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MEET THE GUESTS

Essayist and thinker Alain de Botton has travelled the world to explore the meanings we attach to the work we do, examining how for some, work means providing their children with food and shelter, while for others it's a matter of status and self-respect.

The poet and enthusiastic cyclist Paul Fournel is President of the Oulipo literary movement, which encourages its writer members to liberate their imagination through the application of structural constraints.

Research biologist Brian J Ford explains how single cells are not only intricate and self regulating, but demonstrate ingenious responses and behaviour that may even manifest signs of intelligence.