For those lamenting the idea of Trump’s America, the day after the night before is drowning in emotions. At least we’ve got the playlist sortedAs the hangover lifts the day after the night before, replaced by the realisation Donald Trump’s election victory was not just a bad dream, you might find yourself catapulted headlong into what some psychologists call “the five stages of griefâ€.We may not be psychologists but we are in need of distraction – so we prepared you a playlist if you’re feeling the same. Continue reading...
by Hannah Devlin Science Correspondent on (#2105P)
Algae on drifting plastic waste gives off a sulfur compound which smells similar to the krill many marine birds feed on, researchers have discoveredSeabirds are enticed into eating plastic debris because it smells like their food, according to scientists.The study found that drifting plastic waste accumulates algae and gives off a smell very similar to the krill that many marine birds feed on. The findings could explain why certain birds - including albatrosses and shearwaters - which rely on their sense of smell for hunting, are particularly vulnerable to swallowing plastic. Continue reading...
New study adds to growing body of evidence linking increased screen time to fewer hours of repose and poorer quality of sleepIf you want a decent night’s sleep stop fiddling with your phone, researchers have warned.A US study has found that greater screen time, particularly at bedtime, is linked to disrupted sleep patterns - including taking a longer time to drop off. Continue reading...
Prospect of radical new therapies for people with spinal injuries is raised by implant, the first shown to restore walking ability in paralysed primatesPartially-paralysed monkeys have learned to walk again with a brain implant that uses wireless signals to bypass broken nerves in the spinal cord and reanimate the useless limbs.The implant is the first to restore walking ability in paralysed primates and raises the prospect of radical new therapies for people with devastating spinal injuries.
In his celebration of the rich history of puzzles, Alex Bellos set readers some classic brainteasers. If you haven’t finished with them then read no further, because the answers are below ...
Isn’t it time we learned to reconnect with the idea of problem-solving for fun? After all, argues Alex Bellos, the best puzzles are pieces of poetry. In an exclusive extract from his new book, he selects some of his favourites
Experts and the public need to be able to trust each other. But this trust is fragile. We need honest and frank conversations between all sectors if we are to address the divide in our country. We hope that yesterday’s Huxley Summit was a start.
In these austerity-hardened times, why should palaeontology be funded over health research, team sports and performing arts?Last week I was at the launch of the University of Oxford’s Biological Anthropology Research Network and website at a panel discussion called Biological Anthropology: Possible Futures. The expert panel of academics not only speculated about the future of the discipline but reflected on the discipline’s difficult past too. Biological anthropology or physical anthropology is the scientific discipline that studies the biological and behavioural aspects of human beings. It may also be the inspiration for the Girls Aloud 2005 hit, Biology.There have been definite periods of waxing and waning of the subject at universities, biological anthropology departments and degrees have come and gone and come back again. It’s an interesting subject but one that spans disciplines so sometimes struggles to build up a critical mass of pure biological anthropology academics to form a department. Consequently, it is also a subject that is oversubscribed, producing more students than can ever be employed in biological anthropology. Continue reading...
Wenlock Edge I listen for owls and smell the wet leaves that awaken some wordless feeling like a very misty memoryThis has been one of the most vivid autumns I can remember. Days of clear skies and bright sunlight have been plenty this year, and apart from some fog there have yet to be many washouts or frosts. This warm, sunny, weather has been wonderful in the trees, and the furnace colours of oak, birch and beech, the buttery sycamores and field maples, lemony ash and golden syrup limes, have been spectacular. But surely this happens every year, more or less?Every year the deciduous trees change colour before falling. Every year before winter there is a burst of transition that looks beautiful, and our feelings for it have something to do with an increase in wild food mammals need to bulk up for the winter. The absence of chlorophyll to mask leaf pigments before the tree jettisons them hardly captures the significance of autumn colour or that sense of wonder in seeing the woods shine brightly like a bedtime story before the long sleep. Continue reading...
Recent study that analyzed saliva to measure stress levels finds people with higher cortisol levels vote less – and now WNYC takes the findings further
Increased growth of plants fertilised by higher CO2 levels is only partly offsetting emissions and will not halt dangerous warming, scientists concludeA global “greening†of the planet has significantly slowed the rise of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since the start of the century, according to new research.More plants have been growing due to higher CO2 levels in the air and warming temperatures that cut the CO2 emitted by plants via respiration. The effects led the proportion of annual carbon emissions remaining in the air to fall from about 50% to 40% in the last decade. Continue reading...
