We all get headaches from time to time. Some can surface as a minor irritation while others can really knock you for six. This week we asked a neuroscientist to offer some advice on how to manage when the paracetamol just isn’t cutting it. It all starts with working out which kind of headache you are experiencing.

Justice League director Zach Snyder has hinted that he is thinking about making a film about King Arthur. But scholars were perplexed to hear him make the bold claim that his will be a “faithful retelling” of this classic myth. A round table conference must surely be organised post-haste so that we can all agree on what constitutes a “faithful” version of the story. As Amy Louise Blaney points out, the nature of a legend is that it contorts and develops over generations. There is no single version of Arthur – and, if there was, the tale would be unlikely to remain so popular in the modern era.

A large interdisciplinary study has been looking back at what was happening on Earth even before Arthur either was or wasn’t liberating swords from stones. This week, the team behind the research reported that an apocalyptic event was triggered 42,000 years ago when the planet’s poles were reversed. This caused cataclysmic climate change, destroyed the ozone layer, unleashed massive electrical storms and gave contemporary trees a really hard time. And we thought we lived in a tumultuous period in history.

Also this week, understanding the Texas blackouts, missing the pub and cutting back on household waste.

Laura Hood

Politics Editor, Assistant Editor

Krakenimages.com/Shutterstock.com

Headaches: three tips from a neuroscientist on how to get rid of them

Amanda Ellison, Durham University

When headaches strike, many people reach for a painkiller. Probing the reasons behind the pain is often a better idea.

The Last Sleep of Arthur in Avalon by Edward Burne Jones. Wikimedia

There’s no such thing as a ‘faithful retelling’ of the Arthurian legend

Amy Louise Blaney, Keele University

It's a malleable mythos that has been adapted by kings and queens as well as artists and filmmakers.

vchal / shutterstock

Earth’s magnetic field broke down 42,000 years ago and caused massive sudden climate change

Chris Fogwill, Keele University; Alan Hogg, University of Waikato; Chris Turney, UNSW; Zoë Thomas, UNSW

Scientists have uncovered evidence of a global paleopocalyspe.

Icicles on a bush in downtown Houston, Feb. 15, 2021. Mark Felix/AFP via Getty Images

Texas power outages across the Plains: 4 questions answered about weather-driven blackouts

Michael E. Webber, University of Texas at Austin

Heat waves, droughts and deep freezes can all strain the electric grid, leading utilities to impose rolling blackouts. Climate change is likely to make these events more common.

View Apart/Shutterstock

British people are really missing the pub – here’s why

Thomas Thurnell-Read, Loughborough University

Pubs are recognised as important assets to their communities, providing economic and social value alike.

Fazry Ismail/EPA

Five ways to reduce your household waste – and stop it being shipped to poorer countries

Sankar Sivarajah, University of Bradford

UK still ships huge amounts of plastic waste to places like Vietnam, Malaysia and Pakistan.

 

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