Dan Jones

Engines of evolution

The elegant complexity of the bacterial flagellum inspires awe, but its humble origins are becoming apparent, says Dan Jones

How to make better choices

Decisions, decisions! Our lives are full of them, from the small and mundane, such as what to wear or eat, to the life-changing, such as whether to get married and to whom, what job to take and how to bring up our children. We jealously guard our right to choose. It is central to our individuality: the very definition of free will. Yet sometimes we make bad decisions that leave us unhappy or full of regret. Can science help? Making good decisions requires us to balance the seemingly antithetical forces of emotion and rationality. We must be able to predict the future, accurately perceive the present situation, have insight into the minds of others and deal with uncertainty. Most of us are ignorant of the mental processes that lie behind our decisions, but this has become a hot topic for investigation, and luckily what psychologists and neurobiologists are finding may help us all make better choices. Here we bring together some of their many fascinating discoveries in the New Scientist guide to making up your mind.

What made us so different from the chimps

Nobody would mistake a human for a chimpanzee, yet we share more DNA than mice and rats do. How can that be?

Diving to the depths of human history

Archaeologists are now turning to the seabed to shed light on how humans left hunter-gathering for fishing and farming.

How do we justify our choices

Psychological cogs which allow the brain to resolve mental turmoil exist even in young children and monkeys

Blame the mouse

A virus that gives mice breast cancer might do the same to humans. Dan Jones investigates

The good delusion

We think of ourselves as moral beasts – understand that and we can all get along better, says Dan Jones

The mark of noro

The audacious norovirus spreads so readily that millions are sickened every year, yet its inner workings still elude us. Dan Jones investigates

Warmonger or idealist: the roots of human conflict

Homo sapiens is not a particularly violent species, we just have more worth fighting for than other animals

Are some of us hybrids with our extinct cousins

DNA evidence suggests Homo sapiens mated with Neanderthals and Denisovans. But not everyone is convinced we were once bed fellows.