When the evidence is clear-cut, the assumption that good journalism requires mutually opposed views to be treated as equally valid simply doesn’t holdImpartiality lies at the very heart of good journalism – avoiding bias is something on which respectable media outlets pride themselves. This is laudable, as robust debate is vital for a healthy media and, by extension, an informed society. But when the weight of scientific evidence points incontrovertibly one direction, doggedly reporting both “sides†equally can result in misleading coverage.The BBC provided a high-profile example of this in 2011, coming in for harsh criticism in a Trust report which singled out their “undue attention to marginal opinion†on the subject of man made climate change, among other issues. Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence that human activity is driving climate change, the report found that several BBC shows fell victim to an “over-rigid application of editorial guidelines on impartiality,†resulting in far too much airtime for climate change deniers. A follow-up report published in 2014 concluded that this key conclusion “still resonates todayâ€. Continue reading...
The Baillie Gifford longlisted author explains how he tried to reconnect with the natural world to write Being a Beast and why we should all conduct our own ‘epistemological fieldwork’I grew up in suburban Sheffield. Everywhere in Sheffield is an edge place. Everywhere everywhere’s an edge place, in fact, but in some places you can forget that for a while. That’s not an option in Sheffield. The streetlights ended at the top of our road. Wilderness crouched in the dark beyond and it would slink into my bedroom at night. As an edge person, perhaps I was bound to try to look over, or even ooze through, the porous boundary between our species and others. Certainly I was bound to write about the wilderness that creeps in and sleeps with and in everyone, and without which we die, and which will one day kill and eat us.One day, there was a blackbird in our garden. It looked at me, and I looked at it. It plainly knew something about the garden that I didn’t know. That enraged and tantalised me. I wanted to know what it knew; I wanted to know what it saw when it looked at our privet hedges. I wanted to see our garden properly, and thought that the bird could help me to do it. Continue reading...
In some areas of science, citizens are moving from being passive consumers to active participants. Citizen science has the potential to make science and innovation more responsible, but it is not without controversy.Like many patient groups, the Alzheimers’ Society isn’t happy with the state of scientific research. Using donations from members of the public, it funds its own science to fill in gaps and speed up the development of treatments.But as well as using its members’ money, the society also makes use of their expertise. The science supported by the Alzheimers’ Society follows an unusual model. At every step – defining research questions, doing the research, analysing the data and measuring the impact – the patients and carers who are affected by memory loss are involved as so-researchers. Continue reading...
Faced with the uncertainties of Brexit and Donald Trump, the best response is to fight back against the forces that oppress usMany of us have been stuck in a Brexistential crisis since June. Uncertainty over if, whether and how article 50 will be triggered only sharpens our distrust of political leaders, and ever more hyperbolic, rabble-rousing headlines appear now on a daily basis. We face another looming worry: the possibility of a Donald Trump victory in the US. Like Princess Diana’s death or 9/11, these are world events that we struggle to compute. They are absolutely real yet seem strangely unreal.Related: Whether Trump or Clinton wins the US election, what follows is up to us | Rebecca Solnit Continue reading...
by Presented by Nicola Davis and produced by Max Sand on (#20SMN)
According to our best estimates, life first appeared on planet Earth around 3.8bn years ago. But what happened leading up to it? What conditions were necessary? And what is ‘life’ anyway’?Subscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & AcastThe question of how life began here on Earth has been one at the forefront of scientific endeavour for millennia. And whilst huge advances – both theoretically and experimentally – have been able to bring pieces of this mysterious puzzle to light, the quest to understand where we came from, what we’re doing here, and whether life could exist elsewhere in the universe, is as elusive as ever. Continue reading...
Forget politics and enjoy some physics. (If you’re American, vote first!)Last week I spent a couple of days in Abingdon discussing particle physics, and specifically where we might be headed with the high-energy collision data from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. Whatever it may be remembered for in terms of celebrity deaths and politics, 2016 has been a great year for the LHC, with more collision data delivered than ever before, at the highest energy so far.I shared a taxi from Didcot Parkway with John Ellis and Nick Mavromatos, two particle theorists from King’s College London (though John has spent much of his career at CERN). Whenever two or more scientists get together these days, they will discuss Brexit and/or Trump. But (probably desperate to change topic) we also talked about some relatively recent evidence for pieces of supernova impacting the Earth about 2.5 million years ago. This article is written in a similar spirit. Continue reading...
