Everything became imbued with a sense of vitality and life and vividness. If I picked up a pebble from the beach, it would move. It would glisten and gleam and sparkle and be absolutely captivating," says neuroscientist Anil Seth. "Somebody looking at me would see me staring at a stone for hours." Or what seemed like hours to Seth. A researcher at the United Kingdom's University of Sussex, he studies how the brain helps us perceive the world within and without, and is intrigued by what psychedelics such as LSD can tell us about how the brain creates these perceptions. So, a few years ago, he decided to try some, in controlled doses and with trusted people by his side. He had a notebook to keep track of his experiences. "I didn't write very much in the notebook," he says, laughing. Instead, while on LSD, he reveled in a sense of well-being and marveled at the "fluidity of time and space." He found himself staring at clouds and seeing them change into faces of people he was thinking of.

A health check of the world today may seem gloomy – antibiotics are failing, people are dying of easily treatable diseases because they're poor, and conditions such as dementia are on the rise. The scientists, researchers, investors and startups at the Francis Crick Institute in London were only too aware of the challenges – here's what we learned. Women account for almost 50 per cent of the world's population, but women's health technology hasn't updated for years – however, Tania Boler, CEO of London- and Berlin-based start-up Elvie, argued that's about to change. "We are witnessing three big trends," she told the room. "The big feminist surge, the tech revolution in connected devices and the paradigm shift towards individuals taking charge of their own health."