Five years ago, soon after he turned 29, Adam Alter, a South African-born, Australian-raised academic living in New York, was struck by a sudden realisation: in less than a year, barring calamities, he’d be 30. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so surprised, given that his job, as a professor of

“New mums bribed to breastfeed” ran headlines last week, as the Lancet reported that a pilot scheme offering women shopping vouchers worth up to £200 if they breastfed their babies will now be extended to more than 4,000 women. The ensuing debate worried away at the ethics of financially

The biggest problem with contact lenses is not the devices themselves, but the people who wear them. A study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the US found that nearly a million visits to the doctor each year relate to eye infections from lenses. The most serious eye infection

ast month, Kate Szell was judged the winner of the Wellcome Trust’s science writing prize in category B for “anyone with a non-professional interest, including undergraduates”. More than 640 articles were submitted in total, with the top 20 judged by a panel consisting of neuroscientistSophie

Nodding heads, stifled yawns and dark circles under the eyes have become a familiar sight in Finnish classrooms as sleeping disorders have doubled among school-age children over the past two decades. Researchers believe energy drinks and personal electronic devices could be behind the trend. Around