Study paves way for personnel such as drone operators to have electrical pulses sent into their brains to improve effectiveness in high pressure situationsUS military scientists have used electrical brain stimulators to enhance mental skills of staff, in research that aims to boost the performance of air crews, drone operators and others in the armed forces’ most demanding roles.The successful tests of the devices pave the way for servicemen and women to be wired up at critical times of duty, so that electrical pulses can be beamed into their brains to improve their effectiveness in high pressure situations.
The answers to today’s puzzle. Find out if you made the gradeEarlier today I set you the following puzzle, from a recent Oxford Mathematics Admissions Test. Thanks to everyone took part; more than a thousand comments below the line and several very funny threads.And I’m very impressed - about 80 per cent of you got each question correct. Congratulations, you are all admitted into Oxford! (And next time I will make the questions more difficult.) Continue reading...
Analysis of insect damage to fossil leaves presents new theory as to why southern hemisphere recovered faster from asteroid that killed the dinosaursEcosystems in the southern hemisphere bounced back more than twice as quickly as those in the north after the devastating asteroid impact that annihilated the dinosaurs, research suggests.A mass extinction was triggered 66 million years ago when a huge extraterrestrial rock crashed into the Earth. It produced the Chicxulub crater off the coast of Mexico as well as wiping out non-avian dinosaurs and a vast array of other species. Continue reading...
My father, Eric Roberts, who has died aged 86, was a renowned seed and crop scientist who advanced the understanding of plant breeding and genetic resource conservation.His work showed that long-term seed storage was not only feasible but also relatively inexpensive, and he played a key role in setting up and managing seed banks. In the mid-1970s he chaired the expert group on seed storage of the International Board For Plant Genetic Resources, which was aiming to conserve crop diversity. There are now more than 1,400 seed banks all over the world. Continue reading...
Test your wits against Oxford’s famed Maths Admission TestUPDATE: answers and results now up hereHello guzzlers,Last week some of the smartest sixth formers in the country sat Oxford University’s annual Mathematics Admissions Test. For today’s puzzle I’ve chosen one of its most fun questions from recent years. Continue reading...
A collection of short essays on the search for alien life asks all the big questions, but doesn’t leave enough space for answersAre we alone – a pale blue dot, bursting with life amid a vast, uninhabited universe – or is there life beyond Earth, existing in unimaginable forms, with extraterrestrial beings asking the same poignant question of themselves?It’s a conundrum that has fuelled incredible scientific feats and dodgy B-movies alike. Now with Aliens, a group of experts have joined forces to set out what we know, what we don’t, and what we might hope to determine about the potential for life on other planets. Continue reading...
Exclusive: In Under the Surface, a special Guardian film, the award-winning writer and environmental campaigner Naomi Klein travels to the Great Barrier Reef with her son, Toma, to see the impact of coral bleaching caused by climate change. In a personal but also universal story, Klein tells how she wants him to bear witness. ‘Just in case, amid the coral that is still alive, he can find something beautiful to connect with, something he can carry with him as he navigates life on a warmer, harsher planet than the one I grew up on. Because climate change is already here – and kids are on the frontlines’
The cluster of earthquakes that have hit Italy this year are the latest in a long history of destruction. Italy sits on the boundary where the African tectonic plate is diving down beneath the Eurasian plateFor people living along Italy’s picturesque Apennine mountain spine, these are worrying times. Since 24 August there have been three significant earthquakes in the region, the most recent of which was the magnitude 6.6 Norcia quake, on Sunday 30 October. Add to this the thousands of smaller aftershocks, and right now the Apennines feel very unstable. So why is the backbone of Italy being pummelled repeatedly?
Authority on fossil plants who pioneered the use of growth rings to reconstruct ancient climatesWilliam Chaloner, who has died aged 87, was one of the world’s leading authorities on fossil plants. He pioneered new methods for their study and is considered one of the founders of the research field of palynology, which uses fossil pollen and spores from ancient rocks to interpret plant evolution and to reconstruct environments of the past.His research was wide-ranging and included work on some of the earliest plants to colonise the land, fossil plants of the coal age, and the use of plant fossils to infer ancient climates and the composition of the atmosphere in the distant past. Continue reading...
