“Many of us like to believe that we are masters of our own destiny. But increasingly neuroscience is challenging that idea. We can now peer into the brain and see how vast swathes of our complex behaviour are biologically ingrained… (raising) key questions about what it means to be human.” 

Hannah Critchlow

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Hannah Critchlow

How our brains shape our destiny

Released 2021

What made you the person you are today? Drawing on her latest book, The Science of Fate, Dr. Hannah Critchlow explains how the answers to fundamental questions about fate and free will lie in our understanding of the human brain.



Hannah is an internationally-acclaimed neuroscientist with a background in neuropsychiatry. She is Fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge University where she also conducted her PhD research.

She regularly appears on the TV and Radio, most recently as Science Presenter in BBC series Family Brain Games with Dara Ó Briain. Her book on Consciousness: A Ladybird Expert Guide, was published with Penguin in 2018, whilst The Science of Fate, published with Hodder in May, 2019, made The Sunday Times Bestseller list.

In 2019 Hannah was named by Nature as one of Cambridge University’s ‘Rising Stars in Life Sciences’. She was recognised as a ‘Top 100 UK scientist’ by the Science Council in 2014 and one of Cambridge University’s most ‘inspirational and successful women in science’. Hannah’s choice of career stemmed from working as a Nursing Assistant at St Andrews Psychiatric Hospital.

@HanCritchlow

Biography Published 2021