This week’s must-read piece is an interview by Steve Silberman – the first post of his new blog no less – with Oliver Sacks, a neurologist and excellent writer in his own right. Learn about the incredible hallucinations that followed Sacks’ bout with cancer in his eye. This is what happens when a journalist who does their research gets the best out of an interviewee who’s a consummate storyteller.

“She stays feminine all the way from the lungs up to the glottis and is neutered only when she reaches the tip of the tongue.” A brilliant NYT piece on how language shapes the way we think, which scores extra points for the beautiful writing.

Last week, Harvard researchers published