Gold actually does grow on trees

Scientists find small deposits in gumleaves.

Australian geochemists publish paper showing how trees act 'as a hydraulic pump … drawing up water containing the gold'

Contrary to popular belief, gold does grow on trees.

Scientists from Australia’s national science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO), have proved that the leaves of certain eucalyptus trees contain minute amounts of the precious metal that have been naturally absorbed.

Also: Listen from the BBC

Delay on plain cigarette pack decision 'sad day for child health'

Scientists and campaigners say lives will be lost and accuse ministers of bowing to tobacco industry lobbying. 

Lives will be lost as a result of the government's decision to kick the notion of plain packaging for cigarettes into the long grass, say scientists and campaigners who accuse ministers of bowing to tobacco industry lobbying.

Dirt cuisine: are you adventurous enough to taste?

Adventurous diners can enjoy a menu made with soil, if they so wish, at a Tokyo restaurant normally specialising in seafood. 

For the last three weeks, chef Toshio Tanabe has been serving 'dirt cuisine' to customers, saying he's trying to reflect nature's life in his food. The menu includes soil soup and potato balls with soil sauce and costs around £70

Negative ads about Britain: it's not as if we're short of material

Doing a U-turn after decades of initiatives portraying Britain as both pleasant and welcoming probably won't be that hard. 

Our idea for a poster, based on a 1950s tourist poster, to put off potential immigrants

It's a task to which the British temperament is uniquely suited: a campaign to sell Britain short. With a year to go before the UK's current migration restrictions on Bulgarian and Romanian people are lifted, government ministers are considering mounting an advertising campaign in both countries to highlight the downsides of life in Britain, with a view to discouraging any would-be immigrants.

21 Jan 2013 is Blue Monday

Today is Blue Monday, the most depressing day of the year. Except for the fact that it definitely isn't...

It is if you go by what the media and the concept's originator says. It isn't if you go by what science, psychology, evidence and sanity in general say.

The "Blue Monday" phenomenon is based on the claim that there is an equation that takes into account numerous variables that negatively influence people's mood and calculates that the most depressing day of the year is the third Monday in January.
This claim is incorrect. It is unscientific. It is pseudoscientific...

 Full article here.