My cat has an unfortunate face. Her drooping eyebrows and sagging cheeks suggest she’s at best tolerating human company, and this grumbling countenance is the same whether she’s scratching away in the litter tray or purring in my lap. Friends assume she’s jaded by years of feline mismanagement; I believe her thunderous face is a sign of contented bliss.

The truth is that most animals are frustratingly inscrutable. Their emotional unavailability compels us humans to anthropomorphise, taking what we know of human expressions and mapping them erroneously onto the faces of our pets. But there’s a far more effective way to measure animals’ emotions. Having strapped cardiac monitors onto her fair share of wild creatures, Claudia Wascher has found a secret path into the emotional world of animals: through the beating of their hearts.

Elsewhere, China’s celestial ambitions continue to alarm some in the west. But in contrast to Nasa’s banal spacecraft nomenclature, China’s is graced with references to the country’s enthralling mythology, in what marks the beginnings of a fresh new space culture. And with England’s knockout tie with Germany in Euro 2020 looming, we’ve learned how Gareth Southgate’s empowering style of coaching can eke the very best out of his players.

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