Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 26 October 1917In the damp wood, where the fallen leaves ooze moisture underfoot, clusters of toadstools and other fungi rise out of decay. They are white, yellow, brown, red, or crimson with chalky spots; some are a deep forbidding purple, but all alike are interesting or beautiful in form, suggesting to the children the table, stools, or umbrellas of fairy-spirits of the woodlands. On many fallen leaves are sooty spots and purple blotches, and other rusts and mildews are working on the foliage; when fungoid growths attack the fallen twigs, often covering them with ruddy pimples, and quickly turn their wood to moist red tinder and later into the soil. Flourishing on the decay, the fungus works in autumn for the growth of spring; the dormant but healthy seed, buried beneath this life in death, receives its food and shelter from the useless matter upon which the fungus thrived.Related: 100 years ago: Beautiful fungi Continue reading...

Study finds risk of postpartum depression among new mothers also affected by other factors such as length of pregnancyWomen who give birth in winter or spring are less likely to suffer postnatal depression than at other times of year, a study has shown.Other factors affecting the risk of postnatal depression, also known as postpartum depression (PPD), included the length of pregnancy, whether or not an epidural was given during delivery, and body mass index. Continue reading...

A global struggle to find the cause of the rare condition that causes uncontrollable sleepiness has a long and strange history, but there’s hope of a cure at handOne of my first jobs was to keep a lookout for lions. There are some occupations that are not suitable for someone with untreated narcolepsy and this is probably one of them. I was 22, a recent zoology graduate studying meerkats in the Kalahari desert in South Africa. We worked in pairs, one of us on foot, walking with meerkats, the other in the jeep scanning the horizon for danger. On many occasions, I awoke with the imprint of the steering wheel on my forehead, realising that meerkats and colleague had wandered out of sight. I would look for signs of life and, as the panic grew, signs of death. I can tell this story now only because no one got eaten.I have not always been like this. For the first 20 years of my life, I had a healthy relationship with sleep. Shortly after my 21st birthday, though, I began to experience symptoms of narcolepsy, a rare disorder thought to affect about one in every 2,500 people. If people know one thing about narcolepsy, it’s that it involves frequent bouts of uncontrollable sleepiness. This is true, but the condition is so much more disabling, often accompanied by cataplexy (where a strong emotion causes loss of muscle tone and a ragdoll-like collapse), trippy dreams, sleep paralysis, frightening hallucinations and, paradoxically, fractured night-time sleep. There is no cure. Yet. Continue reading...

Damage to the amygdala, not bad parenting, is to blame for psychopathic children, believes Abigail MarshThe concept of a psychopathic child makes people queasy. The two categories seem incompatible. Children, even badly behaved ones, are viewed as maintaining some fundamental innocence, whereas psychopaths are seen as fundamentally depraved. Neither stereotype is totally true. Children, just like adults, are capable of cruelty and violence, and even highly psychopathic people are not cruel or violent all of the time.Psychopathy is a developmental disorder. It doesn’t emerge out of nowhere in adulthood – all psychopathic adults show signs during adolescence or childhood. Continue reading...

Fossil discovered after 70 million years shows Jurassic group sleeping peacefully togetherThe three young dinosaurs had snuggled together to sleep when disaster struck. A thick layer of ash or soil, probably from a volcanic eruption or sand storm, poured over them and the animals, each the size of a large dog, died within minutes.For 70 million years they lay entombed, cradled beside each other within a slab of rock, until US scientists uncovered their remains earlier this year. Subsequent analysis of the fossilised bones – which come from the Gobi desert – reveal the first known example of roosting among dinosaurs. Continue reading...

The past decade has demonstrated when ‘choice architecture’ in politics can succeed and when it doesn’t workWe live in a time when government seems to have the Sadim touch: everything politicians lay their hands on turns into the opposite of gold. So it is a pleasant surprise when a significant piece of policy affecting the futures of millions of people is working as intended.Many folk park pensions in that segment of the brain where they keep things they know to be important, but find boring. Many folk would prefer to spend any surplus income today rather than save it for tomorrow. As a result, Britain has a serious problem. Its citizens are saving far too little for their retirement. Five years ago, the government did something to try to remedy this. It changed the way in which workers make pension decisions by introducing auto-enrolment. Where previously employees had to take a series of steps to opt into a company pension, now you are automatically signed up unless you actively choose to opt out. This subtle-sounding switch has had a rather dramatic result. More than eight million people have started saving for the first time, which means they also receive a pension contribution from their employers. Continue reading...

