I watch Rufus, a friend’s dog, chew enthusiastically on a rubber bone. I know the dog is alive, and his toy is not. I know that intuitively. But can I prove it scientifically? Can science parse the ...

A scientist is supposed to write within his field of expertise as a matter of noblesse oblige, writes Erwin Schrödinger, one of the architects of modern quantum science, in his 1944 book What Is Life?

New Scientist tackles eight of the deepest challenges faced by science – from reality and consciousness, to free will and death, in The Big Questions special features. No human discovery could have ...