What Scientists Think

Jeremy Stangroom is co-editor of The Philosophers' Magazine.

'I don't often recommend books in the health column, but I have to make an exception this week. It's called What Scientists Think ... Why do I recommend it as a doctor? Because there are chapters on the brain and consciousness, on psychiatry and schizophrenia, on viruses and their threats, and on cancer research and animal experimentation, all of which are absolute 'must' reads for anyone who wishes to be properly informed on all of these subjects. If I were a schoolteacher I'd buy a copy for every teenager and certainly every student going to university - not just those studying science, but for all the others, too, who find science difficult or even alien ... it is straightforward and thought-provoking and if you have opinions on science be prepared to change them.' – Dr Tom Smith, Broadcasting Doctors' Association'Highly personal yet wholly intellectual, the interviewees reflect current hotspots in research' – Victoria Neumark, TES'What Scientists Think ... can begin, incrementally, to give non-scientists a glimpse of how scientists work, and their thoughts and worries ... Stangroom has produced a volume in which the issues are contemporary and the interviewees speak clearly and non-technically. At just 194 pages, it is a simple and pleasingly effective manual for understanding scientists and what they think.' – Mark Pagel, New Humanist

• Preface. Introduction. The Interviews 1. Darwinism and Genes 2. Evolutionary Psychology and the Blank Slate3. The Human Brain and Consciousness 4. Science and the Human Animal 5. Cybernetics and a Post-Human Future 6. Psychiatry and Schizophrenia 7. Microbiology, Viruses and Their Threats 8. On Cancer Research 9. Animal Experimentation, Ethics and Medical Research 10. Science Under Threat 11. Biodiversity 12. Science: Its Dangers and its Public Further Reading