Programme may be rolled out nationwide to cut soaring risk to playersA series of exercises performed before rugby matches can dramatically reduce injury, according to a benchmark study that the game’s coaches hope will rebut the charge that they do not take the issue of concussion seriously.The programme, known as Activate, is the result of a project by health researchers at the University of Bath and England Rugby. The results, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, suggest that the exercises can significantly reduce concussion and lower limb injuries. Continue reading...

Insects have triumphed for hundreds of millions of years in every habitat but the ocean. Their success is unparalleled, which makes their disappearance all the more alarmingThirty-five years ago an American biologist Terry Erwin conducted an experiment to count insect species. Using an insecticide “fog”, he managed to extract all the small living things in the canopies of 19 individuals of one species of tropical tree, Luehea seemannii, in the rainforest of Panama. He recorded about 1,200 separate species, nearly all of them coleoptera (beetles) and many new to science; and he estimated that 163 of these would be found on Luehea seemannii only.

South of the border, dialects are discussed as a matter of interest. North of the border, they really matterAccents might be seen as the failure of speech to match some imaginary norm. What’s odd in Glasgow seems ordinary in Essex, and vice versa; and what was ordinary yesterday seems extraordinary now. In Ma’am Darling, Craig Brown’s recently published (and very entertaining) biographical study of Princess Margaret, the author devotes a chapter to the princess’s stilted encounter in 1981 with Roy Plomley on Desert Island Discs. “Ma’am, have you a big collection of records?” the presenter begins reverentially. “Ears, quate,” says the princess. “Have you kept your old 78s?” Plomley ploughs on. “Oh, ears,” the princess replies, “they’re all velly carefully preserved.”The “ears” is baffling until Brown discloses that that’s how she says “yes”, just as she says “nyair” for “no” and “velly” for “very”; and of course the short “a” now commonly rendered as an “e” in comic transcriptions of Brief Encounter: “Eh hev them up in the ettic, eckshleh,” HRH says when Plomley wonders where her 78rpms are kept. Or rather, that’s what Craig Brown hears. When I find the recording of that episode in the BBC archive, I hear something different. “Yes” sounds more or less like “yes”. No matter how often I say “ears” aloud, I can’t hear a “yes” lurking inside it. Continue reading...

Orthopaedic surgeon whose ‘Exeter stem’ implant transformed hip replacement surgeryRobin Ling, who has died aged 90, was an orthopaedic surgeon at the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic hospital in Exeter whose contribution to hip surgery resulted in an improved quality of life for millions of people. His research and teaching had a profound influence on the development of hip replacement operations and of revision (re-do) hip surgery. He was responsible for establishing many of today’s surgical techniques.His research built on the work of Sir John Charnley, who pioneered the total hip replacement in the early 1960s. With Clive Lee, an engineer at Exeter University, Robin designed a tapered implant shape that he thought would help the stem remain firmly attached to the skeleton in the long-term. Their implant was first inserted in 1970 and is still used today, with some minor alterations. The “Exeter stem” has been shown to work well in patients of all ages, no matter the shape of their anatomy or the cause of their arthritic hip. Continue reading...

With the Orionids due to peak over the weekend, you can share your photos via GuardianWitnessWatch the skies! We are building to the peak time for spotting the Orionid meteor shower over this weekend.

Findings are a cause for concern and symptom of the ‘over-medicalising of human distress’, says co-author of report using NHS dataThe use of electroconvulsive therapy to treat serious mental health problems is more prevalent in women and older individuals, researchers have found.The study, which looked at data from a group of NHS trusts in England between 2011 and 2015, found that, on average, two thirds of recipients of ECT were women, and 56% were people aged over 60. Continue reading...

