Have we blown the risk of catching Covid-19 out of all proportion? Or are we not nearly frightened enough? The fashionable view is that people have become reckless. Photographs of crowded bars and beaches provide some evidence for that. So too, more worryingly, does...
My local cheesemonger, having reinvented itself as a general produce store, has been open throughout lockdown. The proprietor tells me something strange and new has started to happen. Customers he hasn’t seen since March as they diligently shielded themselves from...
I wanted to like this book, found the early pages a chore.... then suddenly, I found myself hooked. Mary Pilon's book revolves around Ralph Anspach's legal case against Parker Brothers. Parker Brothers own the "Monopoly" boardgame; Anspach, an idealistic economics...
While the world celebrated the discovery that the steroid dexamethasone was an effective treatment for Covid-19 patients on ventilators, my physician friend was unimpressed. It was obvious that dexamethasone would work, she opined; intensive care units should have...
I re-read this fascinating book today to help me with a column. It's terrific stuff: packed with memorable facts yet easy to read, counter-intuitive yet persuasive. Books about technology tend to focus on the inventions, the cutting edge - a timeline of 'firsts'....
I'm excited to announce that on 17 September, my new book will be published in the UK and around the world by Bridge Street Press. How To Make The World Add Up is my effort to help you think clearly about the numbers that swirl all around us. Over the past 13...
The eradication of smallpox is one of humanity's great achievements - but the battle against the virus was fought by the most unlikely of alliances. How did the breakthrough happen - and can we guarantee that the world is still safe from smallpox? Written by Tim...
In the middle of a crisis, it is not always easy to work out what has changed forever, and what will soon fade into history. Has the coronavirus pandemic ushered in the end of the office, the end of the city, the end of air travel, the end of retail and the end of...
This thoughtful - and thought-provoking - book takes on a different undertone when read in the light of lockdown. Odell takes her time describing her slow meanderings around the Rose Garden in Oakland, California, sitting and listening to birdsong. Last year that...