What does it mean to be a scientist working today specifically a scientist whose subject matter is human life Scientists often overstate their claim to certainty sorting the world into categorical distinctions that obstruct rather than clarify its complexities. In this book Daniel Nettle urges the reader to unpick such distinctions versus social sciences mind versus body and nature versus nurture look instead for the for puzzles and anomalies the points of connection and overlap. These essays converted from often humorous sometimes autobiographical blog posts form an extended meditation on the possibilities and frustrations of the life scientific.Pragmatically arguing from the intersection between social and biological sciences Nettle reappraises the virtues of policy initiatives such as Universal Basic Income and income redistribution highlighting the traps researchers and politicians are liable to encounter.