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I once interviewed a deeply unpleasant man with strong views on why women and gay people did not belong in his church. It wasn't just his opinions that were strong – he delivered his diatribe of bigoted nonsense on breath so rank I was surprised it hadn't killed the floral decorations with which his church was liberally bedecked. It turns out that, while I could justifiably find fault with the man's views, he may not have been able to help his halitosis. Apart from poor oral hygiene, there are many things that can cause bad breath, some of which may require a trip to the doctor. And, because we like to be helpful for our readers, we can show you how to check
how your own breath measures up.
I have a dear and very longstanding friend who suffers terribly with bipolar disorder, which has seriously affected both her career and home life. Having shared a flat with her back in the day, I could see at close hand how she her brain chemicals drove her from ludicrous, sleepless highs to crashing lows that could last for weeks at a time. But scientists are figuring out more about this debilitating condition all the time. Now researchers believe they have figured out the areas of the brain that can drive the dramatic mood swings that come with bipolar disorder.
A straw poll of friends in my local pub has revealed there is a roughly even split between those outraged at the Conservative election date betting scandal (Electiondategate anyone?) and those who have become so cynical about UK politics that they identify with the "they're all as bad as each other" tendency. But the latter attitude threatens to poison public trust in democracy And as we've seen elsewhere, this can be a very slippery slope. Sometimes these scandals are just the sign of a government that has run out of puff.
This week we worried about the possibility of microplastics finding their way into our bodies, we worried about the carbon footprint of avocados, and we marvelled at the aesthetics of the modern corset
as modelled by Taylor Swift and Emily Blunt.
From our friends and colleagues in our global network, we took a look at what the science of robotics can learn from elephants' trunks, we got an update on the push for Catalan independence and Australia's former ambassador to Lebanon, Ian Parmeter, warns of the danger of an all-out war between Israel and Hezbollah.
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