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10 things we didn't know last week

2012-02-11T01:04:00.002Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. The last chocolate in the box really does taste better.
More details (Daily Mail)

2. Diogenes extended his middle finger as a gesture of contempt in 4th Century BC Athens.
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3. A severed head was a Valentine's gift in 19th Century Taiwan.
More details (Independent)

4. Hitler was embarrassed about a photograph showing him wearing lederhosen.
More details (The Times)

5. Cabbages can talk to each other.
More details (Daily Mail)

6. Lizards can survive a spin in the washing machine.
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7. A source in an FBI report described Steve Jobs as a "deceptive individual who is not completely forthright and honest".
More details (Daily Telegraph)

8. David Beckham has only three close friends.
More details (Daily Mail)

9. Seagrass is the oldest living thing on earth.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

10. Having an easy-to-say name makes you more likely to get promoted.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

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10 things we didn't know last week

2012-02-05T12:41:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Newt Gingrich's name at birth was Newton Leroy McPherson.
More details (LA Times)

2. Lard lasts 64 years.
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3. Castaways on Desert Island Discs have taken 183 pianos, five trombones, the Albert Memorial and a cheeseburger machine.
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4. Twitter is more addictive than cigarettes.
More details (The Guardian)

5. Tree trunks can be played like vinyl records.
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6. Tripe is one of Nelson Mandela's favourite foods.
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7. Gorillas reassure each other by grinning.
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8. The earth is getting lighter.
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9. More babies were born in the UK during 1920 than in any other year.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

10. Fans of snowdrops are known as galanthophiles.
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10 things we didn't know last week

2012-02-05T12:40:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. The English eat more haggis than the Scots.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

2. The Dead Sea is only two-thirds the size it was in the 1930s.
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3. Mice sing.
More details (Press Association)

4. Of 163,000 space rocks owned by Nasa, 517 are missing.
More details (New York Times)

5. The world's most competitive espresso market is the UK.
More details (The Independent)

6. Dinosaurs were good mothers.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

7. Welsh doctors once used the skin of puppies as a dermatological treatment.
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8. King Charles II served his banquet guests 145 dishes during a single first course.
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9. A Lego man is capable of space flight.
More details (CTV)

10. Elephants can wear contact lenses.
More details (Daily Mirror)

10 things we didn't know last week

2012-01-21T11:26:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. A Sudoku with fewer than 17 numbers filled in will have more than one possible solution.
More details (New Scientist)

2. Skydiving can help you earn a GCSE qualification.
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3. A horse fly is named after Beyonce.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

4. State workers in South Carolina answer the phone with, "It's a great day in South Carolina."
More details (New York Times)

5. Snakes know when their prey's heart stops beating.
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6. The average US share holding lasts 22 seconds.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

7. Sound travels five times faster through water than through air.
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8. Michelle Obama has a pair of $515 (£332) trainers.
More details (The Guardian)

9. Beer brewed 75 years ago can still be drinkable.
More details (Small World News)

10. The government of Iraq considers the buttocks from a toppled statue of Saddam Hussein part of its national antiquity.
More details (Hereford Times)

10 things we didn't know last week

2012-01-15T00:14:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Diners in China subvert salad bar rules by building elaborate towers of food.
More details (Daily Mail)

2. People eat Christmas trees.
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3. The Milky Way is white.
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4. Authors who finish other writers' unfinished works are known as "continuators".
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5. Monkeys have faces that help them find each other.
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6. Kodak invented the digital camera in 1975.
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7. Frogs can be very, very small.
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8. Superglue is used in forensics.
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9. Stars blow bubbles.
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10. Some people think dogs can act.
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10 things we didn't know last week

2012-01-07T12:00:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

Bees are being turned into "zombies" by a parasitic fly.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

Scientist Stephen Hawking does not understand women.
More details (Mirror)

Bond star Daniel Craig does not like his knees.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

Brain function can start declining at the age of 45 - much earlier than previously thought.
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Loch Ness tilts back and forth each day.
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The town of Swindon is twinned with Walt Disney World in Florida.
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JRR Tolkien was passed over for the 1961 Nobel literature prize as judges deemed his prose "second-rate".
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A young Hitler may have been saved from drowning by a priest.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

Lord Byron was one of the first diet icons.
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Events can be made to "disappear" through a hole in time.
More details (Christian Science Monitor)

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-12-30T11:04:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Pet crocodiles in the UK have to be micro chipped.
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2. Kim Jong-il was known by 50 names, including Dear Leader, Supreme Leader, Our Father, The General, Generalissimo.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

3. There is a 100-year-old Christmas cake.
More details (Daily Mail)

4. The average webpage has grown 33% in size in the last year, up from 726 kilobytes in 2010 to about 965 kilobytes in 2011.
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5. This year's top10 most watched YouTube clips have racked up more than 285 million hits worldwide since being posted onto the internet.
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6. The world record for Christmas lights covering a property is 331,038 lights.
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7. Sleeping on left side of the bed makes you more cheerful and positive.
More details (Daily Mail)

8. Britain's cheapest house this year sold for £16,000.
More details (Express and Star)

9. In Scotland you can eat deep fried butter.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

10. The first celebrity to enter the US chart of the most popular search terms this year across all search engines is Justin Bieber at 92.
More details (Daily Mail)

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-12-30T11:03:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Fish walk.
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2. Ground walnuts are now used by set designers for theatrical dust.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

3. Men are at their most competitive between the ages of 45 and 54.
More details (Guardian)

4. Hairy limbs keep bed bugs at bay.
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5. Alcohol tastes sweeter when loud music is playing.
More details (Daily Mail)

6. The UK often tops world rankings in terms of the number of tornadoes per square kilometre.
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7. A cat can have 26 toes.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

8. The name "God Particle" began as a reference to "that goddamn particle".
More details (Economist)

9. Ibuprofen was developed in house in Nottingham.
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10. You can have a faecal transplant.
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100 things we didn't know last year

2011-12-30T10:59:00.001Z

Interesting and unexpected facts can emerge from daily news stories and the Magazine picks out such snippets for its weekly feature, 10 things we didn't know last week. Here's an almanac of the best of 2011.

1. Birds binge drink.
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2. Bald people grow the wrong type of hair - so fine it's invisible to the naked eye.
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3. Aristotle is thought to have been the last individual to know everything that was known at the time.
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4. Women's tears reduce sexual desire in men.
More details (Guardian)

5. President Kennedy's famous line "Do not ask..." was inspired by the headmaster of his prep school.
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6. Princess Diana had two wedding dresses - one a back-up design in case her first choice was revealed before the big day.

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7. Huskies can smell thin ice.
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8. JD Salinger was a fan of Tim Henman.
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9. Good cops are better at getting confessions than bad cops.
More details (Daily Mirror)

10. The average hug lasts three seconds.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

11. Cattle once regularly swam between Hebridean islands.
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12. Elton John has no mobile phone.
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13. Incan brides had to peel a potato to prove they would be a good wife.
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14. UK postal workers get through two million red rubber bands a day.

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15. Artist LS Lowry was a debt collector.
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16. The ransom paid to release Richard the Lionheart, captured in 1192 on his return from the Crusades, was the equivalent of about £2bn in today's money.
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17. People with full bladders make better decisions.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

18. Chickens feel empathy.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

19. About 40% of skyscrapers due to be completed in the next six years will be in China.
More details (Economist)

20. St Patrick's Day is a national holiday in Montserrat.
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21. Sharks go to the cleaners.
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22. More than 90% of UK schoolchildren study Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.
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23. YouTube's first video was called "Me at the zoo".
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24. The average person uses 20,000 words, with another 40,000 in reserve.
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25. One in six people live in India.
More details (Daily Express)

26. The word "loo" dates from medieval times, thought to have derived from the warning shout of "gardez l'eau!" given by those tipping chamber pots out the window.
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27. Seat belts are banned on some roads.
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28. Male humpback whales play "Chinese whispers" across 6,000km.
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29. Dogs watch how nice people are to others to work out whom to approach to beg for food.

More details (Daily Mail)

30. Swearing relieves pain.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

31. A rare version of God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols is the most valuable record of all time.
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32. French police are currently allowed 25cl of wine or a small beer with their lunch while on duty.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

33. Transparent typewriters are sold to prisons, to avoid the risk of hidden contraband.
More details (The Daily Feed)

34. The perfect nap lasts 26 minutes.
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35. New York taxis used to be red and green, but in 1907 were all repainted yellow to be visible from a distance.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

36. It costs $60,000 to train a Navy Seal dog - like the one that accompanied US special forces on the Bin Laden operation.

More details (The Times)

37. Humans stare longer at people with bad reputations.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

38. There are only two beret factories left in France.
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39. It is illegal to sell moon rocks in the US.
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40. "Dong xuan" means frozen garlic in China, but winning an election in Taiwan.
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41. Heart disease is less common among religious people.
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42. Vultures are better than sniffer dogs at searching large, overgrown areas for dead bodies.
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43. The odds of scoring two hole-in-ones in the same round of golf are 67 million-to-one.

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44. Chimps can outperform eight-year-olds in solving problems.
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45. Women don't see Porsche drivers as marriage material.
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46. The yellow brick road leads to a car park.
More details (Wall Street Journal)

47. Sonic the Hedgehog's shoes are based on Michael Jackson's footwear in the Bad video.
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48. Half of Britons have German blood.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

49. The US only got its first roundabout in 1990, in Nevada.
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50. The male water boatman insect sings with its penis.
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51. California has drawn up a legal definition for the hot dog.

More details (Daily Mail)

52. The UK's Speaking Clock still receives 30 million calls each year.
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53. Stick insects can go without sex for a million years.
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54. Cows have best friends.
More details (Daily Mail)

55. Apple has more cash than the US government.
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56. Uganda's national anthem is the world's shortest.
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57. There are poisonous rats.
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58. A hole dug in the ground qualified as a private members' club in Wales.
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59. A shorter than average tongue makes it more difficult to speak Korean.
More details (The Sun)

60. Singing sparrows are actually trading insults.
More details (Daily Mail)

61. Asda Illustrated is the UK's top-selling magazine.
More details (Press Gazette)

62. Mr Men author Roger Hargreaves was the third best-selling author of the last decade, topped only by JK Rowling and Dan Brown.

More details (Metro)

63. The average Briton suffers 726 hangovers in a lifetime.
More details (Daily Mail)

64. Steve Jobs patented designs for two glass staircases - now used in many Apple stores.
More details (New York Times)

65. Getting married increases the risk of putting on weight.
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66. The world's atmosphere is worth £4.3 quadrillion, going by the air we breathe in and the price of CO2.
More details (Metro)

67. In 1941 state surveys in the UK asked how many bras women owned.
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68. Crocodiles go off their food when stressed.
More details (Guardian)

69. The Queen's swans get flu jabs.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

70. Women remember men with a deep voice more than those with a high voice.
More details (Daily Mail)

71. Australians have a third choice when describing their gender on passport applications.
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72. Yawning cools down the brain.

More details (Huffington Post)

73. MI5 used to have special kettles kept solely for steaming open envelopes.
More details (Reith Lecture)

74. Facebook remembers all the devices you've ever used to log in, and who else has used that same device.
More details (Forbes)

75. Letters addressed to Kabul include directions - there are few street names and numbers, and no postcodes.
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76. Preston bus station is on this year's list of at-risk cultural heritage sites, along with the Nazca Lines in Peru and a Greek cemetery.

More details (Daily Mail)

77. The first e-book, back in the 1970s, was the US Declaration of Independence.
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78. One in six mobile phones in Britain is contaminated with poo.
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79. Piranhas bark.
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80. There is a decrease in natural births on Halloween and an increase on Valentines Day.
More details (Mother and Baby)

81. Alice Cooper runs a Bible class.
More details (Daily Mail)

82. Staffordshire town Burton upon Trent now has its own perfume, Eau de Burton, with hints of football boots and Branston Pickle.
More details (Burton Mail)

83. Polar bears have a surprisingly weak bite, while giant pandas have a very strong one.
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84. Rival rugby teams face a fine if they stray over the half-way line while the All Blacks perform the haka.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

85. Horses with distinctive black-and-white leopard-like markings roamed Europe 25,000 years ago.
More details (Wired)

86. Scottish remembrance poppies have four petals and no leaf, unlike the more common two petals and a single green leaf.

More details

87. Jimmy Savile and Margaret Thatcher celebrated New Year's Eve together 11 years in a row.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

88. Thierville in Normandy did not lose any service personnel in France's last five major wars.
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89. Many Afghans associate the number 39 with pimps.
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90. Until 1912 there was no set design for the Stars and Stripes.
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91. In the fifth and sixth decades of life, you are less likely to die over the coming year than at any other time in your life.
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92. Facebook users average 3.74 degrees of separation.
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93. The world's only sex school is in Austria.
More details (Daily Mail)

94. Wasps recognise each other's faces.
More details (Nature)

95. You are given a lottery ticket if you clean up dog poo in New Taipei City in Taiwan.
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96. The girl on the classic British road sign "children going to or from school" is based on a school photo of its designer Margaret Calvert.

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97. Alcohol tastes sweeter when loud music is playing.
More details (Daily Mail)

98. Hairy limbs keep bed bugs at bay.
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99. Lakes can be given village green status.
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100. Fish walk.
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10 things we didn't know last week

2011-12-11T09:29:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Ravens are the only species other than apes who can "point" and share objects like humans.
More details (Daily Mail)

2. You are not allowed to take conkers from Royal parks.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

3. More than one in every 10 banknotes in circulation in Britain is contaminated with cocaine.
More details (Guardian)

4. The world's only sex school is in Austria.
More details (Daily Mail)

5. The FTSE, the London stock market measure of leading share prices, was the most popular Yahoo search this year, ahead of the likes of Justin Bieber and Katie Price.
More details (This Is Money)

6. Turtles communicate with each other before hatching.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

7. Having a shed can lower your blood pressure.
More details (Daily Mail)

8. The 12 days of Christmas now cost: $101,119, the most expensive item being seven swans a swimming, which would cost $6,300.
More details (The Consumerist)

9. Wasps recognise each other's faces.
More details (Nature)

10. Swearing really can relieve pain.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-12-11T09:28:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. The Crown owns almost half of the UK's shoreline.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

2. Four out of the past nine governors of the US state of Illinois have gone to prison.
More details (Washington Post)

3. You are given a lottery ticket if you clean up dog poo in New Taipei City in Taiwan.More details

4. There is a bamboo plantation on the outskirts of Amsterdam.
More details (Daily Mail)

5. Polar bears are cannibals.
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6. Singer Adele doesn't like North American beer.
More details (Mirror)

7. Brussels sprouts are up to 20% bigger this year.
More details (Daily Mail)

8. The girl on the classic road sign "children going to or from school" is based on a school photo of its designer Margaret Calvert.
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9. Swedish fashion chain H&M has been using doctored photos of shop dummies - superimposed with real-life models' heads - as bikini bodies on its website.
More details (The Independent)

10. The world's oldest dog, who died this week, lived to the equivalent of about 125 years for a human.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-11-26T11:47:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Hugh Grant's middle name is Mungo.
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2. Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls cries when he watches the Antiques Roadshow.
More details (Daily Mirror)

3. Facebook users average 3.74 degrees of separation.
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4. In the fifth and sixth decades of life, you are less likely to die over the coming year than at any other time in your life.
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5. The average shower lasts eight minutes and uses almost as much water and energy as the average bath. More details

6. The newly discovered Bulbophyllum nocturnum is the only orchid among 25,000 species that flowers at night. More details (Guardian)

7. Human spit is threatening Calcutta's landmark Howrah Bridge. More details

8. The average Briton says thank you up to 5,000 times a year.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

9. Desmond Llewelyn played Q - James Bond's gadget whizz - for 36 years. More details (The Sun)

10. The Christmas tree at St Pancras railway station in London is made from 600,000 Lego bricks. More details

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-11-23T12:50:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. There is such a thing as "toast soup".
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2. Use of the word disgusted in English peaked in 1800.
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3. Until 1912, there was no set design for the Stars and Stripes.
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4. Salman Rushdie's first name is Ahmed.
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5. Many Afghans associate the number 39 with pimps.
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6. There is a steep hill in the UK called Steep Hill.
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7. There is no such thing as bullet-proof glass.
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8. The brains of people who regularly play computer games differ from those of infrequent gamers.
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9. The Duke of Wellington was so impressed by his French opponents' invention of the ambulance that he ordered his men not to fire on them.
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10. People can spot whether a complete stranger has a certain "social gene" in just 20 seconds.
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Eating canned soup 'poses a chemical risk'

2011-11-23T12:48:00.000Z

Fresh soup contained only small traces of BPA

People who eat canned soup should be aware that a chemical used to line the tin can leach into the food and end up in the body, say scientists.

