THE BIGGEST QUESTIONS EVER ASKED

THE BIGGEST QUESTIONS EVER ASKED

We celebrated New Scientist magazine's 50th birthday by asking some of science’s leading lights to explore the biggest questions of our time. You can find out what they had to say by following the links below.
1.
The Big Questions: What is reality?
Can we be sure that the world we experience is not just a figment of our imaginations, asks Roger Penrose
2.
The Big Questions: What is life?
If we encountered alien life, chances are we wouldn’t recognise it – not even if it were here on Earth, says Robert Hazen
3.
The Big Questions: Do we have free will?
The more we find out about how the brain works, the less room there seems to be for personal choice or responsibility, says Patricia Churchland
4.
The Big Questions: Is the universe deterministic?
However you look at it, the answer seems to be “maybe”, says Vlatko Vedral
5.
The Big Questions: What is consciousness?
How does the brain, with its diverse distributed functions, come to arrive at a unified sense of identity, asks Paul Broks
6.
The Big Questions: Will we ever have a theory of everything?
2000 years of rational enquiry may be approaching their crowning glory. Just one more push could be enough, says Michio Kaku
7.
The Big Questions: What happens after you die?
Only a few people have tried to find out what happens after death We have all wondered if there is an afterlife, but only a few are brave – or foolish – enough to try and find out, says Mary Roach
8.
The Big Questions: What comes after Homo sapiens?
All species are fated either to die out or to evolve into something else – all except humans, who have a chance of a transcendent future, says James Hughes