Photograph: YAY Media/Alamy Photograph: YAY Media/AlamyThe long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts This week’s replies: should...
Christine’s* friends and family had been pillars of support after her cancer diagnosis. Her community responded quickly and consistently while she underwent treatment – home-delivered meals, child-minding, lifts to medical appointments, even an online fundraiser to help with living...
Charlotte Riley recreating a childhood photo from 1987Charlotte Riley in 1987 and 2026. Later photograph: Pål Hansen/The Guardian. Styling: Andie Redman. Hair and makeup: Wendy Turner. Archive photograph: courtesy of Charlotte RileyBorn in Grindon, County Durham, in 1981, Charlotte Riley...
What edges a day over the threshold from being humdrum to something better? Something good?It is a question that occurred to Dunigan Folk, a researcher from the University of Pennsylvania, when he encountered the vast data treasure trove of...
Ever since I was a teenager, I have kept some form of diary. These days I favour a paper one for creative brainstorming, and the Journal app on my iPad where I do a speedily typed brain dump every...
OpenAI made a surprise announcement this week – not an update to ChatGPT or another multibillion-dollar datacenter – but a policy paper that called for a reimagining of the social contract based around “a slate of people-first ideas”. It’s...
Does having children make you happier? Apparently not, according to a new study published in Evolutionary Psychology which, despite involving more than 5,000 participants in 10 countries, including Britain, could find no strong evidence that parenthood led to a...
Joseph Cyr works as a language teacher at an American secondary school. He was born in South Korea, and spent his childhood living across Germany and the US, in Georgia and Arizona. “As an adult I have lived in Seattle,...
If you met Tareena Shakil today, you would have no idea that the person in front of you had served time in prison for terrorism offences and holds the dubious distinction of being the first British woman convicted of...
An explosion of fabric sits at my feet. Heavy coats sit in stacked piles that threaten to topple over, and silk cheongsams lie unzipped on the bed. Despite the chaos, organising my 89-year-old grandma’s clothes is a reminder that...