Tests on 75 volunteers revealed the compound bisphenol A (BPA) was readily ingested and detected in large amounts in the urine, the Journal of the American Medical Association reports.

Past studies have linked high BPA levels with adverse health effects.

In the EU the chemical is already banned from baby bottles.

But it is still used in cans as a coating to prevent rusting and keep the food fresh. Some soft drink cans and bottles also contain BPA.

Dr Jenny Carwile, lead author of the latest study at the Harvard School of Public Health, said: "We've known for a while that drinking beverages that have been stored in certain hard plastics can increase the amount of BPA in your body. This study suggests that canned foods may be an even greater concern, especially given their wide use."

What is your word (or expression) of the year?

2011-11-23T12:43:00.000Z

The lexicographers at the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) have come up with their Word of the Year. Actually, they haven't. They've come up with an expression - squeezed middle.

It was a term coined by Ed Miliband - not a person one instantly associates with wordsmithery - while in conversation with John Humphrys on the Today Programme. John, a man who takes a keen interest in the English language, asked what the Labour leader meant by squeezed middle. Mr Miliband gave a slightly faltering answer in which he mentioned something about the broad middle classes in this country who find themselves financially hard pressed.

READ MORE http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15854432

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-11-14T00:50:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Robert Hardy has played Winston Churchill on seven occasions.
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2. Polar bears have a surprisingly weak bite, while giant pandas have very strong one.
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3. Texas Hold 'Em is the world's most popular form of poker.
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4. Being born in August can result in low confidence and self-esteem.
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5. A butcher's shop in Dorset, founded during the reign of Henry VIII, is Britain's oldest family business.
More details (Daily Mail)

6. Jimmy Savile and Margaret Thatcher celebrated New Year's Eve together for 11 years in a row.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

7. People in England eat more fruit and vegetables than those in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
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8. There were fewer than 300 motor cars on the road in France in August 1900.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

9. Young Chinese girls in Hunan province used Nushu, a language that no men could read, to communicate with one another.
More details (Guardian)

10. Kensington Palace has obscene graffiti dating back to 1902.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-11-14T00:48:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Thierville in Normandy did not lose any service personnel in France's last five wars.
More details

2. Scottish remembrance poppies have four petals and no leaf, unlike the more common two petals and a single green leaf.
More details

3. A Browning machine gun can be made to fire after 70 years buried in a bog.
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4. Horses with distinctive black-and-white leopard-like markings roamed Europe 25,000 years ago.
More details

5. A devil's face has been hidden for centuries in a fresco by the Italian renaissance master Giotto.
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6. Occupy was the most commonly used word in print and on the internet in the past year, according to one study.
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7. Penguins enjoy mud spas. More details

8. British consulates cannot supply Phil Collins' phone number. More details

9. 11.11.11 is the day that most closely resembles corduroy.
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10. Locally produced pound notes are used as currency in Totnes, Devon, and Lewes, Sussex.
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10 things we didn't know last week

2011-10-31T14:01:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. The Staffordshire town of Burton upon Trent now has its own perfume, Eau de Burton, with hints of marmite and Branston Pickle
More details (Burton Mail)

2. Rival rugby teams face a fine if they stray over the half-way line while the All Blacks perform the haka
More details (The Telegraph)

3. The Sealyham terrier - once a must have for the well-heeled dog owner - is on the brink of extinction
More details (Daily Mail)

4. Strawberries could protect the stomach from the effects of alcohol
More details (The Huffington Post)

5. Coldplay tried hypnosis while recording new album
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6. The forces involved when a woodpecker drills at a tree are up to 1,000 times stronger than gravity
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7. Two-thirds of 16 to 24-year-olds rely on energy drinks to keep them going
More details (Metro)

8. Large dinosaurs embarked on epic migration journeys when food and water ran out
More details (The Guardian)

9. Bat sightings along UK waterways are rising steeply.
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10. The price of a cup of tea could rise by as much as 7% next year, because of the Kenyan drought and increased global consumption.
More details (The Telegraph)

Been and gone: Dylan's photographer and namer of Spitfire

2011-10-31T13:59:00.000Z

Our regular column covering the passing of significant - but lesser-reported - people of the past month.

The photographer Barry Feinstein shot some of the most enduring rock music images of the 1960s. His portrait of Janis Joplin taken the day before she died graced the cover of her album, Pearl, while his image of George Harrison sitting on a chair surrounded by garden statues appeared on the ex-Beatle's solo album, All Things Must Pass. His best known work is probably the monochrome image of an unsmiling Bob Dylan on the 1964 album, The Times They Are A-Changin'. Feinstein began his career shooting portraits of film stars for Columbia but branched out taking more candid pictures of the stars outside the studio. After meeting Dylan, he became the singer's official photographer on his 1966 tour and chronicled Dylan's switch from acoustic to electric music. "Musicians are actually easier to photograph than movie stars," he once said. "They're just not as uptight."

For 14 years Elouise Cobell fought a legal battle to recover billions of dollars that had been systematically plundered from Native Americans by the US government. During the action it emerged that the government's Bureau of Indian Affairs had, over the previous 100 years, sold off Indian land to farmers and prospectors but failed to pass the money on. A qualified accountant, Yellow Bird Woman, as Cobell was known in her native Blackfoot nation, raised the huge sums of money necessary to fight the case. Along the way she encountered opposition from the various US administrations she had to tackle but eventually, on the election of Barack Obama, the government paid out more than $3bn (£1.9bn) in what became the largest class action in US history. The sum was a lot less than the $27bn (£16.9bn) Cobell estimated had been stolen from Native Americans over the century.

Sheila Allen was watched by millions in Onedin Line

The actress Sheila Allen was best known for her role as Cassie Manson in the 1976 TV drama, Bouquet of Barbed Wire. As the long-suffering wife of the obsessive Peter, played by Frank Finlay, she allowed herself to be seduced by her son-in law in a plot that was considered extremely risque at the time. TV critic Clive James wrote of it that "by the end, everybody had been to bed with everybody else except the baby". Allen began her career as a Shakespearian actress in the 1950s and remained with the Royal Shakespeare Company for more than 20 years. She started working in television in the 1960s including a guest appearance in an episode of the cult series, The Prisoner. She also appeared in a number of films including Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire but her first love was always the stage.

Sue Lloyd turned from acting to portrait painting

Acting also lost Sue Lloyd who, after adding a touch of glamour to the 1960s, returned to play Barbara Hunter in more than 700 episodes of the ATV soap, Crossroads. With its creaky scenery and even creakier plot lines Lloyd herself admitted she had to think twice before taking up the offer of the part. In the event, her character married the dashing David Hunter, played by Ronald Allen, a partnership that spilled over into real life. A former dancer and model, Lloyd first came to public attention as Michael Caine's love interest in The Ipcress File. She popped up in a string of TV dramas including The Avengers, The Sweeney and The Saint and had a spell as the girlfriend of Steve Forrest in the espionage series The Baron. When the acting offers tailed off, she turned back to her love of portrait painting at which she was very proficient.

If it had not been for Annie Penrose, RAF pilots might have found themselves piloting Shrews rather than Spitfires in the Battle of Britain. Her father, Sir Robert McLean, was chairman of Vickers between the wars and worked closely with R J Mitchell who was designing a new single-seater fighter. Mitchell had wanted to call the new plane the Shrew but McLean insisted it was called the Spitfire, the nickname he had bestowed on his somewhat headstrong daughter. After opposition from the Air Ministry he finally got his way. Annie, who was born in India, went on to marry the actor Robert Newton before his drinking and womanising led to divorce. She later married Beakus Penrose and became the chatelaine of the Killiow Estate in Cornwall which she ran well into her 80s.

When Peter Green formed the original Fleetwood Mac in 1967 he was initially unable to persuade John McVie to sign up and instead recruited Bob Brunning as the band's first-ever bass player. Brunning was studying at a teacher's training college when he saw Green's advert in Melody Maker. In the event he played on just one track with the band, Long Grey Mare, before McVie changed his mind and Brunning quit. He spent a brief period with Savoy Brown but decided that teaching would provide a more certain income. His interest in music did not diminish and he recorded four albums with his own outfit although none sold that well. He was also a prolific author and published several histories of Fleetwood Mac as well as books about the British blues scene.

Among others who died in October were the co-creator of Apple computers, Steve Jobs; the former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi; much-loved Coronation Street actress, Betty Driver; actor George Baker, famous for his portrayal of Inspector Wexford and guitarist and co-founder of Pentangle Bert Jansch.

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-10-20T09:11:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Piranhas bark.
More details

2. Brunettes make better friends.
More details (Daily Mail)

3. Self-made millionaires are more likely to have gone to state school.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

4. One in six mobile phones in Britain is contaminated with poo.
More details

5. Penguins rescued from oil slicks get knitted jumpers to keep them warm.
More details

6. There will be more people in the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday to watch the Wales v France World Cup semi-final on video screens than there will be at the actual match in New Zealand.
More details (Guardian)

7. Meerkats recognise each others' voices.
More details

8. Lady Gaga doesn't like Lady Goo Goo.
More details (Sun)

9. Babies know if someone is being unfairly treated at just 15 months.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

10. Really good sex can wipe your memory.
More details (Daily Mail)

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-10-20T09:10:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. TV satellite dishes in the UK mainly point southeast - and so can be used to orientate the lost.
More details

2. Hummus comes in pizza, peanut butter and chocolate mousse flavours in the US.
More details

3. A typical restaurant throws away 21 tonnes of food every year - partly because Brits are loath to ask for doggy bags.
More details

4. Preston bus station joins the Nazca Lines in Peru and a Greek cemetery on this year's list of at-risk cultural heritage sites.
More details

5. Steve Jobs studied calligraphy.
More details

6. Doritos take their name from the Spanish for "little golden".
More details

7. Cream tea in Devon is scone topped with clotted cream then jam. In Cornwall, the order of jam and cream are reversed.
More details

8. Dancing With The Stars contestants in Argentina can get naked.
More details

9. The optimum cooking time for a soft boiled egg suitable for dunking toast soldiers is a full six minutes.
More details

10. The first e-book, back in the 1970s, was the US Declaration of Independence.
More details

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-10-01T10:14:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Facebook remembers all the devices you've ever used to log in, and who else has used that same device.
More details (Forbes)

2. Basle - the Swiss city - is pronounced baal - but the football club of the same name is BAA-zuhl.
More details

3. Six times each day, metal thieves make off with copper cables from Britain's rail network.
More details

4. Koalas bellow.
More details

5. Victorian housewives made jam from carrots as a stand-in for apricots.
More details

6. Fifties movie-makers got around the nudity ban by filming in naturist parks for "educational" purposes.
More details

7. Cave drawing researchers can now tell the age and sex of prehistoric artists.
More details

8. Julia Roberts once propositioned Happy Monday dancer Bez - according to Sean Ryder's recollections of a night in the Viper Room nightclub.
More details (Sun)

9. Letters addressed to Kabul have the name and directions - there are few street names and numbers, and no postcodes.
More details

10. Long-necked plant-eating dinosaurs swallowed their food whole.
More details

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-09-25T14:23:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. MI5 used to have special kettles kept solely for steaming open envelopes.
More details (BBC Radio 4)

2. Only one in every 250 million births is a case of conjoined twins.
More details

3. Bill Clinton was invited to appear on Dancing with the Stars, the US version of Strictly Come Dancing.
More details (Daily Mail)

4. Penguins find their family members by sniffing them out.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

5. The world's smallest aquarium contains just two teaspoons of water.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

6. Elephants can paint.
More details

7. Red-haired donors are being turned away by the world's largest sperm bank because there is a lack of demand for their "product".
More details

8. Facebook hosts 4% of all photos ever taken.
More details (CBC)

9. Yawning cools down the brain.
More details (Huffington Post)

10. Crows can find food with the aid of mirrors.
More details

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-09-17T08:23:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. A planet can orbit two suns.
More details

2. Women remember men with a deep voice more than those with a high voice.
More details (Daily Mail)

3. Britons contact friends and family via Facebook an average of 3.2 times a week.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

4. Escaped pet parrots can teach wild birds to say phrases learnt from their owners.
More details

5. The steel used in the construction of the new Westfield shopping mall in Stratford is equivalent to the weight of 80 million medals.
More details (Guardian)

6. New homes in Denmark are 80% bigger than new homes in the UK.
More details

7. Cavefish can keep time without the sun.
More details (New York Times)

8. Green belts in England cover 13% of total land.
More details

9. Panda poo can reveals a lot about their sex lives.
More details

10. Australians have a third choice when describing their gender on passport applications.
More details

Rock veterans win copyright fight

2011-09-14T21:26:00.000Z

Sir Cliff Richard was at the forefront of the campaign to extend copyright

Musicians are set to receive royalties from sales and airplay well into their old age under a new EU ruling.

On Monday, the EU Council voted to extend the copyright on sound recordings from 50 to 70 years.

The move follows a campaign by artists like Cliff Richard as well as lesser-known performers, who said they should continue to earn from their creations.

Critics argue that many musicians will see little benefit, with most income going to big stars and record labels.

The change applies to the copyright on studio recordings, which is often owned by record labels, rather than the right to the composition, which is owned by the songwriters.

Under the 50-year rule, the copyright on songs by The Beatles, the Rolling Stones and The Who would have expired in the next few years.

That would have meant that anyone could have used and sold those songs in any way, and the performers and record labels would have ceased to receive royalties.

Rolling Stone Mick Jagger told the BBC that the EU's decision was "obviously advantageous" to musicians.

"Obviously the record business is not what it was, so people don't earn as much as they used to," he said. "[The royalties] can extend their lives and the lives of their families who inherit their songs."

Abba star Bjorn Ulvaeus added that one benefit was that he would retain control over how his compositions were used in the future.

Bjorn Ulvaeus said the ruling would stop Abba's songs being used in adverts without permission

"Now I won't have to see Abba being used in a TV commercial," he said. "And the thousands of lesser-known musicians around Europe who are enriching our life and culture can get the fair reward in return for their work that they deserve."

Announcing the ruling, the council of the European Union said: "Performers generally start their careers young and the current term of protection of 50 years often does not protect their performances for their entire lifetime.

"Therefore, some performers face an income gap at the end of their lifetimes."

The new law also includes a number of provisions designed to ensure that musicians see a fair proportion of the extra income, including a fund for musicians who signed away their rights when a recording was made.

The fund will be financed by record labels, who put aside a percentage of the benefits they get from the prolonged copyright.

