New members of the National Academy of Sciences in the US are asked to pen an inaugural article for its journal, the PNAS. Biologist Anthony R. Cashmore, of the University of Pennsylvania, has used the opportunity to set down a sweeping program for the reorganisation of all of society. Professor Cashmore is a plant biologist. Based on his studies of the plant species Arabidopsis thaliana, he has researched photoreceptors and how they drive plant growth and development, including changes in pigmentation and gene expression, seed germination, stem elongation, circadian rhythms and flowering.

Moving boldly out of his area of specialisation he demands that biologists recognise that free will is nonsense, that we are not responsible for our actions and that the criminal law must be fundamentally restructured.

“if we no longer entertain the luxury of a belief in the ‘magic of the soul’, then there is little… click here to read whole article and make comments