As a Texas-based climate scientist and an evangelical Christian, Hayhoe is well placed to reach a sceptical audience – even if that means braving hate mail“Speaking of shills, if she teaches in Texas she probably gets grants from the oil industry.â€This is one of the more polite social media missiles Katharine Hayhoe has had fired at her this week. But it’s hopelessly misguided. Continue reading...
Every day millions of internet users ask Google life’s most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queriesAre psychopaths trendy? Does saying “I have psychopathic tendencies†pass the dinner table test? Is this merely the latest debilitating condition to be reimagined as a fascinating quirk, à la “I’m a little bit OCD�If so, popular non-fiction might be to blame. In 2011, Jon Ronson’s The Psychopath Test introduced millions of readers to a checklist, devised by psychologist Robert Hare, that scores people on a range of psychopathic traits. A year later, Kevin Dutton’s The Wisdom of Psychopaths advanced the idea that we all sit somewhere on a psychopathic spectrum, and that aspects of psychopathy can be harnessed for good. ME Thomas used an alternative term to describe her superficial charm and lack of empathy in Confessions of a Sociopath. Hare’s own own book, Snakes in Suits, written with psychologist Paul Babiak, examines the success of the psychopath in corporate settings. Continue reading...
Among the frontiers identified are time, the cosmos, consciousness and God, but aren’t swaths of knowledge concerned with meaning rather than scientific fact?Scientists like to see themselves as modern counterparts of the great explorers, sailing off into the unknown and coming back with marvellous tales of adventure and discovery. But the heroic age of exploration lasted no more than 500 years: after the so-called conquest of the poles there was not much terra incognita left to conquer. Does a similar fate await the sciences? Will nature yield up its last secret one day? Will our questions all be answered? Will scientists abandon their laboratories and take up poetry, painting or tap dancing instead?These are the questions raised by an engaging new book in which Marcus du Sautoy promises to lead us to “the edges of knowledgeâ€. He begins by recalling a speech given by the physicist Lord Kelvin at the end of the 19th century. “There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now,†Kelvin said, “all that remains is more and more precise measurement.†Albert Einstein soon proved him wrong, but scientists carried on dreaming of the day when they could declare mission accomplished. In September 1930, for instance, the distinguished mathematician David Hilbert addressed a meeting in his honour in Königsberg. Nothing could hold out against the progress of science, he said: “We must know – and we shall.†Unluckily for him, a young logician called Kurt Gödel had demonstrated the exact opposite in a paper delivered in the same city on the previous day. Every conceivable system of mathematics, Gödel showed, must contain statements that cannot be proved, so the idea of scientific closure was a quixotic fantasy. Continue reading...
Larger version of solid rocket booster used on shuttle will form part of Space Launch System propelling astronauts beyond Earth’s orbitNasa has successfully tested a huge rocket motor that will one day propel astronauts out of Earth’s orbit and towards Mars.It was the second and final test-firing of the solid rocket booster designed for Nasa’s Space Launch System (SLS). The debut launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center in 2018 will not carry people, but a few years later astronauts are scheduled to climb aboard for a flight near the moon. Continue reading...
English Heritage has closely matched the original appearance of the room at Down House, Kent, in the late 1850sThe bedroom in which Charles Darwin died has been recreated after more than a century, and is due to open to the public.Working from family letters, a detailed inventory, descriptions from the time, paint analysis and research into mid-Victorian interior design, the charity English Heritage has closely matched the original appearance of the room at Down House, Kent, in the late 1850s. Visitors will now be able to see the room where Darwin, father of evolutionary biology, died in 1882, and for 20 years before that enjoyed reading and resting, recovered from illnesses and looked out on his garden experiments from the bay window. Continue reading...
Authors say there could be 2,000 extra heart attacks or strokes in next decade after research cast doubt on pills’ effectivenessThe public controversy over statins after a leading medical journal ran articles questioning their use will have prompted an estimated 200,000 people in the UK to stop taking the pills in a six-month period, according to researchers.The authors of a study funded by the British Heart Foundation say there could be 2,000 extra heart attacks or strokes over the following 10 years as a consequence, but say it is impossible to be certain. Continue reading...
Science Museum counts human and medical cost of injuries sustained during conflicts past and presentRelated: Somme trench recreated in Welsh castle to salute battle's centenaryScraps of ribbons, figurines and toys, and religious medals are among a collection of charms carried by soldiers a century ago at the Battle of the Somme that will go on display in an exhibition at the Science Museum on Wednesday. Continue reading...