There is also a clause to allow performers to renegotiate contracts with record labels after 50 years.

And artists will be able to regain the rights to a recording if their label has kept it in a vault and not made it available to the public.

Coronation Street actor breaks world record

2011-09-14T21:24:00.000Z

Lowrie played Elsie Tanner's son in Coronation Street

Coronation Street actor Philip Lowrie has broken the world record for the longest gap between TV appearances in the same show.

Lowrie, who first appeared as Dennis Tanner in the soap's debut in 1960 and stayed until 1968, re-joined the cast in May this year after 43 years.

"I've always been proud to have been a member of the original cast of Coronation Street," said Lowrie.

"Now I'm doubly proud to be honoured in the Guinness World Records book."

The wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge created a new record for most live streams of a single event, after 72 million people watched the ceremony live online on The Royal Channel, the official YouTube channel for the monarchy.

"We are thrilled that we were able to help enable millions of people from across the world to watch and enjoy the royal wedding," said a spokesperson for Clarence House.

Other entries which will appear in the Guinness World Records 2012 edition include three new records set by singer-songwriter Adele, including first female to have two singles and two albums in the UK top five simultaneously.

Doris Day makes UK chart history

2011-09-14T21:23:00.000Z

Doris Day, pictured here in 1955, has not performed for more than 25 years

Doris Day has become the oldest artist to score a UK Top 10 with an album featuring new material, according to the Official Charts Company.

Day's My Heart has gone in at number nine, 62 years after the 87-year-old's debut album was released in the US.

My Heart is a selection of recordings produced by her son, Terry Melcher, before his death in 2004.

Playing In The Shadows, the third album by British pop artist Example, entered the chart at number one.

Mercury-winner PJ Harvey's Let England Shake is this week's number 24 in the album chart.

The critically-acclaimed record has leapt 151 places from last week.

In the singles chart, Pixie Lott has secured her third number one with All About Tonight.

Former X Factor-winner Leona Lewis and Swedish DJ Avicii's collaboration Collide has charted at number four.

The track found the pair at the centre of a copyright dispute after the producer claimed the singer had used a piano sample without his permission.

In a career spanning more than 50 years, Day - Hollywood's "girl-next-door" - has appeared in 39 films and recorded 28 other albums.

British singer Vera Lynn topped the UK album chart in August 2009, at the age of 92, but that was with a greatest hits album, We'll Meet Again - The Very Best Of Vera Lynn.

Microsoft unveils its new Windows 8 operating system

2011-09-14T21:22:00.001Z

Click to play

Microsoft's Steven Sinofsky discusses new features in Windows 8

Microsoft has taken the wraps off the next generation of its Windows operating system.

Windows 8 is designed to run on tablet computers, as well as desktop and laptop PCs.

The software, which is due to be released in 2012 will work on the popular ARM-designed low power processors for the first time.

Microsoft has been under pressure to come up with an answer to Apple's iOS and Google's Android platforms.

Unveiling Windows 8 at the Build developers' conference in California, Windows division president Steven Sinofsky declared: "We re-imagined Windows. From the chipset to the user experience."

The system will function through one of two interfaces; a traditional desktop, similar to that seen in previous editions of Windows, and a tablet version, known as Metro.

Metro features larger, chunky controls of the sort that best suit touchscreen use. The current lack of such an input method is widely seen as the reason why few Windows 7 tablets exist.

Microsoft said that it would also be launching its own online marketplace - the Windows Store - to sell downloadable applications.

One of the biggest innovations for Windows 8 will be its compatibility with processors designed by ARM holdings.

Windows 8 has been designed to be used on touchscreen devices

Chips based around the ARM architecture typically use very little power, and as a result are found in the vast majority of smartphones and tablets currently available.

To date, Windows devices have required Intel or Intel-compatible processors, with the exception of Microsoft's Windows Phone range.

ARM chips are likely to be predominantly used on Windows 8 Metro devices, and will require ARM-specific versions of applications.

The company has not given details on the chips that will be integrated into desktop and laptop machines.

Tapping into any section of the Windows market will be seen as a huge boost for Cambridge-based ARM Holdings.

The company faces growing competition in the mobile device sector since Intel launched its tablet and smartphone-focused Oak Trail chipset in April 2011.

Tapping into that particular market is seen as vital for hardware manufacturers, and software-makers, such as Microsoft, as the market for traditional computers continues to be eroded.

Industry analysts Gartner predicted in April that the global market for tablets would reach 70 million this year, and grow to 300 million in 2015.

Sales of desktops and laptops are expected to continue growing, but at a much slower rate than in the past.

Seaplane flypast marks 1931 Schneider Trophy victory

2011-09-14T21:19:00.000Z

Click to play

Seaplanes will retrace the event's route

The 80th anniversary of Britain's victory in the Schneider Trophy will be marked by a seaplane flypast.

A pair of seaplanes will fly along the 1931 route, which covered a 50km triangular course along the Solent.

The contest was won in 1931 by a Supermarine S6B designed by RJ Mitchell, who went on to build the World War II Spitfire fighter.

A speed competition for seaplanes, the Schneider Trophy was contested between 1913 and 1931.

It was set up by Jacques Schneider, initially to encourage technical advances in civil aviation.

It is estimated that some 500,000 people watched the 1931 event on the shores of Southampton Water.

The trophy was contested by pilots from countries including Britain, Italy, France, Germany and the US.

To take the trophy, a country had to win the competition three times in five meetings.

After the British team won the title in 1931, the event was discontinued and Britain was allowed to keep the trophy.

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-09-02T21:46:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Harrogate is the only postcode in Britain without a Tesco store.
More details (Independent)

2. Coral could be the key to stopping sunburn.
More details (Sky)

3. We nearly always pick items from the middle shelf in supermarkets.
More details (Daily Mail)

4. A German city has started taxing prostitutes by installing a ticket machine.
More details (New York Times)

5. An officially hot day in the UK - as classified by the Met Office - is when temperatures reach 30C.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

6. Domino's pizza chain is planning to open a restaurant on the moon.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

7. In 1941 the government in the UK wanted to know how many bras women owned.
More details

8. The first fluorescent clothing was made from the inventor's wife's wedding dress.
More details

9. The world's atmosphere is worth £4.3 quadrillion, going off the air we breathe in and the price of CO2
More details (Metro)

10. Britain has 800 major self-storage units, the same as the rest of Europe put together.
More details

'Extinct' ladybird found breeding in Devon

2011-09-02T21:45:00.001Z

The ladybird larva was found during a survey of the wetlands in the Axe Estuary

A species of ladybird that was considered extinct in the UK in 1952 has been found breeding in east Devon.

In the past 60 years the 13-spot ladybird - Hippodamia tredecimpunctata - has "occasionally" been sighted in the UK, the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology said.

Now a single ladybird larva has been discovered by a University of Exeter student in wetlands in the Axe Estuary.

The organisation said it was the first breeding record since 1952.

Hope yet for African Queen gunboat on Lake Tanganyika

2011-08-29T18:41:00.000Z

Ships don't come with much more historical ballast than the MV Liemba. The steamer still shudders and belches its way across Lake Tanganyika every Wednesday and Friday, a century after it was built as a warship in Germany.

In its time it's been a pawn in the colonial scramble for Africa. It's been scuttled and then raised again from the deep. It may have been the model for the warship sunk by The African Queen, a steam-powered launch in the film of the same name, starring Katharine Hepburn as a prim spinster and Humphrey Bogart as the rough captain.

And now it's a ferry on Africa's longest lake, invariably packed with hundreds of people plus their jumble of bundles and baskets as it churns the water between Kigoma in Tanzania across the lake to Mpulungu in Zambia.

But for how long? Such is the ramshackle, dented state of the vessel that the company which runs it has asked the German government to help with refurbishment. The basis of the appeal is that this is a piece of German history. The steamer that serves the citizens around Lake Tanganyika was once the Kaiser's gunboat.

Cat and Dog

A spokesman for the Marine Services Company told the BBC: "We have requested that Germany help in its rehabilitation. This is because of financial constraints but we have not had a concrete commitment."

It may be cheaper to build a new ship than refurbish the old one

The Liemba started life as the Graf Goetzen in 1913 when she was built as a warship in Papenburg on the River Ems in northern Germany. It is said that the Kaiser himself ordered the construction to further his imperial ambitions.

The Graf Goetzen was then transported in parts, in 500 crates, from Hamburg to Dar es Salaam on the coast of East Africa - and from there over mountains to Lake Tanganyika where Germany, Britain and Belgium were all engaged in colonial jostling.

Britain did not take the presence of the vessel easily. As the Admiralty put it: "It is both the duty and the tradition of the Royal Navy to engage the enemy wherever there is water to float a ship."

So London decided to send two gunboats and by an equally difficult route.

The British ships were sent down to South Africa and then up the continent as far as they could be taken by rail, and after that by the sheer human power of 2,000 labourers who hauled and cut through the jungle, eventually getting them to the lake which became the site of imperial contest.

The two British boats, by the way, were initially to be called Cat and Dog but that was thought to be too flippant - the Admiralty in London at the time was not into flippancy. The names Mimi and Touto were chosen instead, the French terms used by children for cat and dog.

'Indispensable service'

Colonial rivalry and conflict then ensued, and, in the face of a British attack, the Germans abandoned the port of Kigoma, scuttling their ship, the Graf Goetzen, to stop it getting into British hands.

MV Liemba

Built in 1913
Scuttled in 1916 - raised again after several years at the bottom of Lake Tanganyika
Put into service as a ferry in 1927
An inspiration for a vessel in C S Forester's 1935 novel The African Queen, and the 1951 Hollywood film
Proudly described by its owners as "the oldest passenger ferry in the world"

The Goetzen then remained at the bottom of the lake for nearly 10 years until she was raised to the surface. Amazingly, the engines still functioned after minor repairs - possibly because the German engineers who had done the scuttling were the ones who had taken it out from Germany... and they took care to encase the engines in grease so that their baby could one day live and steam again.

It is not clear who raised it, perhaps the Belgians or perhaps the British - but whoever did it, the old German gunboat ended up in the hands of the British.

Clearly, a vessel of the Royal Navy could not be named after Count Gustav Adolf von Goetzen, who was a German explorer and governor of German East Africa. So the ship was renamed as the Liemba - which is how she has stayed ever since.

And so may she stay for much longer if she can be renovated. The request for financial help has fallen between the governments of Lower Saxony, in which the ship was built, and the federal government in Berlin.

The president of Germany has added his voice. The ship, said President Christian Wulff, had a "singular history" and performed an "indispensable service" to the people of East Africa. The government of Tanzania joined the clamour for salvation.

A study has been done by the German authorities but it is thought to have concluded that the costs might well be higher than actually building a new ship. But would a new ship be quite the same as an ancient steamer, dented and bulging with history?

UK's atomic clock 'is world's most accurate'

2011-08-29T18:40:00.000Z

An atomic clock at the UK's National Physical Laboratory (NPL) has the best long-term accuracy of any in the world, research has found.

Studies of the clock's performance, to be published in the journal Metrologia, show it is nearly twice as accurate as previously thought.

The clock would lose or gain less than a second in some 138 million years.

The UK is among the handful of nations providing a "standard second" that keeps the world on time.

However, the international race for higher accuracy is always on, meaning the record may not stand for long.

The NPL's CsF2 clock is a "caesium fountain" atomic clock, in which the "ticking" is provided by the measurement of the energy required to change a property of caesium atoms known as "spin".

By international definition, it is the electromagnetic waves required to accomplish this "spin flip" that are measured; when 9,192,631,770 peaks and troughs of these waves go by, one standard second passes.

Matching colours

Inside the clock, caesium atoms are gathered into bunches of 100 million or so, and passed through a cavity where they are exposed to these electromagnetic waves.

The colour, or frequency, is adjusted until the spins are seen to flip - then the researchers know the waves are at the right frequency to define the second.

The NPL-CsF2 clock provides an "atomic pendulum" against which the UK's and the world's clocks can be compared, ensuring they are all ticking at the same time.

That correction is done at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (BIPM) in the outskirts of Paris, which collates definitions of seconds from six "primary frequency standards" - CsF2 in the UK, two in France, and one each in the US, Germany and Japan.

For those six high-precision atomic pendulums, absolute accuracy is a tireless pursuit.

At the last count in 2010, the UK's atomic clock was on a par with the best of them in terms of long-term accuracy: to about one part in 2,500,000,000,000,000.

What time is it, exactly?

The international time standard is maintained by a network of over 300 clocks worldwide
These are sent by satellite and averaged at BIPM, a measurement institute in France
But the "tick" of any one of them could drift out of accuracy, so BIPM corrects the average using six "primary frequency standards" in Europe, the US and Japan
Their corrected result, "International Atomic Time", is occasionally compared with the time-honoured measure of time by astronomical means
Occasionally a "leap second" is added or subtracted to correct any discrepancy

But the measurements carried out by the NPL's Krzysztof Szymaniec and colleagues at Pennsylvania State University in the US have nearly doubled the accuracy.

The second's strictest definition requires that the measurements are made in conditions that Dr Szymaniec said were impossible actually to achieve in the laboratory.

"The frequency we measure is not necessarily the one prescribed by the definition of a second, which requires that all the external fields and 'perturbations' would be removed," he explained to BBC News.

"In many cases we can't remove these perturbations; but we can measure them precisely, we can assess them, and introduce corrections for them."

The team's latest work addressed the errors in the measurement brought about by the "microwave cavity" that the atoms pass through (the waves used to flip spins are not so far in frequency from the ones that flip water molecules in food, heating them in a microwave oven).

A fuller understanding of how the waves are distributed within it boosted the measurement's accuracy, as did a more detailed treatment of what happens to the measurement when the millions of caesium atoms collide.

Without touching a thing, the team boosted the known accuracy of the machine to one part in 4,300,000,000,000,000.

But as Dr Szymaniec said, the achievement is not just about international bragging rights; better standards lead to better technology.

"Nowadays definitions for electrical units are based on accurate frequency measurements, so it's vital for the UK as an economy to maintain a set of standards, a set of procedures, that underpin technical development," he said.

"The fact that we can develop the most accurate standard has quite measurable economic implications."

Murs, Young and McElderry triumph in music charts

2011-08-29T18:38:00.000Z

Murs, Young and McElderry (l to r) all achieved fame through TV talent shows

Former TV pop talent show stars Olly Murs, Will Young and Joe McElderry have individually triumphed in both the singles and album charts.

Former X Factor contestant Murs topped the singles chart with Heart Skips A Beat, his collaboration with Rizzle Kicks.

In the album chart, 2001's Pop Idol winner Young's album Echoes entered at number one.

X Factor winner McElderry was number two with his second album Classic.

McElderry's album success comes after he won ITV1 show Popstar To Operastar earlier this year.

It marks a revival of his pop career after being dropped from his record deal with Simon Cowell after his first album.

Murs, X Factor runner-up to McElderry in 2009, is a new host of ITV2's X Factor spin-off show the Xtra Factor with Caroline Flack, which resumed last week.

Young's album success came at the expense of last week's number one, Welcome Reality by Nero, which slid to eighth place.

Echoes is Young's fifth album and overall he has sold eight million albums worldwide since 2002.

Young also saw his new single Jealousy take the number five spot in the chart.

Calvin Harris entered the singles chart at number two with Feel So Close.

Wretch 32, who were number one last week with Don't Go featuring Josh Kumra, slipped to fourth place.

Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera held the third slot with Moves Like Jagger.

Adele continued to figure strongly in the charts as her latest album, 21, took third place after 31 weeks. Her earlier album, 19, held on to fifth place.

