The factors that most affect our life chances are revealed as the first group of British babies followed in a remarkable cradle-to-grave turns 70 In March 1946, scientists recorded the birth of almost every British baby born in one, cold week. They have been following thousands of them ever since, in what has been become the longest running major study of human development in the world. These pe..
When we are criticized it hurts our feelings, but the pain goes much deeper than that Why do sensible and rational people seem to lose the ability to act sensibly and rationally when they are in conflict? What makes some families tear themselves apart in a variety of squabbles which to outsiders may seem petty but which result in family members not speaking to each other for years? What drives n..
Being one of only four million 'leapings' in the world born on 29 February means feeling both a different and unique - and also prompts lots of questions "I've never met one of you before." That's the first thing most people say upon hearing that I was born on 29 February. It's a fair comment. There are only four million leap year babies - or "leaplings" - in the world, out of of a population of..
Every day millions of internet users ask Google some of life's most difficult questions, big and small. Our writers answer some of the commonest queries Have you found the one? That's an easy one. No. No you haven't, no you can't no you won't You haven't found "the one" because there is no "one" to be found, by your or anyone else. The idea that there is just one person in the world who can effo..
The woman who wants to carry her dead daughter's child sets in relief our confusion about rights and needs Along with thousands of babies, one of the undoubted benefits of assisted reproductive technology, or ART, has been the acknowledgement of procreative rights, along with their long overdue extension to families not conforming to the standard Ladybird-book model. While this is progress for, ..
The referendum gives us a chance to focus on the pros and cons of immigration into Britain, but key data must be released so we can make informed decisions More than 2 million citizens of other EU countries registered for UK national insurance numbers in the last five years, while the official immigration statistics show an influx of only a million. What's going on? Is the government covering up..
From acting to journalism, the state educated miss out. But the system is to blame, not individuals A personal spat between two men who attended the same school, friends since university, both members of the restaurant-trashing Bullingdon Club: that is what has become of the debate over Britain's EU membership. It doesn't stop at the Boris Johnson-David Cameron psychodrama, of course. Stanley Jo..
Brits now spend 1bn pounds a week on fixed-odds betting terminals - our readers talk about the human cost of this habit Britain has a gambling problem: figures show that nearly 1bn pounds a week is being spent on fixed-odds betting terminals. Campaigners say the industry has been allowed to grow unchecked over the past five years, despite problem gambling being linked to violence and poor mental..
The European coalition of the inhumane - contriving to trap refugees in Greece - cannot go on. A humanitarian evacuation plan is urgently needed A coalition of the inhumane is rising in Europe. A group of political leaders have been meeting this week in Vienna to coordinate how to seal the western Balkan refugee passage. The countries involved, including Macedonia, Croatia and Serbia, don't want..
Just as Barack Obama was the reaction to George W Bush in 2008, Donald Trump is looking more and more like a reaction to Obama's presidency It may feel wrong to even utter the names "Obama" and "Trump" in the same sentence, but: there would be no ascending candidate Trump without President Obama. Trump is the anti-Obama. Sure, as the decades roll on, Obama will be remembered for helping usher th..
The gravitational waves theorist saw physics as no one else did, but if he was around today his time would be spent chasing grants or tenures. The discovery of gravitational waves has been hailed as yet another vindication of Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity, unveiled a century ago. Indeed it is: among the theory's predictions was that violent events in the universe involving immen..
month-long inquiry into the health service - touching, sometimes hair-rising - has shown how much we value it and want to keep it free What did we find? A great wall of warm humanity, kindness, suffering, fear, anxiety, hilarity, pain, dedication and often intense frustration. For a month, in our biggest ever project, the paper has dived deep within the NHS, exploring its wards and operating the..
As even Berners-Lee has recognized, the volume of data with which we're being bombarded prevents us from engaging in genuine debate On average, we check our smartphones 200 times a day - for emails, alerts, tweets or text messages. That's before using any one of our phone's multiple applications. It is a degree of connectivity to one another, and the world beyond, that is unparalleled. And it's ..
If there were any doubts about Vladimir Putin's objectives in Syria, the recent Russian military escalation around this city must surely have set them aside If Aleppo falls, Syria's vicious war will take a whole new turn, one with far-reaching consequences not just for the region but for Europe too. The latest government assault on the besieged northern Syrian city, which has caused tens of thou..
The fugitive pulled a masterstroke by referring his case to a UN panel gullible enough to embrace it The right to insufferable superiority is not specifically enshrined in the UN declaration - and yet it continues to be extended to Julian Assange, along with a load of other rights and due processes that somehow escaped the attentions of the UN panel convened to consider his case. I don't want to..