Peter Forbes – Medium

Peter Forbes

Against Sapiocentrism

In the late 1980s, I published a poem, ‘Auden’, in the Spectator, in the style of his late 1930s sonnets on various themes. My poem tried…

4 min readJul 11, 2022

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Against Sapiocentrism

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Peter Forbes

What is Life?

“Biology expands our vision of life, letting us see beyond our experiences of being alive, look back over billions of years of living…

6 min readAug 1, 2021

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What is Life?

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Peter Forbes

Man of Moments:Louis MacNeice

Philip Larkin, in an obituary of Louis MacNeice said “he was… a town observer: his poetry was the poetry of our everyday life, of…

22 min readMar 21, 2021

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Peter Forbes

The Extractivist Era

“Extractivism” is not a word much bandied about today; “populism” is. But the latter is misnomer: the project that brought Trump to power…

6 min readFeb 6, 2021

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The Extractivist Era

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Peter Forbes

Get Back to Catch a Falling Star on the Endless Highway

Frank Zappa once commented on the difference timbre makes to any melody, citing the notion of trying to play ‘Purple Haze’ on bagpipes…

4 min readJun 11, 2020

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Peter Forbes

Plants are Parallel Processors

It’s that time of year when gardeners can’t keep up with the burgeoning growth of their plants. We can only tackle one job at a time and…

5 min readMay 10, 2020

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Plants are Parallel Processors

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Peter Forbes

Tendrils Alive

I have accidentally come across a very remarkable plant. Cobaea scandens is a climbing annual from Mexico that grows to three metres from…

6 min readApr 25, 2020

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Tendrils Alive

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Peter Forbes

Britannia’s Unlikely Rise and all too predictable fall

How, in the 19th century, did a small, previously marginal, North West European country manage to install its Queen as Empress of India…

16 min readJan 28, 2020

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Peter Forbes

How the Warfare State Failed

That’s us — Great Britain, the UK — I’m talking about. If the term “Warfare State” is unfamiliar to you, as it will be to most I will…

6 min readJul 20, 2019

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How the Warfare State Failed

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Peter Forbes

How Dumb Can Smart Get?

AI and Big Data are the future, obviously. Humans are such feeble things and, anyway, free will has been proven to be an illusion. But…

3 min readMay 3, 2019

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Peter Forbes

Peter Forbes

I write about biomimicry and nanoscience in books and review science books for the Guardian and Independent. Teach Narrative Non-fiction at City University.

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