Jesse Bering is a reader in the School of History and Anthropology and Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at Queen’s University, Belfast. His postgraduate studies focused on the psychological differences between human beings and chimpanzees, and this early exposure to comparative psychology, combined with his PhD in developmental psychology, led to his work studying how the evolved human mind plays a part in religious thinking. He is the author of numerous scientific articles on topics ranging from the afterlife to university students’ conceptions of destiny. Bering is one of the lead investigators on a €2-million project funded by the European Commission that aims to unravel the biological reasons why so many people believe in God, gods and religion in general. Called Explaining Religion, it is the largest-ever scientific study of the subject. It began in September 2007, will run for three years, and involves academics from 14 universities and a range of disciplines from psychology to economics. Bering’s popular writings have appeared in American Scientist, Scientific American and New Statesman, and he has had several essays published in John Brockman’s Edge-derived books. He also contributes a regular blog called Quirky Little Things to Psychology Today magazine. An American by birth, he currently lives in a small village in Northern Ireland. He is 33 years old.