Trial version in US giving successful immunisation to mice could help fight disease, but complications warned for those who have contracted dengue fever
Blue curaçao, blue vodka, blue gin, now there is blue-pigmented wine. But why? We explore the psychology of weirdly coloured boozeA company is trying to shake up the wine industry by producing bright blue bottles of the boozy beverage. But will it help the taste?Blueness and alcohol aren’t strangers, as anyone who has drunk one too many gins and wept into their lap on the night bus will know. But last week, a Spanish company decided to make that link a tad less metaphorical by launching a wine that is the same shade as the WKD Blue alcopop. Continue reading...
Scientist and presenter attacks ‘growing intolerance’, no-platforming and ‘deeply flawed’ national conversationThe BBC’s best-known science presenter, Prof Brian Cox, has criticised the “growing intolerance†of no-platform speaking bans at universities and colleges, describing them as “nonsensicalâ€.The Wonders of the Universe presenter also attacked the “deeply flawed … national conversation†which he said meant people were unwilling or unable to change their minds on issues such as the European Union. Continue reading...
From flying saucers to alien life on other planets, our lessons will help you explore all things extra-terrestrial from the comfort of your classroomIs it a bird? Is it a plane? If you have to ask, then – technically – it is an unidentified flying object (UFO), although not necessarily an alien craft. Saturday 2 July is World UFO day, when residents of Earth are encouraged to look skyward in search of unexpected items whizzing around. The date was chosen in honour of the first ever reported UFO sighting: US pilot Kenneth Arnold claimed to have seen nine objects flying in tandem on 24 June 1947 in Mount Rainier national park.This year’s World UFO day was also chosen to mark the anniversary of the supposed UFO crash in Roswell – and is commemorated as a means of encouraging the US government to declassify its files on UFOs. It’s an intriguing subject, and one that works across the curriculum. So how can you explore it with your students? Continue reading...
Brexit has resulted in a PM set to resign and an opposition leader under threat. Within a few months, the leaders of the UK will look completely different. But, psychologically speaking, what makes a good leader? And why?Less than a week on from the EU referendum and still the disastrous consequences rain down upon us like angry red-hot turds from God’s own backside. It has, if you’ll forgive the record-breaking understatement, put the UK in a bit of a pickle.One consequence is that the prime minister has promised to resign. Never ones to look at a burning building without wanting to douse their own floorboards with kerosene and take up fire eating, Labour are currently undergoing a revolt against Jeremy Corbyn. It’s not all meltdowns; Nicola Sturgeon seems to be doing Scotland proud. Also, Tim Farron has promised the Lib Dems will campaign on a pro-EU ticket in the (possibly imminent) general election. Nice, but in 2016 it’s like having the Microsoft paperclip pop up and offer to help you; appreciated, but the initial reaction is “I’d forgotten you existedâ€. Continue reading...
by Ekaterina Ochagavia, Ian Anderson and Paul Boyd on (#1JH6V)
Studies have proven that colour plays a vital role in setting our expectations of taste and flavour in foods. But what happens when colour defies expectation? We put food colouring into vanilla yoghurt and challenged people to guess the flavour. Will they all be duped or might someone see through our ruse? Continue reading...
Weatherwatch: Meteorologists are counting ‘thunder days’ – and checking they’re not hearing jet planes or fireworksRumbles of thunder have been performing multiple symphonies in the skies recently. Already the UK has clocked up more than its average quota of thunderstorms for a whole year. Normally, the most thunder-prone region – London and the south-east – would expect to have 15 to 19 days when thunder is heard, but by mid-June that number had already been exceeded. However, recognising the sound of thunder isn’t always easy.For more than 100 years, meteorologists across the UK have noted the days on which they hear a rumble of thunder. These “thunder days†make an invaluable contribution to understanding global warming and changes in the weather. But sometimes observers can be conned into thinking they heard thunder, when in fact the rumble was a jet plane passing over, or a firework exploding. Continue reading...
What to look out for in the night sky over the month aheadOur notes for June concluded with advice to watch for noctilucent clouds low in the N sky between the NW after dusk and the NE before dawn. This proved timely, for the first decent display of these “night shining†electric-blue clouds of ice were sighted widely from Britain within a couple of days and there have been others since. Expect more until mid-August.Although the Sun has turned southwards, Britain’s summer twilight is slow to subside and we must wait until late in July to savour true darkness with no interfering moonlight. Continue reading...