Wretch 32's Black And White took fourth position while Amy Winehouse's Back To Black slid from three to six.

The other new entries in the album chart Top 20 were What Matters Most by Barbra Streisand, at number seven.

Hard-Fi's Killer Sounds was at nine and The Red Album by Game at 14.

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-08-27T07:55:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Apple founder Steve Jobs patented designs for two glass staircases.
More details (New York Times)

2. Almost a quarter of new words added to the Chambers Dictionary come from internet culture.
More details

3. Female birds like confident males.
More details (Press Association)

4. Col Gaddafi's compound contained a photo album filled with pictures of former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
More details (Associated Press)

5. "Astoundingly thick" is an acceptable description of someone who performs badly on Mastermind.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

6. Our ancestors began cooking 1.9 million years ago.
More details (The Times)

7. Stress really does make hair turn grey.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

8. A planet 4,000 light years away from earth is made almost entirely of diamonds.
More details (The Times)

9. Getting married increases the risk of putting on weight.
More details

10. Britons are now twice as likely to be bitten by a mosquito in the UK than in the 10 years to 2006.
More details

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-08-20T10:16:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Camp Bastion is as big geographically as Reading. More details (The Guardian)

2. Asda Illustrated is the UK's top-selling magazine. More details (Press Gazette)

3. The collective noun for a group of jellyfish is a "bloom". More details

4. You can charter a whole Virgin Pendolino train. More details (The Mirror)

5. A candle flame contains millions of tiny diamonds. More details (Daily Telegraph)

6. Dogs can be trained to identify the scent of lung cancer long before symptoms develop. More details (Daily Mail)

7. A fisherman can catch a human being. More details (Daily Telegraph)

8. Danny DeVito is the 2,445th star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame. More details (Daily Mail)

9. The average Briton suffers 726 hangovers in a lifetime. More details (Daily Mail)

10. Every county in England has otters. More details (The Guardian)

Sun storms 'could be more disruptive within decades'

2011-08-19T10:50:00.000Z

Solar storms may be more powerful at times of middling solar activity

Within decades, solar storms are likely to become more disruptive to planes and spacecraft, say researchers at Reading University.

The work, published in Geophysical Research Letters, predicts that once the Sun shifts towards an era of lower solar activity, more hazardous radiation will reach Earth.

The team says the Sun is currently at a grand solar maximum.

This phase began in the 1920s - and has lasted throughout the space age.

Mike Lockwood, professor of space environment physics at Reading, said: "All the evidence suggests that the Sun will shortly exit from a grand solar maximum that has persisted since before the start of the space age.

Otters return to every county in England

2011-08-18T13:58:00.001Z

Two otters have been seen in Kent, signalling their return to every English county following efforts to save them from extinction.

Kent was the only county found without otters in a survey of rivers across England carried out by the Environment Agency (EA) last year.

Since then at least two otters have been spotted, with holts on the Medway and Eden rivers, the EA said.

A survey on the Ribble in Lancashire showed a 44% increase since 2008.

Otter numbers fell as a result of toxic pesticides, which damaged their health and reduced their supplies of fish. They had almost disappeared from England by the 1970s.

The witch trial that made legal history

2011-08-18T13:56:00.001Z

Anne Redferne and her mother Chattox were two of those accused of being Pendle witches

In recent years children as young as three have given evidence in court cases, but in the past children under 14 were seen as unreliable witnesses. A notorious 17th Century witch trial changed that.

Nine-year-old Jennet Device was an illegitimate beggar and would have been lost to history but for her role in one of the most disturbing trials on record.

Jennet's evidence in the 1612 Pendle witch trial in Lancashire led to the execution of 10 people, including all of her own family.

In England at that time paranoia was endemic. James l was on the throne, living in fear of a Catholic rebellion in the aftermath of Guy Fawkes' gun powder plot. The king had a reputation as an avid witch-hunter and wrote a book called Demonology.

"It was a mandate for the British to fight witches," explains Prof Ronald Hutton from the University of Bristol.

At the time Lancashire had a reputation for being full of trouble-makers and subversives. Jennet lived with her mother Elizabeth, her grandmother Demdike, older sister Alizon and brother James in the shadow of the Pendle hill. Villagers dubbed Demdike a "cunning woman".

Why are we plagued by jellyfish?

2011-08-18T13:53:00.000Z

Jellyfish numbers appear to be on the rise in UK waters, research suggests. So why is the sea turning into "jellyfish soup"?

Britain's beaches are increasingly facing some unusual visitors, with research suggesting jellyfish numbers are on the increase in UK waters.

It's not only beach-goers who have to watch out. Torness nuclear power plant in Scotland recently had to shut down after moon jellyfish blocked the water intake system. Several tonnes of the creatures had to be cleared out.

Some areas, including the Irish Sea and the east coast of Scotland, have been invaded by so many they now resemble a "jellyfish soup", says the Marine Conservation Society (MCS). So why do they appear to be on the increase?

According to research there is strong evidence that an increase is linked to three main factors - pollution, overfishing and possibly climate change.

Perseid annual meteor shower

2011-08-13T09:49:00.000Z

The Perseids are one of the most reliable meteor showers, appearing every August

Skygazers' across parts of the planet have been treated to a celestial display of the Perseid meteor shower.

At their most intense, the meteors can be seen at a rate of one per minute, although they will still be visible until 22 August.

But the emergence of a full moon has taken the shine off this year's show for some.

The spectacle is created when the Earth passes through a field of debris left by the Swift-Tuttle comet.

The event was being broadcast live by Nasa.

"The Perseids are one of the most reliable meteor showers and normally you can expect to see at least a few tens of meteors each hour if you're observing from a dark site," explained Robert Massey, deputy executive secretary for the Royal Astronomical Society.

"This is also a great example of a free astronomical spectacle and something you can enjoy without needing any special equipment," he told BBC News.

On Friday, the International Meteor Organization (IMO) was recording an average of 25 shooting stars an hour, with the figure set to increase as the the peak period approached.

The meteors are called the Perseids because they appear to fly out of the constellation Perseus
The yellow dot marks the Perseid radiant. The meteors can appear in any part of the sky, but all of their tails will point back to that area
The best views of the meteor shower are likely to be in the Northern Hemisphere
Sir Patrick Moore talks to Dr John Mason about the Perseid meteor shower

Broadcaster Robert Robinson dies

2011-08-13T09:47:00.000Z

Click to play

Robert Robinson's career spanned five decades

Robert Robinson, the veteran broadcaster and presenter, has died at the age of 83.

In a career spanning five decades, he presented a wealth of radio and television programmes for the BBC.

They included Ask the Family, Stop the Week and Call My Bluff. Mr Robinson also had a stint presenting Radio 4's Today programme.

He died in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, after a long period of ill health.

His daughter, Susie Robinson, said: "He had a very long, productive and successful life and we'll all miss him terribly."

'Humble calling'

Robert Robinson was born in Liverpool and went on to study at Oxford University.

There he met Josee Richard, the actress to whom he was married for more than 40 years.

On graduating, Robinson began his career in journalism by faking readers' letters for a magazine.

In 1952 he became the television columnist for the Sunday Chronicle, before developing the interrogation technique that was picked up by later political interviewers.

In 1974, his three-year tenure at the Today programme was crowned when he was made Radio Personality of the Year.

Robinson's ability to prick political pomposity with his knack of asking awkward questions brought him many admirers, but also detractors, including a tabloid newspaper, which termed him "the man who sneers at everything."

He himself enjoyed an enduring disrespect for many of the political breed. "It's impossible to make the bastards reply to a straight question," he once said.

Bored by what he called the "sonorous drivel" of politicians, he revelled in the role of quizmaster on such long-running shows as Radio 4's Brain of Britain, where, as he said, "at least you knew it was a game".

It was this "humble calling" as a quizmaster that most will remember him for.

Robinson only stood down as chairman of Brain of Britain last year.

At his retirement the then-Radio 4 controller, Mark Damazer, said: "The brilliant Robert Robinson defined the art of the quiz show host.

"He presided over Brain Of Britain with sympathy for the contestants, wit and panache."

When his contestants got an answer wrong, the broadcaster famously uttered the catchphrase: "Ah, would that it were, would that it were."

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-08-12T19:10:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Mr Men author Roger Hargreaves was the third best-selling author of the last decade, topped only by JK Rowling and Dan Brown.
More details (Metro)

2. The prison system in Brazil holds an annual Miss Penitentiary beauty contest.
More details (Daily Mail)

3. TV's Mork and Mindy visited a mother and daughter in Dulwich, south London, in 2003.
More details (Daily Mirror)

4. BBC Radio 4 deters foxes from attacking swans. More details Daily Telegraph

5. Sparrows' birdsong has a lot in common with the profanity-strewn bragging of rappers.
More details (Daily Mail)

6. A shorter than average tongue is not good if you're learning to speak Korean.
More details (The Sun)

7. The Redneck Olympics contains sports such as armpit serenade, watermelon seed spitting contest and bobbin' for pigs feet.
More details (Daily Telegraph

8. Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger can sing in Sanskrit.
More details (BBC Website)

9. Most of the 3.5m people who visit Liberty Island each year do not climb the Statue of Liberty.
More details (BBC Website)

10. A thin belt of antimatter envelops the Earth.
More details (BBC Website)

Viking massacre revealed

2011-08-12T13:49:00.000Z

Evidence suggests the men were running away from their attackers

Evidence of a brutal massacre of Vikings in Oxford 1100 years ago has been uncovered by archaeologists.

At least 35 skeletons, all males aged 16 to 25 were discovered in 2008 at St John's College, Oxford.

Analysis of wound marks on the bones now suggests they had been subjected to violence.

Archaeologists analysing the find believe it dates from 1002 AD when King Ethelred the Unready ordered a massacre of all Danes (Vikings) in England.

The surprise discovery of the skeletons was made by Thames Valley Archaeological Services under the quadrangle at St John's College at the University of Oxford, before building work started on the site.

The bodies had not received any type of formal burial and they had been dumped in a mass grave on the site of a 4,000-year-old Neolithic henge monument.

Ceri Falys, an osteologist (a scientist who studies the structure of bones) from Thames Valley Archaeological Services, has been examining the bones since they were excavated. She has found a host of gruesome injuries on each of the individuals.

It was obvious at the time of excavation that many of the skulls had been fractured or crushed, but after piecing these skulls back together, she found that many of them were covered in blade and puncture wounds mostly to the back of the head.

One of the victims had puncture wounds to his pelvis that seem to have come from behind him and from the side, as well as substantial blade wounds to his skull, suggesting that he had been attacked from all sides by at least two different people.

These injuries were almost certainly fatal in each case, slicing through flesh and arteries right to the bone.

"Usually when people have been involved in hand to hand combat or are attacked you get evidence of this on the bones," Ceri Falys explained.

"You get cut marks on the forearms as they raise their arms to defend themselves, but we have minimal evidence of this on these skeletons, it seems that whoever was attacking them, it is likely that they were just trying to run away."'

King Ethelred ordered an "extermination" of England's Danes

It is possible that the Oxford skeletons were victims of an event called the St Brice's Day Massacre, recorded in a number of historical sources.

In AD1002, the Saxon king Ethelred the Unready recorded in a charter that he ordered "a most just extermination" of all the Danes in England.

He made the decision after he was told of a Danish plot to assassinate him.

The charter also recorded how on that day, the Danes in Oxford fled to St Fridewides church expecting to find refuge, but instead were pursued by the townspeople, who then set the church on fire.

Radiocarbon dating of the bones indicated that the bodies were dumped between AD960 and AD1020. This is compelling evidence for the association with St Brice's Day, explained archaeologist Sean Wallis, who directed the dig.

• Vikings in England

789 First recorded Viking attack at Portland in Dorset. Viking coastal raids continue in the following decades.
867 Vikings capture York and make it their capital, Yorvik.
878 Viking power extends south. King Alfred of Wessex is forced into exile but returns to agree a division of England with Vikings ruling the east.
937 Athelstan wins a decisive battle over combined armies of Vikings and Scots to become the first King of all England. Viking coastal raids continue.
1002 Ethelred the Unready orders the extermination of all the Danes in England.
1013 King Sweyn of Denmark invades England and seizes the throne. The kingdom is disputed between Saxon and Danish kings over the following decades.
1066 William the Conqueror invades and founds a new Norman dynasty. The Normans were descended from Norwegian Vikings.

Timeline: Saxons and Vikings

"We found evidence of charring on some of the bones, but not in the soil surrounding them.

"This ties in nicely with the documentary sources that the bodies may have been partially burnt prior to burial," he said.

Isotope analysis of the bones has shown that the men were eating a diet that was high in seafood.

This is an unusual find considering that they lived in inland Britain and perhaps a further indication that they may have been first or second generation Vikings.

A similar mass grave was found last year by Oxford Archaeology during work to build the Weymouth relief road.

It was radiocarbon dated to a similar period and again containing only young male victims, indicating that Anglo Saxon violence towards Vikings at the time may have been nationwide.

Ceri Falys will be talking to Dr Alice Roberts about the bones in a new series of BBC Two's Digging For Britain in September.

US military loses contact with hypersonic aircraft

2011-08-12T13:47:00.000Z

The HTV-2 is designed by engineers to travel at 13,000mph (21,000km/h)

US military scientists lost contact with an unmanned hypersonic experimental aircraft on its second test flight, officials said.

The Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle 2 (HTV-2) successfully separated from its rocket but lost contact shortly into its "glide phase".

The plane is designed to travel at Mach 20, or 20 times the speed of sound.

The Falcon project is part of the US defence department's plans to develop a rapid-strike weapons system.

A hypersonic plane could potentially enable the US military to hit targets anywhere in the world in under an hour.

Highly complex

The HTV-2 - shaped like the tip of a spear - took off atop a Minotaur IV rocket from Vanderberg Air Force Base in California early on Thursday.

It was propelled to the edges of space where it then separated from the rocket.

The aim by engineers was that it would glide back to Earth at 13,000mph (21,000km/h) - enduring temperatures in excess of 3,500F (2,000C) - before plunging into the Pacific Ocean.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which is funding the HTV-2 programme and overseeing the tests, said more than nine minutes of data was collected "before an anomaly caused loss of signal".

"Initial indications are that the aircraft impacted the Pacific Ocean along the planned flight path," Darpa said in a statement on its website.

An HTV-2 plane was first tested last year, and ended with the craft crashing into the Pacific after the military lost contact with the glider nine minutes into the flight.

However, the flight still managed to return 139 seconds of aerodynamic data at a velocity between 17 and 22 times the speed of sound, Darpa said.

"We know how to boost the aircraft to near space," Maj Chris Schulz, the programme manager, was quoted as saying on Darpa's website.

"We know how to insert the aircraft into atmospheric hypersonic flight. We do not yet know how to achieve the desired control during the aerodynamic phase of flight. It's vexing; I'm confident there is a solution. We have to find it."

Maj Shulz said a team of experts would now analyse the flight data and expand "our technical understanding of this incredibly harsh flight regime".

Some analysts say a second uncompleted flight could force Darpa to rethink the entire project, the BBC's Marcus George in Washington reports.

Spooks to end

2011-08-12T13:44:00.000Z

The final series will focus on Harry - the only original member of the team

BBC spy drama Spooks will come to an end this autumn on BBC One.

Jane Featherstone, chief executive of Kudos Film & Television - the company who created the drama - called it "a fitting end to a much-loved show".

The final series will focus on Harry Pearce and a guilty secret that could destroy his relationship with Ruth.

"We've followed the arc of their personal story and I think they've brought us to a natural end," said Featherstone.

