Oliver Sacks - Authors@Google "Oliver Sacks, M.D., is a physician, a best-selling author, and professor of neurology and psychiatry at the Columbia University Medical Center. He discusses his book, The Mind's Eye. Dr. Sacks focuses on creative people who have learned to compensate for potentially devastating disabilities. From the concert pianist who progressively lost the ability to recognize objects yet managed to keep performing from memory; to the writer whose stroke disturbed his ability to read but not his ability to write."

Deborah Gordon - How Ant Colonies Get Things Done (GoogleTechTalks) "Ant colonies operate without central control; there is no one in charge and no ant directs the behavior of others. Colonies perform many tasks including foraging, nest construction, and care of the young. Task allocation is the process that adjusts the numbers of workers performing each task, according to the current situation. How do colonies get ants to show up at a picnic, and what determines which ants go?"

Daniel Dennett on human consciousness and free will Radio ABC: "Daniel Dennett is Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University. Described as the great de-mystifier of consciousness, Dennett has been quoted as saying he developed a deep distrust of the methods he saw other philosophers employing and decided that before he could trust his intuitions about the mind, he had to figure out how the brain could possibly accomplish the mind´s work." Read on

Questioning Democracy ttbook.org: "We kind of know what it means. But do we really? It’s voting and elections, but it’s much, much more than that. Democracy has inspired The Velvet Revolution and the Arab Spring. It encouraged the Suffragists and the Civil Rights Movement. It stirred the hearts of men like Thomas Jefferson and John Adams. But it seems in many ways we still don’t know what democracy means. Truly means." Read on

Tim Flannery's island adventures Radio ABC: "Tim Flannery, before he became a prolific author and commentator on climate change, was a great adventurer. In the 1980s he led or took part in numerous expeditions around little-known Pacific islands." Read on

"Tim Flannery is one of the australias leading thinkers and writers...an internationally-acclaimed scientist, explorer and conservationist, not to mention former Australian of the Year. Here on Earth is Flannery's first major book since The Weather Makers.

In it, he takes a big-picture look at where we are as a species, and what we need to do in order to survive into the future. Flannery draws on Darwin, Wallace and Lovelock to discuss evolution, co-evolution and the issue of sustainability, in the broadest sense."

Videos:

• Flannery giving a talk at the australian National Press Club
• A interview for ABC Radio National