Wisdom in fragments

We are a dark-deprived society in this modern era, and we need darkness for the release of melatonin for healthy sleep. Without melatonin, we will not sleep sufficiently.

Sleep scientist and author of "Why We Sleep

In the spring, when we lose an hour of sleep, we observe a consequential 24% increase in heart attacks the following day. In the Autumn, when we gain an hour, we see a corresponding 21% reduction in heart attacks. It's a clear bi-directional relationship.

Sleep scientist and author of "Why We Sleep

Lack of sleep is like a broken water pipe in your home, it leaks water into every nook and cranny, and erodes the fabric of your DNA nucleic alphabet that spells out your daily health narrative.

Sleep scientist and author of "Why We Sleep

Limiting sleep to just 4-5 hours for one single night will drop levels of critical anti-cancer fighting cells, called natural killer cells, by 70%. That's a rather alarming state of immune deficiency, and it happens after just one night of short sleep.

Sleep scientist and author of "Why We Sleep

Even just 20 years ago we used to ask the question, 'why do we sleep?' It was one of the last great scientific mysteries; and the crass answer (at that point) was that we slept, to cure sleepiness. Much like saying we eat to cure hunger, however, this tells us nothing of the physiological functions that food and nutrition provide.

Sleep scientist and author of "Why We Sleep

When you're not in a geopolitical recession, political risk still matters, but it matters largely at a country level and primarily in emerging markets. But in a geopolitical recession, suddenly the biggest macro risks are by their nature political. And you focus less on growth and more on stability and resilience, and that's a problem because the free market model tells you 'don't focus on resilience and stability, focus first and foremost on growth and everything else will take care of itself'.

Founder of Eurasia Group & Political Risk Analyst

For the last 50, 100 even 200 years, almost all of the world's problems have been solved by a relatively small group of white men- and now we're bringing diversity to the challenge; we're opening out the future of our world to several billion people not just a few hundred million, and with that level of entrepreneurial thinking capacity I would see our civilisation growing exponentially, and that gives me hope.

Founder of Eurasia Group & Political Risk Analyst

China will soon be the world's largest economy and is a state-capitalist nation meaning that the government controls the largest part of the economy. Unlike free markets, that means that finance is necessarily a critical tool of government. In China though, major corporations are a tool of government and so if we're moving to a world where China is going to be dominant economy, by definition finance will be their weapon.

Founder of Eurasia Group & Political Risk Analyst

It's hard to predict risks, but easy to understand resilience, and frighteningly, we're living in a world that is less resilient than I've ever experienced in my lifetime.

Founder of Eurasia Group & Political Risk Analyst

We've entered a geopolitical recession, where the old US led world-order is unwinding. This isn't just a Trump issue- it's about Europe, BREXIT, about Russia undermining the US and the West, the rise of China and its alternative political and economic models. The geopolitical recession is exacerbated by the lack of anyone being willing or able to take (or replace) the American role- thus, we are left with an enormous amount of instability, and little resilience.

Founder of Eurasia Group & Political Risk Analyst

The biggest of all perhaps is how life began. We still don't know how life started from a soup of chemicals – how molecules assembled, replicated, and managed to survive and evolve into incredibly complex life forms. We also don't know how likely this was, and if we ever able to answer that, it will give us a better idea of whether we're alone in the universe.

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry for Ribosome Structure Studies

Much of the pushback against science is related to a distrust of the establishment and of multinational corporations and their profit motive. It's easy to spread fear; as humans we're very tuned and sensitive to it. This is what we've seen with the anti-vaccine movement.

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry for Ribosome Structure Studies

Compare the 1600s to the present day, and what we do now would seem like magic to people from that era. That just shows you how dramatic the transformation of society has been as a result of science and technological advances.

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry for Ribosome Structure Studies

It is essential that the public knows how deeply science and technology affect their lives. A lot of the decisions that will impact our future are underpinned by science, and whilst sometimes these decisions are made by governments – who are elected and hopefully transparent – many are made by corporations who are not generally accountable to the public.

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry for Ribosome Structure Studies

There was no single spark that got me into science. My parents were both scientists, so I was exposed to that world from an early age. I remember noticing that science was international – in our house in India, we would have visitors from many different countries and I found that fascinating.

Nobel Prize Winner in Chemistry for Ribosome Structure Studies

We have reason to be optimistic, but until the public get angry enough about homelessness with politicians rather than the homeless, nothing will change. Politicians respond to public opinions that they believe are electorally significant.

Scottish Writer, Broadcaster & Anti-Poverty Activist & Poet