A new frontier for science opened on Monday, when astronomers around the world witnessed neutron stars colliding – and resolved the debate about where gold and platinum come from. The extraordinary event, first picked up by the US-based observatory Ligo, in which the two ultra-dense stars spiralled inwards, violently collided and probably collapsed into a black hole, was “seen” for the first time, in both gravitational waves and light. In another first, Japan’s space agency Jaxa announced that its Selene probe had come across a 54km-long chasm beneath the lunar surface that could be turned into an exploration base for astronauts. In a breakthrough for artificial intelligence, Google DeepMind has unveiled AlphaGo Zero, which took just three days to master the ancient Chinese board game of Go. Representing a leap from its 2015 predecessor, the program can learn without human input, and is a milestone on the road to general-purpose AIs working in medicine and science. Researchers explained the ability of whales and dolphins to learn, play and use tools applying the “cultural brain hypothesis” normally applied to humans. They argued cetaceans’ intelligence developed, and their brains grew, as a way of coping with large and complex social groups. The acoustic design of theatres in Ancient Greece evolved to meet the cultural needs of a large group to hear the performance on stage. A study has made approximately 2,400 recordings at three sites, including the ancient theatre of Epidaurus, and concluded that the theatres’ famed ability to convey a stage whisper to the cheap seats is a myth. Continue reading...

The shocking collapse of insect populations hints at a global ecological meltdownWhich of these would you name as the world’s most pressing environmental issue? Climate breakdown, air pollution, water loss, plastic waste or urban expansion? My answer is none of the above. Almost incredibly, I believe that climate breakdown takes third place, behind two issues that receive only a fraction of the attention.Related: Warning of 'ecological Armageddon' after dramatic plunge in insect numbers Continue reading...

Emirate’s drive for food security is symbolic of its determination to make efforts to isolate it ‘a blessing inside a calamity’John Dore is off to Doha’s vast and luxurious Hamad International airport to greet the 8pm flight from Los Angeles via Liège, Belgium.Wearing a straw hat with a small metal shamrock badge in homage to his Irish roots, his imminent visitors are neither family nor friends. Nor are they human at all, but rather a herd of 120 cows. Continue reading...

Following his bestselling The Hidden Life of Trees, the author explores the emotions and intelligence of animals. The ‘new biology’ has big moral implicationsJohn Henry Newman, later Cardinal Newman, once told his congregation that they lived among spirits they could not see. He told them this in a sermon called “The Invisible World”. Angels and the souls of the dead were constantly active, but people’s senses could not perceive them. Anyone who found this difficult to believe should remember, Newman said, that, after all, there was another surrounding world of which people knew almost as little: the animal world. Animals were everywhere. Their presence was familiar. Yet the emotional lives of these creatures, their perceptions and the reasons for their behaviour, remained so hidden that Newman could compare this concealed life to a world of spirits.Peter Wohlleben is a Rhineland forester who became unhappy with industrial methods. Remarkably, he persuaded the municipal owners of his forest to end their commercial contracts and abandon those methods. He is scientific and secular, yet he too perceives that we live in a world of intelligence and emotional complexity that goes unseen. Traditional relationships with farm animals, hunted animals and pets have always provided insights into that world, but only science can reveal the depths. Combining scientific reports with tales of his own observations, Wohlleben tentatively begins to uncover that world and explore its implications for our behaviour. Continue reading...

Researchers say UK’s enthusiasm for bird feeders compared with mainland Europe responsible for increase in beak lengthThe reason some birds in Britain have evolved bigger beaks over the past 40 years may be down to the country’s enthusiasm for feeding them in their gardens, researchers have said.The report published on Thursday in the US journal Science compared beak length among great tits in Britain and the Netherlands, where bird feeders are less common. Continue reading...

Elitism and opera | Neutron stars | Greek theatre acoustics | Jeremiah and the King James Bible | Three-legged stoolsHoward Jacobson (There is no excuse for a man not to wear a suit…’, Weekend, 14 October) reinforces the view that opera is elitist and unapproachable. Nothing could be further from the truth. If the music moves you it doesn’t matter what you wear. And if Mr Jacobson knew his Marriage of Figaro from his Don Giovanni, he would know that Mozart was one of the most anti-establishment of composers, and wouldn’t have cared what anyone wore.

