There’s nothing wrong with plugging a friend’s book
The advantage of reviewing books by a friend is that you can invite him out for a walk across the…
Physicists have stranger ideas than the most preposterous Old Testament preacher
The beliefs of physicists are infinitely kookier than anything in the Bible, says Alexander Masters
How could anyone enjoy Cédric Villani’s ‘Birth of a Theorem’? I think I’ve worked it out
I’ve got a mathematical problem. Birth of a Theorem is by one of the great geniuses of today, a cosmopolitan,…
Alexander Masters’s diary: The idea that could unlock dozens of new cancer drugs
Two million pounds can buy you consideration for a place on a medical trial! Every year untold numbers of potential…
Diary
In Scandinavia, gene therapists have invented a virus that may treat the cancer that killed multi-billionaire Steve Jobs — but…
Smart ass
It’s the way Caroline pisses onto the concrete during the lunch break that delights her work colleagues: in a steaming, splattery arc.
Cold comfort
A good story is made of bones.
The short life and hard times of a mathematical genius
Alexander Masters on David Leavitt's latest novel
The language of mathematics
‘I find that the earth is not as round as it is described, but it is shaped like a pear,’…
Castrated by a grateful nation
Some people’s lives drive you into a rage. Alan Turing’s is one. In The Man Who Knew Too Much David…
From faintly weird to fiercely eccentric
HERMIT WANTEDFree meals and accommodation.Situated on grand estate.Would suit the quiet type. When Giles and Ginny married ‘it was like…
No ordinary Joe
I can’t decide whom I distrust more in True Story: the author, a humane and thoughtful man, or his subject,…
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