32 BOOKS in BRiEf OPINION patterns for US cities in 2050. She also sketches the possible weather sea-level rise, flooding and drought. of risks that threaten us, including Bangladesh, Cullen highlights the range around the world, from New warming. Focusing on seven locations pictures of the local impacts of global and interviews with experts to paint draws on the latest climate models Future about nature versus nurture. genetics can put an end to debates that the contemporary vocabulary of and environment. Fox Keller suggests terms such as nature, nurture, gene tangle of ambiguous definitions of late nineteenth century, based on a the divisive concept arose in the we separate the two. She shows that historian Evelyn Fox Keller asks why (Duke Univ. Press, 2010), philosopher– better decisions. us build improved systems and make intricacies of group behaviour can help Miller explains how understanding the robots might patrol and interact. shoals suggest ways in which military offer clues to climate control; and fish networks and transport routes; termites factory production lines, telephone practical problems. Ant colonies inspire ( h arperCollins, 2010), she and Nurture Between Nature Mirage of a Space her critique opposites. In as unrelated often described nurture are Nature and applied to solve and flocks can be swarms, shoals intelligence of how the collective Miller explains journalist Peter (Collins, 2010), In Weather of the emissions. In carbon dioxide we do not curb will change if our weather describes how h Climatologist eidi Cullen Smart Smart Swarm y ork to

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more engaging than a run-of-the-mill heist guilt and regret. Cotillard), a creature of Freudian aggression, loving yet vengeful deceased wife Mal (Marion crumbling dominion of Cobb’s construct of his unconscious psyche of Cobb. It is the majestic, a dream, and so on. At the final level is the manipulating a dream inside a dream inside next the enter to one in asleep falling homage to the artist M. C. Escher. streets of Paris, in a thatlook is a stunning while dreaming, Ariadne bends and folds the first of the film’s breathtaking visuals occur: by Ellen Page. During their preparation, the inclu which proteins could be encoded by DNA. of a code drove Francis Crick to look for a way in history in the twentieth century, and the concept For example, the idea of communism shaped do.physical objects than can affect the world more they have taken seed, and ideas are unstoppable once played by Cillian Murphy. fortune,industrial an to of Robert Fischer, the heir subconscious the in idea tion the arduous task of incep haunts him. Cobb is given gets. He also has a past that from the minds of his tar to extract secrets illegally ist hired by corporations a mind hacker, a special Di (Leonardo Cobb Dom content.its enter the dream of another and manipulate electronic gadgetry to enable one dreamer to thatogy combines a powerful sedative with Batman Begins of how it is to live with severe amnesia, and (2000), one of the best cinematic depictions Christopher Nolan, who brought us bydirected Itis 1999. in reality virtual for that does for dreaming what Inception A smart vision of brain hacking On general release. Warner Bros Pictures: 2010. Directed by Christopher Nolan Inception © Intelligent scripting makes The characters inhabit nested dream worlds, To carry out the job, Cobb assembles a team, The film’s premise is that to isCentral technol a the film fictional

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the the dream narrative before awakening. and external stimuli can be incorporated into can be felt; memory of dream events is absent; moves faster than in reality; intense emotion after teamthe enters Fischer’s dream; time be ignored, such as when gravity is suspended phenom brain hacking. both read out and written into because it suggests that the mind might be to read out a person’s innermost thoughts, and as a neuro ineffableconscious tothe linked is mind, seeking to understand how the physical brain scholar a as me, to appeals story. film The e-mail: [email protected] University, Seoul 136-713, Korea. Technology, Pasadena 91125, USA, and at Korea behavioural biology at the California Institute of Christof Koch they last. Can we say more of life?” Havelock Ellis said, “Dreams are real as long as too are merely dreaming. As the psychologist me with the queasy feeling that perhaps we pander to its audience. Even weeks later, it leaves not does thatproduct Hollywood budget action, during rapid-eye-movement sleep. that has been linked to the feeling of willing an of regions of the parietal cortex, a brain region absence perhaps reflects the partial suppression of voluntary action, or agency or control. This all but the rare lucid dream lacks the feeling patients with epilepsy. However, in real life, and electrode recording of neural activity in physiology,whole-brainthroughimaging qualities of dreams to the underlying neuro The film also accurately reflects the reflects accurately also film The Inception Neuroscientists are beginning to link these en ology ology of dreams: physical laws can is a game changer: a smart, mega- NATURE is a professor of cognitive and engineer designing interfaces | Vol 467 | 2 September 2010

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