"Harry Pearce, played by the wonderful Peter Firth, has always been at the heart of the show, and this series focuses on Harry's past, bringing his tumultuous relationship with Ruth [Nicola Walker] to a head" said Featherstone.

The multi-award winning Spooks, now in its tenth series, has been running on BBC One since 2002 and is screened in countries across the world.

Over the years, it has been notable for its slick, contemporary style and the unexpected, violent deaths of many of its lead characters.

"It's hard to believe that as Spooks enters its tenth series, the world prepares to face the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 atrocities," said Featherstone.

"It feels like now is the time for Spooks to bow out and make way for new spy dramas which reflect the changing world around us."

Rupert Penry-Jones became a household name, after four years in the show

Pride & Prejudice actor Matthew Macfadyen was among the first of the Spooks - a popular colloquialism for spies, playing Tom Quinn from 2002-2004.

The lead role was later taken on by Rupert Penry-Jones, as Adam Carter, who stayed with the show for four years - before passing the mantle to co-star Hermione Norris, as Ros Myers.

The final series sees True Blood's Lara Pulver taking over after the betrayal of Lucas North (Richard Armitage).

Ben Stephenson, controller at BBC Drama Commissioning, called Spooks a "groundbreaking series" which "redefined drama on the channel for a new generation".

"I hope fans will tune in this September to see what promises to be a fittingly high octane thrilling finale," he added.

Darkest exoplanet spotted

2011-08-12T13:39:00.000Z

TrES-2b is literally darker, on average, than coal

A dark alien world, blacker than coal, has been spotted by astronomers.

The Jupiter-sized planet is orbiting its star at a distance of just five million km, and is likely to be at a temperature of some 1200C.

The planet may be too hot to support reflective clouds like those we see in our own Solar System, but even that would not explain why it is so dark.

The research will be published in the journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.

The planet, called TrES-2b, is so named because is was first spotted by the Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey in 2006. It is about 750 light-years away, in the Draco constellation.

It also lies in the field of view of the Kepler space telescope, whose primary mission is to spot exoplanets using extremely sensitive brightness measurements as far-flung worlds pass in front of their host stars.

Using the first four months' worth of data from Kepler, David Kipping of the Center for Astrophysics at Harvard University and David Spiegel from Princeton University, looked at the amount of light coming directly from TrES-2b itself.

They measured the amount of light coming from the planet's "night side" - when it is directly in front of its star. They compared that to the light coming from its "day side", just before it passes behind its star and Kepler sees it bathed in light.

The difference between the two gives a measure of how much light the planet reflects - or its albedo.

In our Solar System, clouds on Jupiter give it an albedo of 52%; Earth's is about 37%. But it appears that TrES-2b reflects less than 1% of its star's light.

"This albedo is darker than that of black acrylic paint or coal - it's weird," Dr Kipping told BBC News.

'Exotic chemistry'

The explanation may simply be that the planet is too hot to support the reflective cloud cover we see in our own Solar System.

However, both Dr Kipping and Dr Spiegel said even that would not explain why TrES-2b is such a dark world. It is not just that the planet is failing to reflect light; something must be absorbing it.

THE KEPLER SPACE TELESCOPE

Stares fixedly at a patch corresponding to 1/400th of the sky
Looks at more than 150,000 stars
In just four months of observations has found 1,235 candidate planets
Among them, it has spotted the first definitively rocky exoplanet
It has found 68 Earth-sized planets, five of which are in the "habitable zone"

"Chemicals such as gaseous sodium and titanium oxide have been proposed to have this effect," Dr Kipping told BBC News. "Whilst it is possible that there is a huge overabundance of these chemicals, it is probably more likely that there is some exotic chemistry going on which we have never seen before."

Jonathan Fortney, an exoplanetary scientist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, called the work "a nice paper" because "Kepler is allowing us to see these tiny signals from 'hot Jupiters'".

A large fraction of the planets that have been identified in other solar systems are these "hot Jupiters", but little is yet known about them other than their size and proximity to their host stars.

"What will be very interesting is the detection of hot Jupiter reflectivities for different planetary temperature and surface gravities, because that will tell us what planets can keep clouds suspended and what the cloud material might be," Dr Fortney told BBC News.

Much more of the story will be laid bare when more data from the Kepler telescope is put to the test, and when more is released, said Dave Latham, a co-investigator on the Kepler project.

"There are much better data now, from more than two years on orbit, but not yet released to the public," Dr Latham told BBC News.

"A batch of new and higher-quality data is scheduled for release on 22 September. That should allow an improved detection of the (reflectivity of) TrES-2."

The Earliest Road Map of Great Britain

2011-08-06T06:25:00.001Z

The map depicts Great Britain on its side as it was made before the convention of maps pointing north

The findings of a 15-month project to study the earliest surviving recognisable map of Great Britain have been made available on an interactive website.

Nick Millea, map librarian at the University of Oxford's Bodleian Library, explained how a team of investigators discovered the secrets to the Gough map, which he described as "a national treasure."

He added: "It's a very unique piece of cartography and there's nothing else in the world like it - a map of that level of detail from that period of time."

Mr Millea helped form a team of specialists who pinpointed the map's origins to 1375, instead of 1360 as previously thought, drawing on the small differences in English handwriting over the period.

They also confirmed that it was revised in the early 15th Century.

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-08-06T06:22:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Spider-Man has died.
More details

2. Margaret Thatcher did not pioneer the Right to Buy scheme for social housing.
More details

3. Almost as many people get married on a Thursday as on a Sunday.
More details

4. A web address can cost nearly £1 million.
More details

5. Suicide bombers are considered a suitable subject for Afghan satire.
More details

6. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin cannot bend frying pans with his bare hands.
More details

7. A hole in the ground can qualify as a private members club.
More details

8. It was illegal to sign a football player on a Sunday in the 1950s.
More details

9. Local councils in England own 40 hotels and around 20 cinemas.
More details

10. There are poisonous rats.
More details

'Killer' shrimps worst alien invader

2011-08-06T06:21:00.001Z

Dikerogammarus villosus shrimp have a voracious appetite which can alter the habitats it invades

'Killer' shrimp is the worst non-native invader of England and Wales' waterways, says the Environment Agency.

Known as Dikerogammarus villosus, it kills native shrimp and young fish.

The Environment Agency's worst 10 alien invaders include water primrose, giant hogweed and Japanese knotweed which can damage riverbanks and buildings.

The agency said invasive species cost the UK about £1.7bn a year and it will work with partner groups to manage the spread of damaging plants and animals.

Several species of pond plant which have escaped from gardens and parks are also on the list of non-native wildlife which pose the greatest threat to the country's rivers and lakes.

Increased damage to riverbanks and buildings can increase the risk of floods and hit native wildlife.

Tough EU targets

Invasive species can even become so prolific that anglers, fishermen and boaters cannot use the waterways.

Despite growing to just 30mm long, Dikerogammarus villosus has been identified as being the worst alien invader due to its voracious appetite which alters the make-up of habitats it invades.

Other creatures in the Environment Agency's most wanted list include the American signal crayfish which has endangered our native white-clawed species, the topmouth gudgeon fish which hits other species, and the mink, which eats water voles.

Water primrose, the floating pennywort and parrot's feather are pond plants which have caused problems after spreading into the environment, clogging up and damaging water habitats.

'Most wanted' invaders

1. Killer shrimp
2. Water primrose
3. Floating pennywort
4. American signal crayfish
5. Topmouth gudgeon
6. Giant hogweed
7. Japanese knotweed
8. Himalayan balsam
9. Mink
10. Parrot's feather

* Source: Environment Agency

Giant hogweed, Japanese knotweed and Himalayan balsam are all taking their toll on riverbanks and other areas across the UK.

The hogweed contains a poisonous sap, the knotweed causes structural damage and all three suppress native plants and cause soil erosion.

The Environment Agency warned that the invasive species could hamper efforts to improve the quality of rivers to meet tough new EU targets.

It said it is already spending £2m a year controlling invasive species, and will be increasing its efforts with partners such as government conservation agency Natural England.

Trevor Renals, invasive species expert at the Environment Agency, said if invasive species are not controlled there is a risk of losing some native species and incurring even more clean-up costs, as well as "falling short of the strict EU targets for our rivers and lakes".

He said: "The Environment Agency will be working with other environment bodies as well as community and volunteer groups to manage the spread of these damaging plants and animals.

"We would urge everyone to help stop the spread of these species by making sure that garden and pond plants don't end up near rivers and parkland and thoroughly cleaning any fishing, boating and canoeing equipment when moving between waterways."

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-07-30T09:58:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Francis Rossi used to be an ice cream van man.
More details

2. Cheshire and Wensleydale cheeses are in 1086's Domesday Book.
More details

3. The lyrics of London Calling distill the gloomiest headlines of the 1970s.
More details

4. Prime numbers help cicadas avoid predators.
More details

5. Uganda's national anthem is the world's shortest.
More details

6. Northern people have bigger eyes.
More details

7. Apple has more money than the US government.
More details

8. Time travel looks unlikely.
More details

9. Human brains shrink with age but chimps don't.
More details

10. There are some Freuds who are not famous.
More details

First Bond girl Linda Christian dies

2011-07-27T00:24:00.001Z

Christian married Tyrone Power, one of Hollywood's most popular leading men, in 1949

Actress Linda Christian, a 1940s Hollywood starlet who went on to become the first Bond girl, has died aged 87.

She died last Friday in Palm Desert, California, after suffering from colon cancer, her daughter said.

Christian starred as Vesper Lynd, the love interest of James Bond in the first TV adaptation of Ian Fleming's debut novel, Casino Royale, in 1954.

The actress's curvaceousness led Life magazine to nickname her the "anatomic bomb."

Born Blanca Rosa Welter in Mexico, Christian was discovered by Errol Flynn in Acapulco before pursuing an acting career in Los Angeles and eventually signing a contract with MGM.

She made her film debut alongside Danny Kaye in the 1944 musical comedy Up In Arms.

Five years later the actress married Tyrone Power, one of Hollywood's most popular leading men, but they divorced in 1956.

Christian also appeared opposite Johnny Weissmuller in 1948's Tarzan And The Mermaids

In 1953 the couple had a chance to work together in the leading roles of From Here to Eternity, but Power refused the part and neither ended up in the film.

Christian was later briefly married to English actor Edmund Purdom in the early 1960s.

During the same time she appeared in several European films including Elizabeth Taylor film The V.I.P.s as well as US TV shows including The Alfred Hitchcock Hour and The Lloyd Bridges Show.

The actress took a break from showbusiness for 20 years, returning in 1987 to appear in two Italian films.

Her last big screen appearance was in Italian TV movie Cambiamento d'aria in 1988.

She is survived by her two daughters, singer Romina Power and actress Taryn Power, and eight grandchildren.

The perfect piece of toast:

2011-07-22T23:40:00.001Z

Scientists today revealed the mathematical formula for a perfect slice of toast, showing that it is best cooked for exactly 216 seconds.

A team of researchers carried out a study which found the optimum thickness is 14mm and the ideal amount of butter is 0.44 grams per square inch.

The recommended cooking time gives the slice a 'golden-brown' colour and the 'ultimate balance of external crunch and internal softness'.

Experts- workout caused Seoul tremor

2011-07-22T23:39:00.001Z

South Korean experts said Tuesday a vigorous gym exercise session caused a high-rise building in Seoul to shake for 10 minutes earlier this month, prompting hundreds to flee it in panic.

In front of journalists they re-created the scenario on July 5 -- a group of 17 middle-aged people working out to the tune of a pop song, "The Power" by German group Snap -- and caused the building to shake in a similar way.

The group had been engaged in Tae Bo -- an aerobic exercise routine that combines boxing and martial arts like Taekwondo -- in the 12th floor gym of the 39-story TechnoMart mall building.

"Participants in Tuesday's test said they felt the building rolling greatly while others said they had felt lesser oscillations," TechnoMart spokesman Andy Yang told AFP.

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-07-22T23:36:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. The ideal slice of toast should be cooked for exactly 216 seconds.
More details (Daily Mail)

2. Stick insects can go without sex for one million years.
More details

3. The key to a happy marriage is based on the wife remaining slimmer than the husband.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

4. People working out in a gym can cause tremors in buildings.
More details

5. Lions will most likely attack humans just after a full moon.
More details (Daily Mail)

6. Tall people are at greater risk of cancer.
More details

7. Jalfrezi is now Britain's favourite curry.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

8. Diamonds are not forever, they evaporate under exposure to light.
More details (Daily Mail)

9. Mount Everest is getting higher.
More details

10. The Speaking Clock still receives 30 million calls each year.
More details

Hubble spies fourth moon at Pluto

2011-07-20T23:34:00.002Z

The Hubble Space Telecope observations of P4 were made in June and July

Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope have identified another moon around the dwarf planet Pluto.

It becomes the fourth object known to be circling the distant world after the long-recognised Charon and recently observed Nix and Hydra satellites.

Scientists are temporarily calling the new moon P4 and estimate its diameter to be 13 to 34 km (of 8 to 21 miles).

Pluto, controversially demoted from full planet status in 2006, will be the target of a big space mission in 2015.

Nasa's New Horizons probe is due to fly past the icy world and should get a good look at the moons, also.

"This is a fantastic discovery," said New Horizons' principal investigator Alan Stern of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. "Now that we know there's another moon in the Pluto system, we can plan close-up observations of it during our flyby."

P4 sits between the orbits of Nix and Hydra, which Hubble identified in 2005. The space telescope did not discover Charon - that was done by the US Naval Observatory in 1978 - but it was the first astronomical instrument to resolve it as a separate body from Pluto.

For comparison, Pluto itself is a little over 2,300km across, Charon about 1,200km in diamter, and Nix and Hydra in the range of 30 to 115km across.

Hubble first saw P4 with its new Wide Field Camera 3 on 28 June. Follow-up observations this month confirmed its existence.

New Horizons will fly by Pluto in the July of 2015. The spacecraft's seven instruments will carry out detailed mapping of the object's surface features, composition and atmosphere.

The probe will go to about 10,000km from Pluto and about 27,000km from Charon, before pressing onwards.

With extra Nasa approval and funding, the probe will then be maintained to travel on to other objects in the Kuiper Belt, a region of space that contains many frozen leftovers from the construction of our Solar System.

The $700m probe was launched in 2006, the same year the International Astronomical Union - astronomy's offical nomenclature body - decided Pluto no longer merited full planet status, giving it the new classifcation of dwarf planet.

Strongest 'split magnet' built in the US

2011-07-20T23:33:00.002Z

Scientists say that the magnet opens the door for many new discoveries

The world's most powerful "split magnet" - one that is made in two halves with holes in the middle to observe experiments - has been built in the US.

It operates at 25 Tesla, which is equivalent to 500,000 times Earth's magnetic field.

Researchers at Florida State University said the magnet was 43% stronger than its predecessor.

It also has 1,500 times more space inside to carry out tests.

The device, which cost $2.5m (£1.5m) to build, will be used by researchers from a variety of different backgrounds, and could lead to breakthroughs in nanoscience.

When in use, it has to be cooled by pumping 2,500 gallons of water per minute through the centre.

The previous record was set in 1991, when French specialists built a 17.5 Tesla split magnet. The system for measuring magnetic force is named after Serbian engineer Nikola Tesla.

Magnetism and access

Head of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory at Florida State University, Dr Gregory Boebinger told BBC News that building the magnet had been a huge engineering challenge.

"The split magnet is essentially like two magnets brought close together, but kept a few centimetres apart to provide open pathways to the sample," said Dr Boebinger, and explained that by "the sample" he meant the material placed inside the magnet and studied by researchers.

