Born in Rochdale, Lancashire, UK, Brian attended the Manchester Grammar School, then read Natural Sciences (specialising in experimental physics) at Cambridge University. After graduating, he spent a year at Lancaster University where he gained an MA in Operational Research, a discipline developed during the Second World War to apply mathematics and probability to warfare and since widely applied to business problem solving. 

From Lancaster, he joined British Airways, where he formed a new department tasked with developing hi-tech solutions for the airline. His emphasis on innovation led to working with creativity guru Dr. Edward de Bono, and in 1994 he left BA to set up his own creativity consultancy, running courses on the development of ideas and the solution of business problems. His clients included the BBC, the Met Office, Sony, GlaxoSmithKline, the Treasury, Royal Bank of Scotland and many others.

Brian now concentrates on writing popular science books, including A Brief History of Infinity, Cracking Quantum Physics and What Do You Think You Are.. More on Brian’s books at www.brianclegg.net. He has also written regular columns, features and reviews for numerous magazines and newspapers, from Nature and BBC Focus to The Times and The Observer. His books have been translated into many languages, including German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Norwegian, and Indonesian.

Brian has given sell-out lectures at the Royal Institution in London and has spoken at venues from Oxford and Cambridge Universities to Cheltenham Festival of Science. He has also contributed to radio and TV programmes, and is a popular speaker at schools. He has appeared with the BBC's business editor, Robert Peston, teaching him quantum theory, took part in a feature on time travel to accompany the movie Looper and took part in the University Challenge Christmas Special. Most recently he appeared on Newsnight to discuss electric cars. Brian is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Bristol University and is also editor of the successful www.popularscience.co.uk book review site.

fromBrainjacking explores the psychology of storytelling - the ability that makes us human. To discover how science intersects with our desires and decisions, science writer Brian Clegg pulls together three ways that we use story to modify others’ brains: informing, influencing and manipulating. We discover how techniques can range from subtle nudges and subliminal influences to powerful emotional manipulation. Pulling together topics including education, advertising, AI, Big Data, social media and more, this particularly topical talk investigates story’s influential power.

Includes:

• Where does brainjacking occur in education, from Brain Gym to growth mindset and how we equip children to deal with AI, manipulative messages and a new world of information?
• How are we deceived into thinking what we experience is different from reality by optical illusions, storytelling misdirection and apparent mental powers?
• How did Mr Bates vs The Post Office change minds in a way that documentaries and news articles never could?
• How could an academic paper about the effect of low calorie drinks on autism, and another about lightsabers be misrepresented to cause dramatic headlines?
• How did advertising and marketing begin with smoke signals to indicate a silent trade, make Mrs Pinkham’s vegetable compound a hit, and use brainscans to try to influence better?
• Do we really see between 6,000 and 10,000 adverts a day?
• Has the average human attention span dropped from 12 seconds, to be less than ’the average attention span of a goldfish’ at 8 seconds?
• Did nudges result in an increase in organ donation, less litter in Texas and more recycling in Windsor and Maidenhead?
• Can priming make us buy more through subliminal advertising, or make us feel older just by using certain words?
• What does the future of advertising, marketing and manipulation hold?