This is a real rarity: a detailed look at mind control from a serious scientist without preconcept­ions. Vladimir Binhi, a physicist at the General Physics Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, knows a lot about the interaction of magnetic fields with living things. You might say he wrote the book on it, Magnetobiology by V Binhi being a standard text.

Binhi starts off with some history which will be familiar to fans of forteana – the infamous CIA MK-ULTRA programme and Project Pandora. He then looks at brain control, with good explan­ations of the uses and limitations of MRI, magnetoencephalo­graphy, transcranial magnetic stimulat­ion and the microwave auditory effect.