To complete its mission Nasa spacecraft must survive circuit-frying radiation storm generated by gas giant’s magnetic fieldScientists are preparing for a bumpy ride as they send a spacecraft perilously close to Jupiter, the largest planet in the solar system.The Juno probe is due to reach the gas giant on 4 July after a five-year, 1.4bn-mile journey from Earth. Continue reading...
Former Liberal leader says climate should be dominant issue of election campaign rather than ‘short-term politicking’The former Liberal leader John Hewson addressed an estimated 2000 people protesting in the Sydney suburb of Double Bay – minutes from Malcolm Turnbull’s harbourside mansion – calling on the prime minister to take stronger action on climate change.Speaking at the same time as Turnbull addressed the party faithful at the Coalition’s campaign launch, Hewson told protesters the Coalition’s lack of action on climate change was a “national disgraceâ€. Continue reading...
Men and women make very different decisions under pressure. But who loses their head?Mara Mather and researchers at the University of Southern California were curious to see if stress changes how people make decisions. They asked subjects to play a computer game: the goal was to make as much money as they could by inflating virtual balloons. As the animated balloon got bigger, you won more money. You could cash out at any time. If a balloon exploded, if you went one pump too far, then you received no cash for that popped balloon – and you couldn’t predict how many pumps it would take: it was entirely random.Did men and women behave all that differently in the game? Not when they were relaxed. But add stress to the equation and we see something different. Researchers asked subjects to hold their hand in painfully cold water to raise their heart rate and blood pressure. Women in this stressed state stopped inflating the balloons sooner, pumping 18% less than the relaxed women – they chose to take the sure win over the higher risk. Stressed men did just the opposite. They kept pumping – in one study averaging about 50% more pumps before calling it quits. Continue reading...
International Society for Reef Studies presidents say prime minister should prioritise reef after ‘devastating’ damageAs the largest international gathering of coral reef experts comes to a close, scientists have written to the Australian prime minister, Malcolm Turnbull, calling for action to save the world’s reefs.The letter was sent to Turnbull on Saturday imploring his government to do more to conserve the nation’s reefs and curb fossil fuel consumption. Continue reading...
Faced with rave reviews of musicals, films, books and plays, why does Oliver Burkeman run a mile?Somewhere around the 500th headline I read in praise of Hamilton, the universally acclaimed Broadway musical due in Europe next year, I was struck by a deflating thought: I’ll probably never see it. Not just because it’s virtually impossible to get a ticket, but because so many people – people whose tastes I trust – have raved about it that I now regard the prospect with annoyance. Two years ago, it was the Richard Linklater movie Boyhood, which I still haven’t seen; then Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels, which I still haven’t read. Straw polls of friends suggest I’m not alone in this reaction – call it “cultural cantankerousness†– which seems to affect books, films, plays, holiday destinations and restaurants equally. Increasingly, my first thought on seeing something described as a “must-read†is‚“Oh really? Try and make me.â€It would be easy to dismiss this as simple contrarianism. After all, we live in an era that champions ostentatious dissent from the mainstream, whether you’re a journalist trolling for clicks by explaining what “Donald Trump gets rightâ€, or a hipster embracing fashions because others disdain them. And contrarianism has its merits: “Whenever you find you are on the side of the majority,†Mark Twain said, “it is time to pause and reflect.†But unlike contrarianism, cultural cantankerousness isn’t solely about appearing different from others: even alone in a room, I’d be disinclined to pick up Ferrante’s books if others were available. Nor is it because I suspect these works of art are no good; they’re probably all sensational. When it comes to, say, TV shows about competitive baking, I resist the pull of the crowd because I’m confident I’m not missing much. In the case of Hamilton or Boyhood, I’m sure my perversity is costing me real enjoyment. Continue reading...
Generation X author offers €5,000 prize to person who most closely resembles red-haired painterDo you have a serious, grimly determined face, red hair and a beard? Do people swear you’ve got the look of Vincent van Gogh? If so, you can help the novelist and artist Douglas Coupland as he explores genetics and globalisation.Coupland, best known as the author of the 1991 novel Generation X, is searching for the world’s closest lookalike to Van Gogh and is offering a €5,000 prize. Continue reading...