Diary
Comedian Robin Ince is blinded by science
Culture
End Game: Heard this one?
Laurie Taylor is stuck on repeat
After Dark by Haruki Murakami
Jonathan Derbyshire stays up for a rendezvous with Haruki Murakami
A Guinea Pig’s History of Biology
Lewis Wolpert learns the facts of life from plants
Minding by Chris Paling
Philip Womack is impressed by Chris Paling's mind
Scientists Confront Intelligent Design and Creationism by Andrew Petto & Laurie Godfrey (eds)
AC Grayling cheers as the scientists vanquish Intelligent Design
Fangland by John Marks
Nina Power relishes a Dracula for the TV generation
Napoleon in Egypt by Paul Strathern
In 1789 Napoleon set off to conquer the East. We're still living with the fallout, says Michael Binyon
Deep-boned sadness
Caspar Melville remembers a melancholic master, the novelist Kurt Vonnegut
Cosy concrete
Alvar Aalto's organic modernism may be seductive. But, warns Owen Hatherley, it can also lead to the banal