Editor's note

Government health officials are sure that we’re not getting enough vitamin D and recommend taking a supplement for at least six months of the year. However, Tim Spector makes a convincing case that vitamin D as a supplement is not only useless, but having too much can actually do you harm.

In 2015, the 56,000-tonne cargo ship Bulk Jupiter sank, taking with it 19 of its 20 crew members. The cause was probably a strange phenomenon that causes solid mineral cargo to transform into a liquid state, which can lead ships to lose stability and eventually sink. Susan Gourvenec explores the mystery of why this well-understood problem is still causing disasters.

Many of us fear memory loss as we age. But is it only older people who should be worried? Daily use of technology is changing the way many of us now experience, record and recall events. Catherine Loveday argues that for a fuller and more detailed memory later in life, turn off your smartphone and enjoy the moment.

Northern Ireland has, this week, broken an inglorious record for lasting longer than any other peacetime developed nation without a government. How did this happen and can the depressing stalemate be broken?

Clint Witchalls

Health + Medicine Editor

Top stories

R_Szatkowski/Shutterstock.com

Vitamin D: a pseudo-vitamin for a pseudo-disease

Tim Spector, King's College London

Largest ever clinical study shows no benefit of vitamin D in preventing bone fractures.

Shutterstock

Mystery of the cargo ships that sink when their cargo suddenly liquefies

Susan Gourvenec, University of Southampton

We know how to stop solid minerals converting to a liquid state mid voyage – so why does it still happen?

Head in the iCloud? Shutterstock

Memory loss isn’t just an old person’s problem – here’s how young people can stay mentally fit

Catherine Loveday, University of Westminster

The risk smartphones pose to our memory is overblown, but they do get in the way of us making more detailed and authentic memories.

PA/ Liam McBurney

There’s a reason why Northern Ireland has been without a government for more than 500 days – Brexit

Peter John McLoughlin, Queen's University Belfast

Belgium held the previous record with 541 days without a government. What's holding up power-sharing?

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