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Issue 13
FEATURES
GHOST IN THE MACHINEConsciousness is the last bastion of research: a ghost in the machinery of the brain we cannot see but only dimly detect. But why does it exist at all? Steven Pinker delves into what remains largely a mystery.
THE LABYRINTH OF MEMORYWe rely on memory every day, but barely understand its mysterious machinery. That's now changing, heralding a future of improved memory function, says Elizabeth Finkel.
THE ACID TESTIt's been banned for 35 years, but some scientists argue that a comeback for the therapeutic use of psychedelic drugs like LSD is overdue. But is there a place for LSD in medicine today, asks Alex Wilde.
VOICES WITHINFrom Galileo to Andy Warhol, hearing voices has been common among the creative … and the mad. But as Bettina Thraenhardt discovers, it may be even more prevalent than people like to admit.
A CASE OF CONSCIENCEOnce painted as a Frankenstein, his family was targeted and his reputation undermined. But Colin Blakemore chose to make a stand for good science - and won out. Elizabeth Finkel revisits Blakemore's conflict with public opinion on animal experimentation. REGULAR SECTIONS
Brain Surgery
At Sydney's Prince of Wales Hospital, neurosurgeon Marcus Stoodley embarks on a four-hour operation to repair a potentially deadly brain aneurysm. Photographer Erica Harrison captures the action. Sound Scape
It's not just bats who use sound to see: blind people can also click and chirp their way around objects. Puya Abolfathi finds out how a remarkable young man uses sonar navigation to find his way through life. Brain of the Beholder
Is there a neurological basis for our preferences in art and design? Increasingly, science believes so. David Sokol shows how the organisation of the brain relates to the conception and experience of art. Mission impossible
Venturing into a surgical no-go zone, neurosurgeon Charlie Teo set out against the odds to remove the deadly brain stem glioma threatening an 11 year-old girl's life. Forever young
Western societies have an increasingly ambiguous and uncomfortable relationship with ageing. Michael Dumiak explains why the ageing population has become obsessed with youth. Peril in paradise
Tasmania's wildlife has been plagued by a series of strange, disfiguring diseases. David Salt reveals why the platypus is now at risk. Whispering skulls
Around the world, evidence abounds that brain surgery was practised - even common - in many ancient cultures. Susan Brown finds out why. Blue moon
Space may be thrilling- but it can also drive you crazy. Heather Catchpole looks at how astronauts would cope on a three-year mission to Mars. Fame and misfortune
It's celebrated case in medical and psychological literature - a 19th century man speared through the brain who fully recovered. John Fleischman asks how much of what we know about the unfortunate Phineas Gage is urban myth? The polluted republic
China is growing so fast it's in danger of choking in the environmental degradation of its success. Anthony Anderton visits "the air pollution capital of the planet," where change is now afoot, from the bureaucracy down to the crowded streets. Propaganda
Understanding all of the functions of the human brain, even conciousness, may one day be within our grasp- but that wont diminish our humanity. Feedback
Letters, and Cosmos wins big at the Bell Awards. Express
Short science bites for a fast read. Technophile
Tv's get bigger and better. Diagnosis
Imagine waking up to find yourself being strangled by your own hand Rob Moodie describes alien hand syndrome- the involuntary movement of an upper limb where the affected limb feels as if it has a mind of its own. Fiction
Her face was blotched red with anger. "You're offering me a choice between giving you back your hand, and raising a child that you hate." Mary Robinette Kowal tells the story of a musician and his wife struggling with the choice of conceiving a child for the purpose of restoring his hand, mutilated in an accident two weeks earlier. Omnivore
Reviews of books and DVDs. Opinion
Science can help us stretch the boundaries of the human mind- so lets do it, says Ramez Naam. 
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