The effective separation of sex (‘in bed’) and fertilization (‘under the microscope’) has already been practised successfully for the past 25 years by well over one million people – virtually all of them suffering from infertility problems. But why, where and when will fertile people resort to assisted reproductive techniques to become parents? And why are the prospects for fundamentally new methods of birth control so dim?

Quantitative genetics, using data from twin and adoptee studies, has shown substantial genetic influences on all forms of psychiatric disorder; however, with just a few exceptions, the evidence indicates that the disorders are multifactorial, with influences that are both genetic and environmental. In recent years, molecular genetics has begun to identify individual susceptibility genes; examples are given for schizophrenia, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and Alzheimer's disease. Both quantitative and molecular genetics have shown the importance of gene-environment interplay with respect to the commoner disorders of emotions and behaviour. In particular, it has been found that genetic influences moderate people's vulnerability to environmental risks. Five main alternative routes by which genes indirectly (via their effects on proteins) lead to multifactorial psychiatric disorders are described. Four main research issues are highlighted: the fuller delineation of the mechanisms involved in nature–nurture interplay and its role in aetiology; determination of how genes play a role in the neural underpinning of psychiatric disorders; identification of the ways in which genes suggest a dissection of disorders; and an understanding of the role of risk dimensions and disorder dimensions.

We already have considerable insight into the working of the brain, that part of our body which generates the mind, which makes us hope and wish and feel, and finally allows us to comprehend ourselves as ‘Self’. However, the big questions about what thinking, consciousness and emotions really consist of cannot be answered yet. Continued research on the brain persists, tackling one of the greatest challenges for the human mind, namely: to discover its own preconditions, to unravel its own prerequisites. May we hope (or fear) that, in the future, brain research we will be able to give the final answer to that everlasting question of philosophy ‘What makes us human?’ Or is there an epistemological barrier when we look at the human brain and the subjectivity generated by it? There are fundamental cognitive problems regarding the extreme complexity of the brain's system and the brain–mind question. On the other hand, the findings of brain research are already so compelling that their interpretations should be guidelines for the humanities and the social sciences.

Rapid developments in neuroscience over the past four decades continue to receive wide media attention. Each new reported advance points to ever tightening links between mind and brain. For many centuries, what is today called ‘mind-talk’ was familiar as ‘soul-talk’. Since, for some, the possession of a soul is what makes us human, the challenges of cognitive neuroscience directly address this. This paper affords the non-specialist a brief overview of some of the scientific evidence pointing to the ever tightening of the mind-brain links and explores its wider implications for our understanding of human nature. In particular it brings together the findings from so-called bottom-up research, in which we observe changes in behaviour and cognition resulting from experimental interventions in neural processes, with top-down research where we track changes in neural substrates accompanying habitual modes of cognition or behaviour. Further reflection alerts one to how the dualist views widely held by New Agers, some humanists and many religious people, contrast with the views of academic philosophers, theologians and biblical scholars, who agree in emphasizing the unity of the person.

In many languages, the concept of ‘Civil society’ has had an astonishing career over the last 10 to 15 years, in disciplines such as history and sociology as well as with the public at large. This article presents a short history of the concept, offers a definition and explores the reasons for its popularity by identifying its conceptual ‘opponents’, which have changed over time. It discusses the changing relations between civil society, the market economy, government and the private sphere. It deals with the affinity between civil society and the middle classes in some areas and periods. It finally explores the trends and limits of the emergence of a transnational civil society in Europe. It is an overview that deals with the present problems from a historical perspective.

The environment has many of the properties that economists associate with the concept of a public good. It has long been realized that, if left to itself, the market economy is likely to lead to an undersupply of public goods and, in the environmental area, to an insufficient use of resources to preserve environmental quality. Economics research in this area has concentrated on three central issues. First, exactly why is it that a market economy fails to allocate resources efficiently in the presence of environmental public goods or externalities? Second, how can one assess the economic value of environmental goods? Third, what kinds of policy are best suited for the protection of the environment, e.g. should one rely on tax and price incentives or on quantitative regulations? This article discusses these questions and also describes the evolution of the economic perspective on the environment, from a concern with local problems to focus on international and global issues of environmental pollution.

Heike Kamerlingh Onnes (1853–1926) was famous for the Cryogenic Laboratory he built up at Leiden University. Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (1853–1928), Professor of theoretical physics at the same university and Onnes' closest colleague, left Leiden in 1912. According to Lorentz's daughter, this move had been initiated by a ‘trick’ Onnes had played on her father a few years earlier. Lorentz had been given two small laboratories for his personal use, but within a short time, according to Lorentz' daughter, Onnes just pinched those rooms and added them to his big laboratory. How did Kamerlingh Onnes and Lorentz get along together, and what really happened in the ‘case of the stolen rooms’?

Planet Earth is unique in our solar system as an abode of life. In contrast to its planetary neighbours, the presence of liquid water, a benign atmospheric environment, a solid surface and an internal structure providing a protective magnetic field make it a suitable habitat for man. While natural forces have shaped the Earth over millennia, man through his technological prowess may become a threat to this oasis of life in the solar system.