The periodic table is 150-years-old this year, or at least the periodic table in the basic format we know it today, with chemical elements arranged in rows and columns according to their atomic weight and other properties. Mark Lorch explains how the table could have looked very different if we had followed one of the more striking designs put forward over the years.

Dry January is now a well-established period of self-flagellation on the British calendar, yet the evidence that it does your health any good is scant. The only group that seems to benefit, says Ian Hamilton, is the alcohol industry, as it distracts from the fact that alcohol does real harm to heavy drinkers – a cohort that is unlikely to take part in Dry January.

In the fourth instalment of our Ending Austerity series, where economists put forward viable alternatives to austerity, Englebert Stockhammer makes the case for everyone in Britain getting a pay rise. Not only would it be good for workers, he says, it is crucial for the stability of the economy.

The recent Indonesian tsunami that killed at least 426 at the end of December was caused by a chunk of volcano sliding into the sea. Thomas Giachetti explains how, although the timing of the event took authorities by surprise, his research made a pretty good prediction of what might happen if such a catastrophe were to occur.

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