The Voynich Manuscript is perhaps the world’s most mysterious book. Filled with a couple of hundred pages of text in an indecipherable language reminiscent of Tolkien’s Elvish, to this day the manuscript has the world’s best codebreakers stumped.

Some academics, though, aren’t convinced that there’s even a code to crack. While there isn’t yet a way to tell whether the book is a code or a hoax, one thing experts agree on is that it’s not an unidentified language. That doesn’t seem to stop a media frenzy breaking out every time someone suggests that it is.

The Voynich saga is just one example of a growing unhealthy appetite for stories trying to show pseudoscientific theories trumping “baffled academics”. Gordon Rugg says that an increasing “us and them” divide between experts and the public is to blame – and the fix isn’t simple.

Doctors are increasingly preferring antidepressants over lithium as treatment for depressive episodes in people with bipolar disorder in the UK. Not because they’re more effective – in fact, the opposite is true – but because of successful promotion by drug companies. And as lithium also requires regular monitoring to ward off potential side effects, it is seen as less convenient for busy doctors. Daniel Smith suggests that psychiatrists start prioritising care over companies, which means prescribing lithium alongside a more therapeutic approach.

Facebook’s proposed libra currency has been all over the news of late – most of it focused on its status as a cryptocurrency, or the company’s plan to bring banking facilities to the billions who don’t have them. But its arrival next year has truly staggering potential that goes far beyond what’s been reported so far: it could well be the beginning of the end for state control of money. If so, world currencies could be destabilised and the interest rates set by central banks will soon be a thing of the past.

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