Spotting cancer with computer vision. Pulling together weather data for better predictions. Solving long-running research quandaries such as protein folding. These are useful tasks for AI that benefit

Our round-up of the funny, fascinating and unusual stories this fortnight

How does beauty move you and art sculpt minds according to neuroaesthetics?

They’re gross, boring and just plain weird. So why can’t we stop scrolling through these online guilty pleasures?

My kitchen is filled with seemingly nondescript objects that mean a great deal to me: my mum’s wooden-handled fish slice and masher; her pans; the knives and forks I used while I was growing up; a tea

A soul-sucking, mind-messing black hole that women have been chucking themselves into since the dawn of time Social media feeds are full of mysterious pop-up videos of products that promise the earth