Larry Schwartz – Can a Pill Make You Smarter? The Brave New World of Smart Drugs

In the 2011 movie Limitless, our loser-turned-hero Bradley Cooper takes a pill, writes a novel in a few days, becomes an investment tycoon, and performs other tricks of mental derring-do. And of course at the end of the movie (spoiler alert!), he gets the girl. If only such a pill really existed. Well, it may. Sort of. Welcome to the world …

Put down the smart drugs – cognitive enhancement is ethically risky business – Nicole Vincent

Cognitive performance enhancers promise to deliver a better version of ourselves: smarter, more alert and more mentally agile. But what if such enhancement was no longer a personal choice but a socially and legally enforced responsibility? In the final instalment of Biology and Blame, Nicole A Vincent and Emma A. Jane explore the risks of normalising this emerging trend. In Australia …