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As the shocking claims around the Post Office and infected blood scandals keep emerging, it's clear that organisational cover-ups have one big factor in common. When things go wrong and managers rush to protect their organisations, the lives and livelihoods of ordinary people are trampled.
But what's also shocking is the idea that management culture has evolved in such a way that cover-ups have almost become inevitable. In industries like aviation, there's nowhere to hide when things go wrong and so every effort is made to avoid mistakes. But in other sectors, protecting the organisation is paramount. The workers who show they understand this unspoken rule are normally the ones who rise to the top, even if it comes at the expense of doing the right thing.
Much sweeter altogether is the idea of a genetic birdsong "dialect". In a fascinating study, researchers found that chicks that had been transferred from the Netherlands to Sweden before hatching didn't just learn the Swedish song style, their tunes also showed traits of their Dutch heritage.
And in other migratory news, anyone fearing that English is being crowded out in the UK by the languages of immigrants can rest easy. These islands have hosted a multitude of languages for centuries, and their interactions over the years still pepper our rich modern vocabulary.
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