichi Ito brings his knowledge of Internet start-ups — including Flickr, Twitter and licence provider Creative Commons — to the lab that developed the ideas behind the game Guitar Hero and Amazon Kindle's E-Ink technology. Ito talks about the value of playfulness and freedom in scientific discovery.

Andrew Robinson applauds a chronicle of metrication that balances physics with philosophy.

A look at two early human fossils reveals the prejudices in ideas about human evolution, finds Henry Gee.

Novelist Margaret Atwood's essay collection In Other Worlds: SF and the Human Imagination, published this month, is a companion piece to her dystopian fictional world of global warming and engineered plagues. The Canadian author discusses where she gets her science, and her concerns for the future.

Jonathan Weitzman relishes two accounts of how environment can influence the script of our genome.

Ellen Bialystok relishes a journey across the porous borders between languages.

The Icelandic singer Björk's album Biophilia, set for release on 10 October, features songs on DNA, crystals, viruses and electricity — each accompanied by an iPad app that doubles as a music lesson. She explains how her upbringing and environmental activism has inspired her, and how touch-screen technology has changed the way she composes.

An obsession with oil distorts an account of the security of energy supplies, argues Vaclav Smil.

As Japan strives to overcome the Fukushima nuclear disaster, Nick Pidgeon reflects on Charles Perrow's classic book about why complex technologies fail.

Robert Stone, director of the Human Interface Technologies Team at the University of Birmingham, UK, develops 'serious games' for training soldiers and sailors. He explains how immersion in virtual worlds can prepare military personnel for their experiences on the battlefield — and help them to heal after they return.