"The spectacular engineering achievement with the magnet is the ability to maintain the very high magnetic field, without having the two halves slam together."

In the past, split magnets have had tiny holes for carrying out experiments in, according to Dr Jack Toth, another member of the Florida team.

Researchers shine lasers through the magnet to measure how materials places react to the force.

Researchers have had to cram all their equipment - including probes, wires and temperature control systems - into a small tube of about a metre long and just 32mm in diameter.

But the new magnet has holes on four sides that are 6cm tall and 15cm wide - making it possible to shine a laser through a port onto the material inside and study, for example, how it scatters the light.

Improving products

Although the project, funded by the US National Science Foundation, is meant primarily for experiments that use optical measurements for materials research and physics, the team expects a number of chemistry and biochemistry experiments as well.

Dr Eric Palm, one of the researchers, said the combination of big ports and high magnetic field will help enhance the study of the electronic structure of materials.

"Discoveries made here will enable researchers to improve their materials and use them to make improved products such as solar cells or semiconductors for the next generation of computers," he said.

And the team has already conducted its first experiment.

The scientists studied how rapidly and in what direction light refracts off a new kind of liquid crystal consisting of long molecules that are bent in the middle.

"The magnetic field changes the orientation of the long molecules in the liquid crystal and the new split magnet offers the unique ability to shine the laser directly on the sample and to measure the light that is scattered in all directions," said Dr Boebinger.

"Already, the researchers think they might have seen a phase transition that does not exist in ordinary liquid crystals with long, straight molecules, but apparently does exist with long molecules that are bent in the middle."

His colleague Dr Jack Toth added that the magnet opens the door to new discoveries.

"We now have a 1,500 times bigger optical access - it's a whole new magnitude of experiments that have never been possible anywhere in the world."

Fifth of museums hit by 25% funding cuts

2011-07-20T23:19:00.001Z

Bournemouth's Russell-Cotes Museum has had to introduce an entry fee to generate income

A fifth of UK museums have had their funding cut by at least 25% in the past nine months, a survey has shown.

Some 140 museums took part in the Museums Association's study to assess the impact of the government's Spending Review in October.

Museums reported reducing opening hours and axing jobs as a result of the cuts.

"Local authorities that make devastating cuts to museums of over 25% impoverish their communities," said Museums Association's Mark Taylor.

Some 58% of those surveyed said they had suffered cuts in some form.

Of those hit by cuts in excess of a quarter of their overall budget, 86% said they had cut staff, while half had reduced their opening hours.

Nearly half of all respondents also believed the quality of their service will worsen over the next year.

It was noted that almost 50% of institutions had a larger number of volunteers to make up for cuts in staffing levels.

'Short-sighted'

"The survey shows it's a myth that you can cut funding without affecting front-line services," Mr Taylor said.

"Services have been cut and opening hours restricted - there's a risk that in some cases, the doors will be slammed shut forever."

Some museums have already closed as a result of council spending cuts including Stamford Museum in Lincolnshire which closed last month.

Bursledon Windmill is one of Hampshire's four museums that now relies solely on volunteers

Other museums have been forced to start charging entry fees in a bid to generate income including Bournemouth's Russell-Cotes Museum.

The survey covered England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, including national museums and local, independent, military and university museums.

One museum worker at a local authority museum in the West Midlands commented in the report: "The decisions have been short-sighted, knee-jerk reactions, panicking to meet the cuts required by councillors."

'Favourable settlement'

However some 10% of respondents, said they felt the changes enforced by the cuts were overdue and had been, in part, beneficial.

"I do not think that the changes could have been avoided. Service has to become 'smaller but better'," one museum manager in Yorkshire said.

An education offer at a Scottish museum added: "It has made us reconsider what we offer for visitors and attempt to improve our museums and what they offer."

A spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said the government had protected national museums with a 15% real-terms reduction, which was "a very favourable settlement compared with other areas of public spending".

"This survey also shows that many local authorities are still finding it possible to maintain museum services," he said.

"We urge those that are yet to take decisions to consider the positive contribution that museums make to people in towns and cities across the country and consider the creative and innovative ways to deliver cultural services," he added.

Take That break highest grossing concert

2011-07-20T23:18:00.004Z

Take That have broken the record for the highest grossing concert series.

According to Billboard Boxscore, the group made more than £38 million during their eight nights at Wembley Stadium in June and July.

The previous record was held by Bruce Springsteen for his series of 10 shows at New Jersey's Giants Stadium in 2003, which made around £24 million.

Take That also made it into second spot with their eight shows at the City of Manchester Stadium last month.

In total, Take That's UK run grossed £114 million and drew 1.8 million fans to 29 shows.

The total attendance figure for their eight Wembley Stadium shows was 623,737, which is also a record.

Bruce Springsteen drew 566,560 to his 10 sell-outs in 2003.

'Sick bed'

This tour has been the first featuring Robbie Williams for 15 years after he rejoined Take That last year.

During the gigs the singer has been performing a selection of his solo hits including Angels and Rock DJ as well as material from the band's 2010 album Progress.

Bond actress Angela Scoular died drinking acid cleaner

2011-07-20T23:18:00.003Z

Former Bond girl Angela Scoular was married to Carry On actor Leslie Phillips

A Bond girl actress who had suffered from bowel cancer ended her life by drinking a corrosive cleaning liquid, Westminster Coroner's Court has heard.

Angela Scoular, 65, who starred in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, died in April.

The actress, who lived in Maida Vale, west London, was battling alcoholism and depression and worried about debts.

Coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox recorded a verdict that she killed herself "while the balance of her mind was disturbed".

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-07-09T10:06:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Lakes can be given village green status.
More details

2. Bad oral hygiene can delay conception by two months.
More details

3. Polar bears have Irish ancestry.
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4. California has drawn up a legal definition for the hot dog.
More details (Daily Mail)

5. All ladybirds start out bright yellow.
More details

6. The Queen wore dresses from a wholesaler for her tour of the Commonwealth in 1953-4.
More details

7. The human body can accept a synthetic windpipe.
More details

8. Oxbridge entrance is dominated by just five schools.
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9. Reporters in the 1940s and 50s paid the legal defence costs of accused killers to get their exclusive stories.
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10. Cows have best friends.
More details (Daily Mail)

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-07-02T10:17:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Jeremy Paxman tried but failed to get into his college's University Challenge team.
More details (Guardian)

2. The male water boatman sings with its penis.
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3. The pope tweets.
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4. The US only got its first roundabout in 1990, it was in Nevada.
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5. Birds have their own version of Red Bull.
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6. The average length of time that ships are hijacked for by Somali pirates is five months
More details

7. Listening to the radio is what makes Britons happiest.
More details (Daily Mail)

8. Jodhpurs, wildebeest and roux are some of the hardest words for kids to spell.
More details (Times)

9. Dinosaurs would beat any other animal when it comes to head-butting.
More details

10. A tennis ball can lose 12.9 mph post-bounce on a clay court versus grass.
More details

Video camera reveals secrets of ancient Mayan tomb

2011-06-25T09:50:00.000Z

The inside of a Mayan tomb thought to be 1,500 years old has been filmed by archaeologists for the first time.

Using a tiny video camera, the researchers were able to capture images of the burial chamber in Palenque in south-eastern Mexico.

As the device was lowered 16ft (5m) down into the tomb, they saw red paint and black figures emblazoned on its walls.

The scientists say the images will shed new light on the Mayan civilisation.

Royal necropolis?

The tomb in Palenque was discovered in 1999, but archaeologists have not been able to excavate for fear of undermining the pyramid.

Obituary: Peter Falk

2011-06-25T09:43:00.000Z

Peter Falk got the role of Columbo after Bing Crosby turned it down

With his rumpled raincoat, battered car and never-seen wife, Columbo was one of television's most popular detectives. As the un-ironed but appealing lieutenant, Peter Falk was on our screens for more than 30 years and one of the world's most recognised actors.

The star was brought up in New York, the son of a Polish shop-keeper and his Russian wife. He worked as a cook in the merchant marine and earned a degree in political science.

He even worked as a public accountant, but his mind had been set on becoming an actor since standing in for the lead in a high school play.

Falk's theatrical agent told him to forget his chances of appearing on screen, particularly as his client had lost his right eye to a tumour at the age of three. Despite his agent's prediction, Falk soon found work both on stage and on television.

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-06-25T09:34:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Vincent Van Gogh looked a lot like his brother Theo.
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2. Urban pigeons remember who will feed them and who will chase them away.
More details

3. Women have gaydar.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

4. There are ants that carry a friend so they can deal with big bits of food.
More details

5. It's very difficult to urinate in a treated water reservoir in the UK.
More details

6. Half of Britons are, in fact, Germans.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

7. Sonic the Hedgehog's shoes are based on Michael Jackson's footwear in the Bad video.
More details

8. British taxpayers own 200,000 paintings - including multi-million pound works by the likes of Titan, Monet and Picasso.
More details

9. A female tennis player's grunts can reach 95 decibels.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

10. Chocolate milkshake is the ideal post-workout recovery drink.
More details (Daily Mail)

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-06-18T09:54:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. The yellow brick road leads to a car park. More details

2. Iron age man was into home brewing. More details

3. Astronauts get travel sick. More details
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4. Women don't see Porsche drivers as marriage material. More details

5. Magpies can scold humans. More details

6. Men are the first to say 'I love you' in a new relationship. More details

7. There is no music chart in India. More details

8. Britain's most stolen vehicle is white-van-man's Ford Transit. More details

9. Tinkering with certain proteins could stop hair going grey. More details

10. Britain's youngest undertaker is 16 years old. More details

How social huntsman spiders live and hunt together

2011-06-15T17:00:00.000Z

The spiders share meals with the rest of the colony

Most spiders are web-building, solitary creatures. So the social huntsman spiders, which live in webless "retreats" with hundreds of other spiders, are very unusual.

Now, a detailed study of this spider species, Delena cancerides, has revealed exactly how the huntsman work together.

Not only do large "mother spiders" defend the colony from invading predators, but spiders occassionally bring spoils back from a hunt for other spiders to share.

The spiders are native to Australia, where they make their homes beneath the bark of trees.

How pasta became the world's favourite food

2011-06-15T16:57:00.000Z

Pasta has topped a global survey of the world's favourite foods. So how did the dish so closely associated with Italy become a staple of so many tables around the globe?

While not everyone knows the difference between farfalle, fettuccine and fusilli, many people have slurped over a bowl of spaghetti bolognese or tucked into a plate of lasagne.

Certainly in British households, spaghetti bolognese has been a regular feature of mealtimes since the 1960s. It's become a staple of children's diets, while a tuna-pasta-sweetcorn concoction can probably be credited with sustaining many students through their years at university.

But now a global survey by the charity Oxfam has named pasta as the world's most popular dish, ahead of meat, rice and pizza. As well as being popular in unsurprising European countries, pasta was one of the favourites in the Philippines, Guatemala, Brazil and South Africa.

And figures from the International Pasta Organisation show Venezuela is the second largest consumer of pasta, after Italy. Tunisia, Chile and Peru also feature in the top 10, while Mexicans, Argentineans and Bolivians all eat more pasta than the British.

Iron-Age brewing evidence found in southeastern France

2011-06-15T16:56:00.000Z

The carbonised barley grains suggest they were "malted" and then roasted

Archaeologists have uncovered evidence that the occupants of southeastern France were brewing beer during the Iron Age, some 2,500 years ago.

A paper in Human Ecology outlines the discovery of barley grains that had been sprouted in a process known as malting; an oven found nearby may have been used to regulate the process.

Beer brewing's heritage stretches back to the Bronze Age in China and the Middle East, but this is the earliest sign of the practice in France, where wine-making had already taken hold.

The recent find was in Roquepertuse, close to modern Aix-en-Provence, and was excavated in the 1990s.

Archaeologist Laurent Bouby from France's National Centre for Scientific Research has been studying "archaeobotany" - preserved plant remains - in the region around Roquepertuse for more than a decade.

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-06-12T10:01:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. The Rotary club is an enemy of Palestine, according to Hamas.
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2. Spiders use their webs to breathe underwater.
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3. Michael Caine was nearly sacked from the film Zulu for standing like Prince Philip.
More details (The Chris Evans Breakfast Show BBC Radio 2)

4. The Wombles have had four gold albums.
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5. Cow hooves are used to make the foam in fire extinguishers.
More details

6. Wearing high heels could increase the risk of arthritis.
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7. Chimps can outperform eight-year-olds in tasks.
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8. The odds of scoring two holes-in-one in the same round of golf are 67 million-to-one .
More details

9. Elephants can flirt.
More details (Daily Mail)

10. Zebras can do showjumping.
More details (Daily Mail)

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-06-04T10:13:00.000Z

1. A third of the world's smokers live in China.
More details

2. Toasts to the Queen usually just contain the words "The Queen".
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3. Only three states in the world do not allow divorce - the Vatican, the Philippines and Malta.
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4. Geometry skills are innate.
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5. "Dong xuan" means frozen garlic in China but winning an election in Taiwan.
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6. Both of the Obamas apparently like Guinness.
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7. Vuvuzelas spread disease.
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8. Reindeer have UV vision.
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9. It is illegal to sell moon rocks in the US.
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10. Parakeets are bullies.
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10 things we didn't know last week

2011-06-04T10:10:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Fifa is a charity.
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2. Vultures are better than sniffer dogs at searching large, overgrown areas for dead bodies.
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3. A Devon cream tea has scones with cream first then jam on top, while a Cornish cream tea has scones with jam first then cream on top.
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4. You can see the shockwaves from a trombone. On video.
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5. Shale gas drilling can cause earthquakes.
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6. Heart disease is less common among religious people.
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7. Among certain early humans, the women left home and the men stayed behind.
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8. Penguins do a Mexican wave to stay warm.
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9. An intense fear of dying can make a heart attack worse.
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10. It's possible for a horse to paint.
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10 things you didn't know this time last week

2011-05-25T09:42:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Watermelons can explode.
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2. The Queen is apparently not a Guinness drinker. Or at least not in the morning.
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3. The hardiest animal on Earth is known as a "water bear".
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4. Humans stare longer at people with bad reputations.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

5. Parrots are good at teamwork.
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6. "Highly cheerful" people die younger.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

7. A good sense of smell helps mammals' brains get bigger.
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8. The internet craze of planking started in the UK and in Australia.
More details

9. Tarantulas shoot silk from their feet.
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10. There are only two beret factories left in France.
More details

Moorhouse's Brewery opens £4.3m centre in Burnley

2011-05-25T09:38:00.000Z

Moorhouse's managing director said the new site underlines the firm's pride in Burnley

An award-winning Burnley brewery is opening new £4.3m facilities that include a brew house, visitor centre, restaurant and conference centre.

Moorhouse's Brewery produces award-winning beers such as Pendle Witches Brew and Black Cat.

Its new development includes a traditional tower brewery, which will treble the amount of ale the company produces, to 1000 barrels-a-week.

The expansion has led to the firm creating 17 jobs.

Managing Director David Grant said: "We're really proud of the growth of Moorhouse's and this investment underlines our confidence in our brand, our pride in our product and our pride in Burnley.

"We are already the North West's biggest independent brewer dedicated to cask-conditioned ale - and we now rival the long-established brewers of Manchester and Lancashire."

The beer Black Cat recently won Supreme Champion at the Great British Beer Festival and Pride of Pendle was voted "best cask ale in the world" by the Brewing Industry International Awards.