Showing tongues and puppy eyes, and facial movement in general, was more likely when scientists faced the animals, suggesting conscious communicationDogs really do turn on the puppy eyes when humans look at them, according to researchers studying canine facial expressions.Scientists have discovered that dogs produce more facial movements when a human is paying attention to them – including raising their eyebrows, making their eyes appear bigger – than when they are being ignored or presented with a tasty morsel. Continue reading...

Japan says lunar chasm measuring 50km long and 100 metres wide could be used as a base for astronauts and their equipmentScientists have fantasised for centuries about humans colonising the moon. That day may have drawn a little closer after Japan’s space agency said it had discovered an enormous cave beneath the lunar surface that could be turned into an exploration base for astronauts.The discovery, by Japan’s Selenological and Engineering Explorer (Selene) probe, comes as several countries vie to follow the US in sending manned missions to the moon. Continue reading...

Hollingside Wood, Durham City Overnight, uncountable numbers of microscopic spores had drifted down to be made visible on the paper surfaceThere is something stealthy about toadstools. When we followed this path recently there were none. Today a dozen shaggy parasols (Chlorophyllum rhacodes) had appeared, shouldering aside the soil with their closed caps. One of these toadstools, with a newly expanded scaly canopy perched on its long frilled stalk, was at the perfect stage for preparing a spore print.Related: Weatherwatch: The cleverness of mushrooms Continue reading...

Data from GP practices between 2001 and 2014 showed rates of self-harm for boys stayed roughly steady – but soared upwards for girls in recent yearsSelf-harm reported to GPs among teenage girls under the age of 17 in the UK increased by 68% over just three years, research has revealed.The study also found that self-harm among young people aged 10-19 was three times more common among girls than boys, with those who self-harmed at much greater risk of suicide than those who did not.

Three-quarters of flying insects in nature reserves across Germany have vanished in 25 years, with serious implications for all life on Earth, scientists sayThe abundance of flying insects has plunged by three-quarters over the past 25 years, according to a new study that has shocked scientists.Insects are an integral part of life on Earth as both pollinators and prey for other wildlife and it was known that some species such as butterflies were declining. But the newly revealed scale of the losses to all insects has prompted warnings that the world is “on course for ecological Armageddon”, with profound impacts on human society. Continue reading...

The blue light, which can sometimes be seen by humans, is cast by tiny ridges of different height and spacing on petals, scientists have discoveredFlowers might seem like one of life’s simple pleasures, but it turns out there might be more to them than meets the eye.

In a major breakthrough for artificial intelligence, AlphaGo Zero took just three days to master the ancient Chinese board game of Go ... with no human helpGoogle’s artificial intelligence group, DeepMind, has unveiled the latest incarnation of its Go-playing program, AlphaGo – an AI so powerful that it derived thousands of years of human knowledge of the game before inventing better moves of its own, all in the space of three days.Named AlphaGo Zero, the AI program has been hailed as a major advance because it mastered the ancient Chinese board game from scratch, and with no human help beyond being told the rules. In games against the 2015 version, which famously beat Lee Sedol, the South Korean grandmaster, in the following year, AlphaGo Zero won 100 to 0. Continue reading...

Ian Sample speaks with two members of an ambitious project that hopes to crack one of neuroscience’s biggest mysteriesSubscribe & Review on Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and TwitterFrom the most trivial to the most serious, decisions are central to our lives. But how the brain makes up its mind about what to do remains one of neuroscience’s greatest mysteries. Step forward the International Brain Laboratory (IBL). It’s a new, ambitious project that will combine scientific expertise from 21 labs across the globe, with the express aim to bring us closer to understanding what goes on in the brain when we make decisions – big and small. Continue reading...

