Kevin Mitchell

Jan 13, 2025 | wiringthebrain.com | Kevin Mitchell

A new paper just out in Nature, by Peter Visscher and colleagues(including bio-ethicist Julian Salvulescu) explores the idea of polygenicgenome editing of human embryos to reduce the risk of common diseases. This is,to say the least, a controversial idea, and a decidedly fantastical one. Theauthors present the results of statistical modelling which suggests thatediting a small number of risk variants in each embryo’s genome could dramaticallyreduce the risk of a number of common disorders.

May 23, 2024 | gog.com | Austin Fern |Cosmin Vasile |Kevin Mitchell

“An ancient proverb warns: ‘Never trust a demon, for betrayal is their very blood’. Yet the Sura, the great ogres of the Wastes, have a different saying: ‘A demon honours its pact’. Perhaps when the race of men looks into the eyes of hell, they see their own darkness reflected…”– Carissa CantrechtShadows: Awakening is the new adventure in the Heretic Kingdoms saga.

Jan 12, 2024 | wiringthebrain.com | Kevin Mitchell

In his book Determined, Robert Sapolsky argues that our intentions arise in acompletely deterministic fashion from the combined effects of all the priorcauses that have acted on us, right up to the moment of action. He contends (i)that our intentions determine what we do, and (ii) that we have no control overtheir formation – they just appear when we are confronted with each successivesituation we encounter.

Dec 11, 2023 | rsb.org.uk | Kevin Mitchell

December 11th 2023 Neuroscientist Kevin J Mitchell explains how evolution gave us and other organisms the power to shape our futures It seems trendy these days to declare: “free will is an illusion”. We may feel like we’re in charge, like we – our selves – are capable of making deliberative decisions and choosing our own actions for our own reasons. However, science has proven otherwise, or so the claim goes.

Oct 10, 2023 | rsb.org.uk | Kevin Mitchell

Without tackling the fundamental philosophy of biological complexity, we might never truly understand how living organisms work The Biologist 64(6) p6 Biology is not just applied chemistry or applied physics. The components of living systems obey the laws of physics, but the existence and behaviour of living organisms cannot be deduced from those laws alone. Everything that goes on in living things cannot be explained by low-level details.