Denmark bans sale of yeasty Marmite spread

2011-05-25T09:29:00.001Z

Marmite - you either love it or hate it, the makers say

Denmark has banned the savoury spread Marmite, saying its added vitamins and minerals break food safety laws.

The Danish authorities must give their permission for products with such additives to be sold.

In recent years they have banned several well-known items - including the chocolate malt drink Ovaltine and some breakfast cereals.

Already a shop in Copenhagen has been ordered to remove jars of Marmite from its shelves.

BBC Europe correspondent Chris Morris says outraged expats in the country are already threatening a campaign of civil disobedience and there are suggestions that the Danish ban could break European law.

Egyptian pyramids found by infra-red satellite images

2011-05-25T09:27:00.000Z

Two new finds are at Saqqara, an older but less known pyramid site than Giza

Seventeen lost pyramids are among the buildings identified in a new satellite survey of Egypt.

More than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements were also revealed by looking at infra-red images which show up underground buildings.

Initial excavations have already confirmed some of the findings including of two suspected pyramids.

"To excavate a pyramid is the dream of every archaeologist," says Dr Sarah Parcak.

She has pioneered the work in space archaeology at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, and says she was amazed at how much she and her team have found.

An infra-red satellite image shows a buried pyramid, located in the centre of the highlight box.

"We were very intensely doing this research for over a year. I could see the data as it was emerging, but for me the "A-Ha" moment was when I could step back and look at everything that we'd found and I couldn't believe we could locate so many sites all over Egypt."

The team analysed images from satellites orbiting 700km above the earth, equipped with cameras so powerful they can pin-point objects less than 1m in diameter on the earth's surface.

Infra-red imaging was used to highlight different materials under the surface.

Ancient Egyptians built their houses and structures out of mud brick, which is much denser than the soil that surrounds it, so the shapes of houses, temples and tombs can be seen.

"It just shows us how easy it is to underestimate both the size and scale of past human settlements," says Dr Parcak.

And she believes there are more antiquities to be discovered:

"These are just the sites [close to] the surface. There are many thousands of additional sites that the Nile has covered over with silt. This is just the beginning of this kind of work."

BBC cameras followed Dr Parcak on her "nervous" journey when she travelled to Egypt to see if excavations could back up what her technology could see under the surface.

An infra-red image (right) shows a pattern of streets and houses in the buried ancient city of Tanis

In the BBC documentary Egypt's Lost Cities, they visit an area of Saqqara (Sakkara) where the authorities were not initially interested in her findings.

But after being told by Dr Parcak that she had seen two potential pyramids, they made test excavations and they now believe it is one of the most important archaeological sites in Egypt.

But Dr Parcak said "the most exciting moment was visiting the excavations at Tanis."

"They'd excavated a 3,000 year old house that the satellite imagery had shown and the outline of the structure matched the satellite imagery almost perfectly. That was real validation of the technology."

Among other things, the Egyptian authorities plan to use the technology to help protect the country's antiquities in the future.

During the recent revolution, looters accessed some well-known archaeological sites.

"We can tell from the imagery a tomb was looted from a particular period of time and we can alert Interpol to watch out for antiquities from that time, that may be offered for sale."

She also hopes the new technology will help engage young people in science and will be a major help for archaeologists around the world.

"It allows us to be more focused and selective in the work we do. Faced with a massive site, you don't know where to start.

"It's an important tool to focus where we're excavating. It gives us a much bigger perspective on archaeological sites. We have to think bigger and that's what the satellites allow us to do."

"Indiana Jones is old school, we've moved on from Indy, sorry Harrison Ford."

Egypt's Lost Cities is on BBC One on Monday 30 May at 2030 BST.

Anniversary of Sir Frank Whittle's jet engine flight

2011-05-16T00:37:00.001Z

The replica E28/39 will return to Gloucestershire Airport after its appearance at RAF Cranwell

A celebration to mark the 70th anniversary of the first jet engine flight is taking place at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire.

On 15 May 1941, the Gloster E28/39 aircraft powered by Sir Frank Whittle's jet engine took off for a flight that lasted almost 17 minutes.

In commemoration, a replica of the aircraft has been transported to the RAF base for the event.

The 1941 flight heralded the birth of the jet age in the UK.

The full-size fibreglass model of the Gloster, owned by The Jet Age Museum in Gloucester, was transported to RAF Cranwell on Thursday.

After the event, the E28 will return to Gloucestershire Airport, Staverton, where the museum has planning permission for a permanent home for its collection.

Sir Frank began his RAF career as an apprentice and later trained as an RAF officer at RAF Cranwell.

He was knighted by King George VI in 1948 when he retired from the RAF in the rank of Air Commodore. He emigrated to the USA in 1976 and died at his home in Columbia, Maryland in August 1996.

10 things you didn't know last week

2011-05-14T10:33:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. French time used to be nine minutes ahead of GMT, based on the time in Paris.
More details

2. Sugar level in strawberries is calculated on the Brix scale.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

3. The first known use of the word "slut" in printed English was from 1402.
More details

4. The hemlines of school skirts in South Korea have risen 10-15cm (4-6in) in the last decade.
More details

5. The first British Tupperware was held in Weybridge, Surrey in 1960. More details

6. A Christian doomsday group in the US is warning that the end of the world - or the Rapture - will occur on Saturday 21 May.
More details (Daily Mail)

7. It costs $60,000 to train a Navy Seal dog - like the one that accompanied US special forces on the Bin Laden operation.
More details (The Times)

8. Goats are able to recognise the voices of their very young kids, and differentiate them from other animals' offspring
More details

9. Humans are naturally predisposed to believe in gods and life after death.
More details (The Telegraph)

10. The government's wine cellar contains about £2m worth of wine and spirits
More details

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-05-07T08:58:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. New York taxis used to be red and green, but in 1907 were all repainted yellow to be visible from a distance.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

2. Philtrum is the name of the groove on your top lip that lies just beneath your nose.
More details

3. The perfect nap lasts 26 minutes.
More details

4. Kate Bush writes songs more easily with a bag of bone meal - yes, the garden fertiliser - on her piano.
More details

5. Marlon Brando, Liz Taylor and Michael Jackson shared a hire car on 9/11.
More details (Daily Mirror)

6. A "Spanish plume" is a weather system that sucks warm - and perhaps thundery - air up from Spain and North Africa.
More details (Daily Mail)

7. European brands that succeed in the US tend to be at the luxury end of the market - as Tesco is finding to its cost.
More details

8. Delilah became the anthem of Stoke City FC fans after police officers asked them not to sing any songs with swear words. Next up on the pub jukebox was the Tom Jones hit...
More details

9. Left-handed people are more fearful than right-handers.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

10. Kate Middleton - the Duchess of Cambridge - has never been to the United States.
More details

Sir Patrick Moore turns pop star

2011-04-30T16:11:00.002Z

Sir Patrick recorded the lyrics in one take

Veteran Sky At Night presenter Sir Patrick Moore has lent his voice to a "cosmic rock song" written by a Northumberland musician and composer.

Carl Cape, 26, wrote Glittering Sky after being inspired by the night skies above his Morpeth home.

He asked the 88-year-old presenter to add his voice to the song when he interviewed him for community radio.

Mr Cape said Sir Patrick was a "true professional" and recorded the lyrics in a single take.

Mr Cape, who works in public relations, said: "Sir Patrick has inspired me over the years since I started watching the Sky At Night as a kid.

"When i decided to write something to reflect what I could see every night in the skies above Northumberland I came up with the line 'I can see a million stars' and thought straight away about Sir Patrick.

"When I had a chance to interview him for my local community radio station I asked him to do the words and he was just great.

"Although he did tell me he wasn't too keen on some of the loud drums I will have on the finished track.

"He was as sharp as a button and I was just in awe of him."

Sir Patrick, who began presenting The Sky At Night in 1957, said: "When Carl asked me to contribute some words to his music I was delighted to oblige."

Sheffield FC auctions rules document from 1858

2011-04-30T16:11:00.001Z

A handwritten pamphlet from 1858 on the rules of club football is to be put up for sale by Sheffield FC.

The document is believed to be one of the earliest instructions on the sport, and will be auctioned as part of an archive belonging to the club.

The archive is expected to fetch up to £1.2m when auctioned in July, and was called an important historical document by auctioneers Sotheby's, the FT said.

Sheffield FC is the world's oldest football club, formed in 1857.

The archive is being taken to Paris, New York and Doha before auction.

"It reflects the fact that football is now truly a global game," said Gabriel Heaton, senior specialist in Sotheby's books department, the FT reported.

'No hacking or tripping'

The pamphlet introduces laws of the game that still exist, such as the indirect free kick, the corner kick and the use of a crossbar.

Another rule states: "Pushing with the hands is allowed but no hacking or tripping is fair under any circumstances whatsoever."

Dr Heaton said although the game was already being played in private schools and Cambridge university, under a variety of different rules, the Sheffield document introduced innovations and removed the game from the elite educational establishment for the first time.

Sheffield FC chairman Richard Tims said the decision to sell the archive was a "tough" one, but had been taken to secure the club's future, the FT reported.

Mr Tims said the decision to sell the archive was sparked by the sale at Sotheby's New York last December of an 1891 document spelling out the rules of basketball for $4.3m, more than double its pre-sale estimate.

"If you are looking for a piece of footballing history, this is the ultimate prize," he said.

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-04-30T08:15:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. There is a camel-mounted bagpipe band.
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2. Transparent typewriters are manufactured for sale to prisons, to avoid the risk of contraband being hidden.
More details (The Daily Feed)

3. City dwelling birds have larger brains than those that live in the countryside.
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4. CDs were designed to be 12cm (4.8in) in diameter, because it provided sufficient capacity at 75 minutes to store all of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
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5. Bonobos share eating-out tips.
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6. Litter and graffiti could cause racism.
More details (The Times)

7. A taxi ride from New York to Los Angeles cots $5,000 (£3,000)
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8. Deer win respect by breaking up fights.
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9. French police are currently allowed 25cl of wine or a small beer with their lunch while on duty
More details (Daily Telegraph)

10. Rabbit jumping is a sport
More details (Daily Express)

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-04-23T08:26:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Planets may have black plants.
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2. Chimps give birth like humans.
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3. Dinosaurs suffered from toothache.
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4. Swearing relieves pain.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

5. Cuckoos copy hawks.
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6. Supermarkets still give away cardboard boxes for nothing.
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7. The world's smallest caravan measures 6ft 7in (2m) by 2ft 6in (75cm) and has a top speed of 5mph.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

8. A rare version of God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols is the most valuable record of all time.
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9. Spies used to engrave messages on toe-nails.
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10. Soap and water can be better than hand gels and wipes at tackling germs.
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Are You Being Served? star Trevor Bannister dies at 76

2011-04-15T23:01:00.000Z

Trevor Bannister (r) played ladies man Mr Lucas in Are You Being Served?

Are You Being Served? star Trevor Bannister has died aged 76, his brother has confirmed.

The actor suffered a heart attack on Thursday at his allotment in Thames Ditton, Surrey, John Bannister said.

The actor was best known for his role as ladies' man Mr Lucas in the 1970s BBC sitcom set in a department store but he also worked in the theatre.

"He was a good lad, we were all very fond of him," Mr Bannister told BBC News.

He added his brother had been doing some repair work on his shed when he became ill.

Frank Thornton, who appeared as Captain Peacock in Are You Being Served?, told the BBC he had "many, many happy memories" of his co-star.

"He was a very good friend over a long time," he said.

"We often met with him and his wife - he was recently at my 90th birthday celebrations in January and that was the last time we saw him. We shall miss him sorely."

Born in Durrington, Wiltshire, and the youngest of three children, Bannister did two year's National Service before going to the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts.

During his career which spanned five decades, he appeared in TV shows including The Avengers, Dixon of Dock Green, The Saint and Z Cars.

Most recently Bannister (left) starred in BBC series Last of the Summer Wine

He also made regular appearances in the theatre and in pantomime.

More recently, the actor had a stint in the long-running BBC series Last of the Summer Wine.

In 2009, the actor led the tributes to his Are You Being Served? co-star Wendy Richard and gave a reading at her funeral.

Speaking to the BBC at the time about his experiences of working on the sitcom, he said: "The joy of that particular show was the fact that most of us had known each other before we came to do it.

"We loved working with each other and had a lot of respect for each other. I think that fun and enjoyment conveyed itself through the screen."

He is survived by his second wife Pam and three sons Simon, Timothy and Jeremy.

Gordon Burns to step down from BBC North West Tonight

2011-04-15T23:00:00.000Z

Burns has lived in Manchester for over 30 years

Gordon Burns is to stand down from BBC North West Tonight after nearly 15 years presenting the programme.

The 68-year-old presenter announced he is to leave in September when he will take up a new role hosting a Sunday morning BBC radio show.

Aziz Rashid, head of BBC North West, paid tribute to Burns describing him as a "unique talent" and a "broadcasting phenomenon".

No decision has yet been taken on appointing his successor.

Burns said: "It will be a great wrench to leave the programme I have been proud to present for nearly a decade and a half.

"I've enjoyed it enormously and I regard it as a real privilege to have been in the homes of people across the North West for so many years delivering the news to them."

Nationally, Burns is best known for The Krypton Factor which ran on ITV for 18 years.

Since he became the face of BBC North West Tonight in 1997, he has has interviewed seven British prime ministers and picked up the Royal Television Society award for Best UK Regional Presenter (NW) on five occasions.

Mr Rashid said he was a "unique talent".

"Gordon's contribution to the success of North West Tonight has been phenomenal. In fact he is a broadcasting phenomenon.

"He has navigated millions of viewers through the issues that matter across the region."

David Holdsworth, controller of BBC English Regions, said: "The word 'icon' can be over-used - but not in this case.

"Gordon Burns is synonymous with regional broadcasting and viewers in the North West have adopted him as one of their own. He will be a hard act to follow."

Burns is married with two grown-up children and two grandchildren. He has lived in Manchester for over 30 years.

He will continue to work with the BBC presenting a new show broadcast simultaneously on Radio Manchester and Radio Lancashire, on Sunday mornings from September.

London Philharmonic to record Olympic nation anthems

2011-04-15T22:58:00.000Z

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is based at the Royal Festival Hall on the south bank

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is to record the national anthems of all 205 countries participating in the 2012 Olympics.

Composer, conductor and cellist Philip Sheppard will take charge of the recordings, which will be played at the medal and welcoming ceremonies.

Recording starts in May at London's Abbey Road Studios.

It will take the musicians at least 50 recording hours over six days to finish the project.

Mr Sheppard said he hopes working at the iconic studios will help "creativity".

He has been working on the anthems since October, to make each one sound "unified".

Each anthem had to be up to a minute in duration and Mr Sheppard said it was a challenge to condense them.

"Uruguay is about six-and-a-half minutes long, so there comes a point where one has to chop it down, without offending the country in question," he told the BBC.

"But Uganda is only nine bars, so I had to come up with a way of making it last longer without it being repetitive."

London 2012 chairman and two-time Olympic champion Lord Coe said: "The playing of anthems at victory ceremonies is one of the most emotive parts of any Games and it was an incredible moment for me at the Moscow and Los Angeles Games.

Postal Service in Statue of Liberty stamp photo mix-up

2011-04-15T22:56:00.001Z

Details shown in the stamp are more sharply defined than on the statue

The US Postal Service regrets issuing a stamp featuring a photo of a Las Vegas casino's replica Statue of Liberty rather than the original in New York harbour, a spokesman has said.

But the postal service printed three billion of the first-class stamps and will continue to sell them, he said.

And the agency would have selected the photograph anyway, he said.

A stamp collector discovered the mix-up after noting discrepancies between the stamp image and the copper original.