Graves’ groundbreaking genetic work includes the ‘throwaway line’ that the male Y chromosome may one day go extinctJenny Graves transformed our understanding of how sex chromosomes work, and led to the realisation that the human male Y chromosome may be on a path to extinction. For that and a slew of other groundbreaking work, Graves has been awarded Australia’s top science prize.

In people with the condition, light receptor cells are arranged in matching patterns in both eyes, which may confuse the brainFrench scientists claim they may have found a physiological, and seemingly treatable, cause for dyslexia hidden in tiny light-receptor cells in the human eye.

Study of ice-core records and Ancient Egyptian documents suggests environmental forces helped seal the last Ptolemaic ruler’s fate in 30BCThe fall of Cleopatra’s Egypt to Augustus, the first Roman emperor, is usually told as a melodramatic power struggle between elites on the world stage.

The case for the effectiveness of non-coercive interrogation was made in an 18th-century short story by Friedrich Schiller, writes David Head. What role does the invasion of other countries play in terrorist motivations, asks Rob BastoThe case for the effectiveness of non-coercive interrogation was made long before the examples given in Ian Leslie’s excellent essay on the subject (We have ways of making you talk, 14 October).In his late 18th-century short story The Criminal Driven by Lost Honour (Der Verbrecher aus verlorener Ehre), Friedrich Schiller tells of a petty criminal who goes on to become public enemy number one. When he is apprehended, the judge interrogating him initially opts for a decidedly aggressive and domineering tone. The criminal, when asked by the judge, “Who are you?”, replies: “A man who is determined to answer no question until it is put more courteously.” Realising that his rather brutal interrogation method is getting him nowhere, the judge eventually decides that perhaps it would be better to treat the suspect “with civility and moderation” and apologises for his harsh manner. The suspect then informs the judge that his previous behaviour would never have extracted anything from him, whereas the change of tone has given him confidence in and respect for his interrogator. He therefore reveals who he is. Continue reading...

People with better social skills tend to out-earn their colleagues, but what can you do to build your emotional IQ?While IQ remains a very strong predictor of career success, our research suggests that people with high emotional intelligence are more likely to have higher wages.The study, published in the Journal of Vocational Behaviour in August 2017, tested US university students for emotional intelligence, or EI, during their studies – and then looked at their career trajectory over the course of 10 years. The results showed us that students who scored highly for EI went on to have better salaries across all industries than their less emotionally intelligent peers. Continue reading...

My husband, Jeremy Taylor, who has died aged 70, was a television producer and science writer. A modest man of huge intellectual capacity, he had a gift for communicating complex scientific ideas with ease, whether on paper, film or face to face. For 30 years Jerry made science documentaries for television, particularly for the BBC’s Horizon series, and later wrote two popular science books on evolution.Born in Southport, Lancashire (now part of Merseyside), he grew up in a pub called the Lion near Montgomery, mid-Wales, and went to Welshpool grammar school. When his father, Crom, died, Jerry deferred his place at Liverpool University for a year to run the business with his mother, Wilma (nee White). At Liverpool, he gained a first-class degree in biology, a passion for explaining science and treasured friendships – he also enjoyed many evenings in the Philharmonic pub. Continue reading...

Researchers say the chef’s 10p levy on sugary drinks led to a significant drop in sales – boding well for the government’s sugar tax planJamie Oliver’s 10p tax on sugary drinks sold in his Italian restaurants has resulted in a significant drop in sales, a study has found.The Jamie’s Italian chain introduced the sugary drinks tax to set an example as part of a campaign to persuade the government to take action. In June 2015, Oliver announced that every drink containing added sugar would cost 10p extra and that the money would help pay for food education and water fountains in schools. Continue reading...

Australia’s chief scientist Alan Finkel leads a panel discussing the extraordinary astronomical event witnessed for the first time• New frontier for science as astronomers witness neutron stars colliding• Gravitational wave observation is astronomical alchemy11.52pm BSTAnd that concludes the press conference.You can read our full story here:Related: New frontier for science as astronomers witness neutron stars colliding11.47pm BSTA journalist asks why observation in radio waves is so significant.Tara Murphy explains: the radio emissions come from the shock as it passes through the gas and dust from the merger. “So you can build up a forensic picture of what the enviroment was like around the merger.” Continue reading...

