Special report

60A crisis in pathology Pathology is central to the fight against disease. But since the Alder Hey scandal the profession has been under attack. SUE ARMSTRONG

Columns

12Crisis watch How many Madoffs? JONATHAN FORD

20Washington watch Clashing egos in Bamalot. RENEGADE

25This sporting life Let’s win the World Cup. DAVID GOLDBLATT

41These islands Nudity in church. TERENCE KEALEY

52China café Termites are eating my house. MARK KITTO

57Previous convictions Faith: mother of invention. EHSAN MASOOD

58Lab report Obama’s crack science team. PHILIP BALL

63Brussels diary The return of Russian jokes. MANNEKEN PIS

88Confessions Secrets of a debt adviser. DAVID GAFFNEY

Regulars

6Letters 8News & curiosities 10Grayling’s question AC GRAYLING 10Enigmas & puzzles IAN STEWART 86The generalist 87The list

Forthcoming

JULIAN EVANS tails the car lords of Odessa

ANTHONY KING on the untold story of the British in Basra

New columns by SAM LEITH & JULIAN GOUGH

MEGHNAD DESAI profiles Mayawati, India’s untouchable prime ministerial candidate The next issue of Prospect will be published on 26th February

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64Fungi After Tess died, Adam started to hate her family. He hated them almost as much as his own talent for coping. JAMES SCUDAMORE

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Reviews

72When we dead awaken Is this the first great novel of the 21st century? Roberto Bolaño’s 2666 is an epic that is funny, filthy, and obsessed to the point of madness with violent death. TOM CHATFIELD

74Relatively speaking As a fine new book on moral relativisim demonstrates, sometimes it’s vital to be able to tell someone else they’re wrong. MICHAEL BYWATER

75The risible wizard of Oz How did Rupert Murdoch end up the subject of an official biography with such a sharp sense of his ridiculousness? KIM FLETCHER

76Not to be sniffed at Pandemic influenza is the greatest public health threat our society faces. Yet we’re barely aware of the pandemic of 1918. TONY BARNETT

77The king and I A new biography of the last Shah of Iran is engaging but blind to the deepest causes and consequences of the revolution. MICHAEL AXWORTHY

Arts columns

70Widescreen The Prospect Oscars. MARK COUSINS

79Private view Pop goes the art bubble. BEN LEWIS

80Performance notes Opera in the cinema. MARTIN KETTLE

85Smallscreen A ghost story’s best for winter.

PETER BAZALGETTE

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Web exclusives

DANIEL MILLER on James Wood, Zadie Smith and the novel

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ANTONY LERMAN on American Jewish arguments after Gaza

Online archive Revisit our past coverage of some of the topics covered in this issue.

Darwin

MATT RIDLEY on why Darwin was the first evolutionary psychologist

PETER SINGER tries to claim Darwinism for the left

WG RUNCIMAN asks why sociology resists Darwin’s ideas

Israel

BERNARD AVISHAI on the country’s five political-demographic tribes

SUSAN GREENBERG wonders if Israel has been good for the Jews

BERNARD WASSERSTEIN on the three faces of Jerusalem

Doctors

ALISON WOLF explains what went wrong in medical training

ROBERT DRUMMOND & ALEXANDER

LINKLATER ’s dispatches from psychiatry

PAUL THEROUX follows Oliver Sacks on his rounds

Prospect FEBRUARY 2009 5