The mix-up was first reported by Linn's Stamp News, a publication for philatelists.

It points out that the photo used on the stamp shows a rectangular patch on the crown that is present on the 14-year-old statue at the New York-New York Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, but not on the 305ft (93m) copper statue in New York.

In addition, the facial features on the Las Vegas replica are more sharply defined than on the original.

The image was taken from a stock photography service, the New York Times reported.

Designed by French sculptor Frederic-Auguste Bartholdi and French engineer Alexandre Gustave Eiffel, the statue - entitled Statue of Liberty Enlightening the World - was given to the US by the French and dedicated in 1886.

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-04-15T22:54:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. Ducks' bills reveal whether they have sexually-transmitted diseases.
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2. The average British home had 5.34 rooms.
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3. Dogs watch how how nice people are to others to work out who to approach to beg for food.
More details (Daily Mail)

4. Time travel storylines are officially discouraged in China.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

5. The first Dulux dog was called Dash.
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6. More girls than boys became scouts in the past year.
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7. Some dinosaurs did their hunting at night.
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8. The world's smallest ever music instrument is a guitar the size of a single blood cell.
More details (The Guardian)

9. There are 8.5 million football-related words in English.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

10. Male humpback whales play "Chinese whispers" across 6,000km.
More details

Luftwaffe Dornier 17 at Goodwin Sands 'still intact'

2011-04-08T23:55:00.000Z

The discovery of a unique German warplane off the Kent coast left experts "incredulous". New images suggest the Dornier 17 is still intact and there are hopes that it will go on show.

They called it "the flying pencil": a slim, elegant aircraft originally designed in 1934 to carry passengers, which by the start of World War II had been converted into a deadly weapon of war.

The Dornier 17 was one of the mainstays of the Luftwaffe bombing fleets which began their assault on British cities and RAF airfields in the summer of 1940, in what became known as the Battle of Britain.

A total of 1,700 Dorniers were built, but the plane discovered in Goodwin Sands is thought to be the last remaining one.

Dornier 17 Z-2, serial number 1160, of number 7 squadron, 3 Group, third Bomber Wing, was shot down on 26 August 1940 and made an emergency landing in the sea just off the Kent coast.

Two of the four crew members died, two - including the pilot - survived to become prisoners of war.

The wreck of the plane sank some 50 ft (15.24m) to the bottom, turning turtle as it did so, and came to rest on its back on the notoriously shifting Goodwin Sands, which soon covered it.

Last month, a team on board the Port of London Authority (PLA) vessel, Yantlet, set out from Ramsgate to survey the wreck using the latest high-tech sonar equipment.

The survey confirmed an earlier finding that the plane has now been uncovered by the sand, as 70 years of time and tide have done their work.

"The really good news today is that we've got some very clear imagery," said John Dillon-Leetch, the PLA's deputy port hydrographer.

"The wreck is there. It seems to be still intact, and we'll find out more information over the next few days as we process and look down deeper into the data we have."

The BBC has been given exclusive access to the resulting 3D images, which are startling in their clarity.

The Dornier 17, known as the flying pencil, were employed by the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain

The most important thing they show is that the aircraft's structure suffered no catastrophic damage during its final landing. The Dornier is largely intact, except for damage to the forward cockpit and observation windows.

The survey was carried out for the RAF Museum at Hendon in North London. The museum's head of collections, Ian Thirsk, was on board the Yantlet.

When he first learnt of the plane's existence he was, he says, "incredulous".

"This aircraft is a unique aeroplane and it's linked to an iconic event in British history, so its importance cannot be overemphasised, nationally and internationally. It's one of the most significant aeronautical finds of the century."

Very few Dorniers survived the war.

"They were either all shot down or they were scrapped. After the war the German people didn't want to remember, so aircraft like that were destroyed," he says.

What do the military operation names mean?

2011-04-08T23:53:00.000Z

Operation ELLAMY is the name given to UK military action in Libya, while the US, Canada and France all have their own monikers. But what do they mean?

With a coalition of international Allies, backed by Nato, carrying out air strikes to enforce a no-fly zone and other objectives in Libya, the eyes of the world are on them - and their operation names.

The Americans are using Operation Odyssey Dawn, while the French have gone for Operation Harmattan. The British have opted for Operation ELLAMY and it's Operation MOBILE in Canada. The latter countries are using capital letters.

Both the UK and US military say the names they have chosen are meaningless.

Canada has chosen a name that begins with "M" because the operation is being conducted in part in the Mediterranean. The name also has to work in English and French, as it's a bilingual country.

Harmattan, selected by the French, is the name for a dry and dusty West African wind.

A UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) spokeswoman says ELLAMY has been randomly generated by a computer programme. It's how all military operations are named and it's done this way so the name doesn't relate in any way to the action.

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-04-08T23:48:00.000Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. The word "loo" dates from medieval times, derived from the warning shout of "gardez l'eau!" given by those tipping chamber pots out the window.
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2. George and Laura Bush are fans of BBC costume drama The House of Eliott (pictured).
More details (Daily Mail)

3. Actor Tom Wilkinson's real name is Geoffrey.
More details (Guardian)

4. An American aircraft carrier weighs more than 100,000 tonnes.
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5. The average UK household spends about 60p a week on stamps.
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6. Early cosmonauts were fairly short, as spacecraft were a tight fit for anyone tall.
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7. There were gay cavemen.
More details (Daily Telegraph)

8. The acronym "lol" is "mdr" in France.
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9. Seat belts are banned on some roads.
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10. Half of girls aged 15-17 in Liverpool and Sunderland use sunbeds.
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Blackpool North Pier sold

2011-04-02T09:36:00.000Z

The new owners are planning to restore the pier's train

Blackpool's oldest pier has changed hands for an undisclosed sum.

North Pier, which was built in 1863, had been owned by Six Piers Ltd, which last year sold the resort's famous tower to the local council.

The new owners are Blackpool family firm Sedgwick's, which owns amusement arcades and the big wheel on Blackpool's Central Pier.

New owner Peter Sedgwick said he wanted to restore the Victorian heritage of Blackpool's largest pier.

Mr Sedgwick said he wanted to "keep the heritage of the pier" and said the previously paid-for attraction would now have free admission.

"The vision for it is to redecorate it and keep it Victorian," he added.

Blackpool's other two piers, South and Central, still belong to Six Piers Ltd, which is owned by Chorley businessman Trevor Hemmings.

He bought the piers from First Leisure in 1998.

Mike Williams, operations director for Six Piers Ltd, said the company was still committed to the resort and had major investments planned for the other two piers.

How did Eddie Stobart become so famous?

2011-04-02T09:34:00.000Z

For many people, lorry legend Edward Stobart changed the face of freight and built up one of Britain's biggest brands. But how did he create such a phenomenon?

Stop someone in the street and ask them to name a road haulage company and it is a safe bet a sizeable sum will come up with Eddie Stobart.

Over the past couple of decades the distinctive green and red trucks - each bearing a different woman's name - have not only become a mainstay of British motorways, but sparked a spotting sensation.

Among some people, mainly children, they gained a cult following - and there was even an animated TV series featuring them.

Today, there are about 2,200 Eddie Stobart trucks on the road and the firm's official fan club boasts no fewer than 25,000 members.

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-04-02T09:25:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. When Prince Albert - the future George VI of The King's Speech fame - wanted to marry Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon (aka the Queen Mum), she only said yes on his third proposal.
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2. Their wedding breakfast comprised of dishes named in their honour - a royal tradition continued into the 1980s.
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3. The average person only uses 20,000 words, with another 40,000 in reserve.
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4. One in six people live in India.
More details (Daily Express)

5. Dark birds are healthier.
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6. Sleep affects weight.
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7. The first Eddie Stobart truck was called Twiggy.
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8. The T. rex had a cousin.
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9. More than 100,000 Americans lied about their age in the 1970 census.
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10. The numbers attending huge street protests are estimated using the size of the streets involved.
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Museums Council axing should be reviewed

2011-03-28T10:04:00.001Z

A group of MPs has urged the government to review its decision to axe the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council.

The Culture, Media and Sport committee criticised a "lack of dialogue" with the UK Film Council - which is also due to be wound up next week.

The MPs raised concerns the decision was taken without a "clear idea" of who would take over their duties.

The cuts were announced as part of the government's Spending Review.

It pledged to slash more than 190 non-elected public bodies, including the Public Lending Right - which collects payments for authors whose books are loaned by public libraries.

The Arts Council - itself facing 30% funding cuts - has been asked to take over the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council's remit to promote improvement and innovation in the area of museums, libraries and archives.

But the Culture, Media and Sport (CMS) report said it "will not be as effective" and has urged the government to "review its decision again in 2012".

The cuts to the Arts Council's budget have led to concerns that more than 100 organisations in England and Wales are likely to lose their funding altogether, with smaller groups and those located outside of urban areas most vulnerable.

The CMS report admitted the cuts could have a "disastrous" effect but accused the Arts Council of a "gross waste" of money.

A "financially comfortable period" had led the body to spend "to much too high a level" on administration, it said.

The report also highlighted The Public gallery in West Bromwich as "perhaps the worst example" of wasted cash.

The building opened in 2007, two years late and nearly £15m over budget.

The Culture, Media and Sport committee report said the arts had "enjoyed a period of particularly high levels of public investment" adding funding for Arts Council England had increased by over 150% to £453m in the 12 years to 2010.

John Whittingdale, Chair of the Committee said: "While this has created a vibrant and successful arts scene in the UK, there has also undoubtedly been waste.

He added that "cuts in public spending will have a major impact on arts and heritage organisations, forcing some closures and we regret that.

"However, at a time when cuts are biting across the board, it is right that all sectors share the burden."

The Arts Council is due to reveal its funding plans on Wednesday.

Adele equals Madonna album record

2011-03-28T10:02:00.000Z

Adele has now held the top two positions in the album chart for three of the last five weeks

Adele has matched Madonna's record with nine weeks at number one in the UK album chart - the longest for a female solo artist.

Her second album, 21, has now spent the same length of time at the top spot as Madonna's first greatest hits record, The Immaculate Collection, in 1990.

The Londoner's debut album, 19, remained at number two.

Meanwhile in the singles chart, the singer's track Someone Like You climbed back up to number one.

Last week the song was toppled by Nicole Scherzinger's Don't Hold Your Breath after previously spending four weeks at the top of the chart.

Adele still has two other singles in the top 40 - Rolling in the Deep at number nine and Make You Feel My Love at 36, the Official Charts Company said.

The singer-songwriter is also enjoying continued success in the US, where 21 also regained the number one spot in the Billboard album chart last week.

Earlier in the year she became the first living artist since the Beatles to have two top five hits in the UK single and album charts simultaneously.

Elsewhere in the singles chart, Just Can't Get Enough by Black Eyed Peas rose 12 places to three, while Comic Relief single Gold Forever by The Wanted and former number one Price Tag by Jessie J fell each fell one to four and five respectively.

The highest new entry was Peter Kay and Susan Boyle's Comic Relief single, I Know Him So Well at 11.

In the album chart, The Strokes scored the highest new entry at three with Angels, while When Ronan Met Burt by Ronan Keating and Burt Bacharach went in at number five.

Heritage sites get £10m funding boost

2011-03-28T10:01:00.001Z

The Royal Crescent was built in the 1760s

Kettle's Yard, Cardigan Castle and the Royal Crescent in Bath will each get a share of £10m from the Lottery Heritage Fund, it has been announced.

The largest grant of £4.7m will go towards restoring buildings and gardens and a new heritage centre at Cardigan Castle in Ceredigion.

The museum and art gallery at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge will receive £2.32m for new workshops.

Other recipients include the Grade II listed Charleston Farmhouse in Lewes.

The country retreat was a favourite of the Bloomsbury group, a gathering of writers, artists and intellectuals whose members included Virginia Woolf and John Maynard Keynes.

Its £2.4m will go towards a new education and exhibition space.

Bath's world famous Royal Crescent will receive £1.4m million for a restoration project.

The funding will enable the house at No 1 - now a museum - and No 1a - once used as the servants' quarters - to be connected and create a larger museum.

A new exhibition space will show visitors what life would have been like in Bath at the time of the building's construction in the 1700s.

The Crescent was featured in the 2008 film, The Duchess, starring Keira Knightley.

10 things we didn't know last week

2011-03-27T10:18:00.001Z

Snippets from the week's news, sliced, diced and processed for your convenience.

1. More than 70% of banknotes initially reach the public via cash machines.
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2. Tennis Girl doesn't like tennis.
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3. YouTube's first video was called "Me at the zoo".
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4. Booking fees can be as much as £26.
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5. Ian Fleming created Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
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6. More than a fifth of the world's population live in the time zone GMT+8.
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7. Russell Brand gardens.
More details (London Evening Standard)

8. The baby son of physicist Brian Cox, George, has the middle name Eagle, named after the first spacecraft to land on the moon.
More details (Guardian)

9. More than 90% of schoolchildren study Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck.
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10. The first text message ever sent read: "Merry Christmas".
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Curry powder molecule 'is cheap sensor for explosives'

2011-03-25T10:18:00.000Z

A cheap and widely available spice seems to be a solution to diverse problems

The main chemical in the curry spice turmeric could be the basis for cheap explosives detectors, say researchers.

The curcumin molecule is already well-known in medicine for its anti-cancer and anti-oxidant properties.

Now, research presented at the American Physical Society meeting suggests it could replace more complex solutions to spot explosives like TNT.

As it gathers molecules of explosive material in air, changes in its light-emitting properties can be measured.

This "fluorescence spectroscopy" is already employed in a wide array of sensing and analysis techniques.

Illuminating some chemicals causes them to re-emit light of a different colour, sometimes for extended periods - an effect exploited in, for example, glow-in-the-dark materials.

The intensity of this re-emitted light can change if different molecules bind to the fluorescent ones, and that is how sensing techniques exploit the effect.

Thieves steal plane fuselage and ship's anchor from MoD

2011-03-25T10:17:00.001Z

Night vision goggles worth £49,000 were among the items stolen in the past 10 months

A plane fuselage, a ship's anchor and a clarinet are among items which have been stolen from the Ministry of Defence since May.

Guns, a bridge and Army ration packs also went missing. In total, goods worth nearly £700,000 were taken in the UK.

The list was revealed in response to a question in Parliament.

The Labour MP who made the request, Luciana Berger, said the list was "a national disgrace".

Ms Berger, MP for Liverpool Wavertree, asked for a breakdown of items worth £100 or more which had been stolen from the MoD since the government took office.

She said: "People will be furious thieves can walk away with body armour, pistols, uniforms, helmets and night-vision goggles intended for our men and women serving in combat zones.

"This is nothing short of a national disgrace. Defence ministers have some serious questions to answer."

The most valuable single item to be stolen was a helicopter rotor tuner worth £50,000, which was taken in November.

Crime reduction

Cash was also stolen, along with items ranging from medals and ceremonial swords to a boat rudder.

The list does not include anything stolen from the MoD outside the UK.

Junior defence minister Peter Luff said the Ministry of Defence police (MDP) had "actively promoted" a number of crime reduction initiatives.

"The MDP also have 81 defence community police officers who are trained crime reduction officers working in MoD establishments across the country," he said.

"These officers provide an effective deterrent to potential criminals, by raising the awareness of staff, service personnel, service families and contractors."

Ms Berger also asked other Whitehall departments what items had been lost or stolen.

The Ministry of Justice said 34 laptops and 42 BlackBerrys had gone missing but that they were all password encrypted.

And the Cabinet Office said three electronic items to the value of £325 had been recorded as lost or stolen.