Tour guides may tell you that a pin dropping can be heard in every seat of the ancient theatre of Epidaurus – but scientists disagreeIt has been held up as a stunning example of ancient Greek sound engineering, but researchers say the acoustics of the theatre at Epidaurus are not as dazzling as they have been hailed.Dating from the fourth century BC, and seating up to 14,000 spectators, the theatre has long been admired for its sound quality, with claims that audiences are able to hear a pin drop, or a match being struck, at any seat in the house. Even the British archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler raved about the theatre, declaring in clipped tones in a 1958 broadcast: “Even a stage whisper could be picked up by the furthest spectator with the cheapest ticket.” Continue reading...

The cultural brain hypothesis of human development could also explain cetaceans forming friendships – and even gossipingLife is not so different beneath the ocean waves. Bottlenose dolphins use simple tools, orcas call each other by name, and sperm whales talk in local dialects. Many cetaceans live in tight-knit groups and spend a good deal of time at play.That much scientists know. But in a new study, researchers compiled a list of the rich behaviours spotted in 90 different species of dolphins, whales and porpoises, and found that the bigger the species’ brain, the more complex – indeed, the more “human-like” – their lives are likely to be. Continue reading...

World leaders seem to be getting younger. But whether youthful energy and verve can ever make up for lack of experience remains a vexed questionGrey power this is not. Sebastian Kurz, the 31-year-old leader of the conservative Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP), looks set to become the world’s youngest head of government after Sunday’s elections. The country of elegantly dressed, respectably middle-aged ladies and gentlemen has handed the keys of the Mercedes to a fresh-faced kid.Kurz may look young but he is not a new figure on the Austrian political scene. Four years ago he was made foreign minister. Clearly it was time for a new challenge if his career trajectory was to be maintained. Continue reading...

Extraordinary event has been ‘seen’ for the first time, in both gravitational waves and light – ending decades-old debate about where gold comes fromThe collision of a pair of neutron stars, marked by ripples through the fabric of space-time and a flash brighter than a billion suns, has been witnessed for the first time in the most intensely observed astronomical event to date.The extraordinary sequence, in which the two ultra-dense stars spiralled inwards, violently collided and, in all likelihood, immediately collapsed into a black hole, was first picked up by the US-based Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (Ligo).

Proof that celestial collisions called kilonovas create gold is the first wonder to arise from coordinated observations – expect more to comeIf you are wearing a piece of gold jewellery, take a good, hard look at it and consider this: you are likely to be wearing the celestial debris of a cataclysmic stellar collision, a collision so devastating that it literally shook the universe. That’s the conclusion from Monday’s announcement of gravitational wave signal GW170817.It is another reminder that we are intimately connected to the cosmos around us. At heart, astronomy is not really about remote and abstracted realms, instead it informs us about our own origins and the origins of those things we value. Continue reading...

With concealment common and women expected not even to show knowledge of the disease, infection of families by men was widespread across all classes

Food, sex, money, work, family, friends, health, politics: there’s nothing we can’t feel guilty about, including our own feelings of guilt• Read the text version hereSubscribe via Audioboom, Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Mixcloud, Acast & Sticher and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter Continue reading...

Developments in eye-gaze technology – which converts minute movements of the eye into spoken words – are opening up undreamed of opportunities for people with motor neurone diseaseSteve Thomas and I are talking about brain implants. Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out For a Hero is playing in the background and for a moment I almost forget that a disease has robbed Steve of his speech. The conversation breaks briefly; now I see his wheelchair, his ventilator, his hospital bed.Steve, a software engineer, was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a type of motor neurone disease) aged 50. He knew it was progressive and incurable; that he would soon become unable to move and, in his case, speak. He is using eye-gaze technology to tell me this (and later to turn off the sound of Bonnie Tyler); cameras pick up light reflection from his eye as he scans a screen. Movements of his pupils are translated into movements of a cursor through infrared technology and the cursor chooses letters or symbols. A speech-generating device transforms these written words into spoken ones – and, in turn, sentences and stories form. Continue reading...

