Analysis finds there may be no universal concepts for some emotionsThe true meaning of words may be lost in translation, according to research suggesting the way people understand terms such as “anger” or “love” differs between languages.For example, while the concept of “love” is closely linked to “like” and “want” in Indo-European languages, it is strongly linked to...

Psychiatrists divided on ‘game-changing’ esketamine due to potential for addictionA radical ketamine-like drug has been licensed for use in the UK for severe depression, a decision that offers hope to the millions of patients for whom conventional treatments have failed.Esketamine, taken as a nasal spray, is one of the first rapid-acting drugs for depression and the first in decades that is...

Pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCB) storms are feared due to the violent and unpredictable conditions they create on the groundNSW and Qld fires: South Australia also faces catastrophic bushfires risk as PM apologises for holiday – liveScientists fear climate change will drive a surge in the number of supersized and dangerous bushfires that become coupled with the atmosphere and create their own violent...

My wife, Val Richards, who has died aged 84, was a scholar, teacher and analytical psychotherapist.Val was born in Whetstone, north London, to Charles Feldman, an accountant, and his wife, Ivy (nee Blaker), a teacher, and attended Woodhouse school in North Finchley. Her youth, which she spent in London, was marred by the second world war; from her early years Val was a campaigner for peace, and...

Trees would have been home to primitive insects about 150m years before dinosaurs evolvedThe world’s oldest known fossil forest has been discovered in a sandstone quarry in New York state, offering new insights into how trees transformed the planet.The forest, found in the town of Cairo, would have spanned from New York to Pennsylvania and beyond, and has been dated to about 386m years old. It...