Reading for Battle

Battle Readings is a regularly updated compilation of articles, essays, and opinion pieces relevant to the themes of the Battle of Ideas.

Choose a theme from the listing on the left to narrow your search, or view all readings.

Science & Environment

Britain’s uncreative approach to design
A preoccupation with social engineering hampers the innovative and wealth-generating potential of design.
Martyn Perks, spiked, 18 July 2011

Return to the killing fields: the unspoken cost of Europe's cheap meat
Two years on from our first investigation of the impact of intensive soya farming, Friends of the Earth campaigner Nick Rau explains how progress in tackling the problems are still frustratingly slow
Nick Rau, Ecologist, 14 July 2011

First synthetic windpipe transplant is a success
In a groundbreaking operation, a cancer patient's windpipe was replaced with an artificial replica that had been grown using his own stem cells.
Rebecca Robey, BioNews, 1 July 2011

The end of the Space Age
Inner space is useful. Outer space is history.
The Economist, 30 June 2011

Fracking heaven
Other Europeans fear fracking. Poland is steaming ahead
Economist, 23 June 2011

Telling porkies about big pig farms
Dubious arguments about large-scale agriculture are threatening a proposed megafarm in Derbyshire.
Jason Smith, spiked, 21 June 2011

Aping Mankind: Neuromania, Darwinitis and the Misrepresentation of Humanity

While readily acknowledging the astounding progress neuroscience has made in helping us understand how the brain works, Tallis directs his guns at neuroscience s dark companion -- Neuromania, as he describes it -- the belief that brain activity is not merely a necessary but a sufficient condition for human consciousness and that consequently our everyday behaviour can be entirely understood in neural terms.

Raymond Tallis, Acumen, 3 June 2011

Dodging the burgers won’t save the planet
New film Planeat claims that a vegan lifestyle can save the world and our health. But where’s the beef?
Rob Lyons, spiked, 31 May 2011

Science hands humanity a conundrum
Transplant operations no longer mean replacing relatively simple or at least self-contained organs, but systems of bone, muscle, blood vessels and nerves that all have complex interactions with the rest of the body.
Stephen Harris, Engineer, 27 May 2011

Freedom of information laws are used to harass scientists, says Nobel laureate
Sir Paul Nurse says climate scientists are being targeted by campaigns of requests designed to slow down their research
Alok Jha, Guardian, 25 May 2011


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Festival Buzz
Particle Physics is Sexy

View: Particle Physics is Sexy

"It was like having sex with Richard Dawkins and the Pope at the same time. Incredibly stimulating arguments. "
Julian Gough, novelist