A big tree can be infested with about 2m of these tiny leaf miners, just one of several new pests attacking British woodlandsThe autumn tree colours are appearing, but all is not quite what it seems. Horse chestnut leaves started falling weeks ago like crispy brown pieces of paper, a sign of leaf miners infesting the trees.These are the caterpillars of a tiny moth, and a big tree can be infested with about 2m of these pests, which weakens the tree. Even more pernicious is a disease of horse chestnuts called bleeding canker, which can kill the tree. Continue reading...

David Dodd wants employers to assume a degree of responsibility for employees’ mental wellbeing, Justin Harper makes a case for income protection and Gary Fereday says psychoanalytically informed therapies should be more widely available. Plus letters from Keir Harding and Rob DaviesJeremy Hunt has once more propelled mental health up the political agenda with the promise that an extra £1.3bn would be invested annually in mental health services by 2021 (Report, 10 October). However, while such promises constitute a significant step forward, it will take a lot more than policy and funding to resolve a problem reaching pandemic proportions in the UK. In light of World Mental Health Day, we need to broaden the debate from how to resolve mental health issues – to how to prevent them. And data suggests that at least part of the onus should be on employers.Our research has found that almost half of UK employees believe that their workplace has a negative impact on their physical or mental health; it’s time for UK employers to assume a degree of responsibility for their employees’ mental wellbeing. Introducing measures such as resilience training, mindfulness and mental health first aiders could make a significant difference to both the support offered to employees and UK business – alleviating the impact of our tech-enabled 24/7 work lifestyles, reducing employee absence and fundamentally improving business productivity.

On Friday, the Large Hadron Collider at CERN had a day of smashing xenon nuclei together, a departure from its usual diet of protons or leadThe picture at the top shows what happened in the CMS particle detector when xenon nuclei were circulated in the LHC and brought into head-on collision. The yellow is made up of tracks of electrically-charged particles, produced in such numbers that the whole of the centre of the picture is a yellow blur, with individual tracks only visible near the edges. The blue and green blocks indicate energy deposited by both charged and neutral particles in the CMS calorimeter.Collisions between protons look significantly less busy than this, with fewer particles produced. But both xenon and lead nuclei are packed with protons and neutrons, and though lead has more of them, by eye I don’t think anyone could tell the difference between a xenon-xenon collision and a lead-lead one.

Meeting a young Syrian refugee inspires Mark Cousins to imagine how different our defining images can beWe have work lives and love lives, but we also have looking lives. If we’re lucky enough to have eyesight, an inner photo album accrues throughout our lives. On its pages are the sunsets we’ve seen, the dead bodies, and many other defining images – these are the visual shocks and pleasures which help us understand and read emotion.In a refugee camp in Calais last year, I played football with a young teenage boy from Syria. We had no common language, but we had a laugh as we played. Afterwards I wondered what he had seen in his life so far. Continue reading...

Analysis of bones and pottery fragments shows special foods were consumed in feasts at the ancient siteBritons’ Stone Age ancestors possessed some unexpected talents, scientists have discovered. On top of their prowess in constructing great monoliths such as Stonehenge, they were also adept at staging first-rate parties.Roast sweetened pork consumed with a range of rich dairy products including cheese and butter appear to have been commonplace at feasts – according to an English Heritage exhibition, Feeding Stonehenge, which will open this week at the stone circle’s visitor centre. Continue reading...

These posthumously published essays range from psychiatry to plagiarism to near-death experiences

Leading researchers and campaigners express concern that geoengineering research could be used as an excuse not to reduce CO2 emissionsLeading climate scientists have warned that geoengineering research could be hijacked by climate change deniers as an excuse not to reduce CO2 emissions, citing the US administration under Donald Trump as a major threat to their work.David Keith, a solar geoengineering (GE) expert at Harvard University has said there is a real danger that his work could be exploited by those who oppose action on emissions, at the same time as he defended himself and colleagues from the claims GE strengthens the argument for abandoning the targets set by the Paris climate agreement. Continue reading...