Health »
- Exercise cuts cold incidence by almost 50%, study shows
People who are active five or more days each week are 43 per cent less likely to catch a cold than those who exercise only one day or less, researchers find
- Alcohol more dangerous than cocaine or heroin
A new study found alcohol was the most dangerous of 20 legal and illegal drugs when the two criteria of harm to the user and harm to others were combined
Family »
- Must an only child be a lonely child?
ASK THE EXPERT: Q. I have one six-year-old son. My question relates to his being an only child. Most of my friends and family have more children and I worry about him feeling different. What are the pros and cons for only children? Are they at a disadvantage? Do they lose out by being an only child? How can we ensure he doesn’t feel different and that he grows up happy?
- Working out what's best for the pupils
The questioning by school principals of the value of homework has struck a chord with parents and children
Education »
- Why I decided to fail better
PROFILE: EOIN CUNNINGHAM, MATURE STUDENT: A decade after leaving college EOIN CUNNINGHAM is back at UCD taking an MA. The past 10 years have been a rollercoaster; researching bestselling books one moment, working nights as a cleaner the next. So why has he decided to return to education? And what does he make of the class of 2010?
- No more Republic of average
RAISING OUR GAME: HOW EDUCATION IN IRELAND CAN BE IMPROVED: Part two: There can be no economic recovery until our education system is radically reformed to meet the needs of today’s young people. Here, Fine Gael TD BRIAN HAYES suggests 10 ways to break the grip of smugness
People »
- A bittersweet swansong for a master of opera
Three hundred years after his birth, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi’s greatest work remains a haunting masterpiece, writes EILEEN BATTERSBY
- Why braving the dance floor is the way to take it down a notch
PRESENT TENSE: THE NOISE and fury of the midterm election season in the US will reach their peak this weekend. Today the National Mall in Washington DC is hosting a rally that will undoubtedly be the focus of media attention, even though the tens of thousands of marchers constitute one of the most under-represented constituencies in US political discourse: reasonable people not given to extremist outbursts.
News Features »
- Ireland's growing industry
Criminal gangs have been setting up cannabis-growing cottage industries in Irish suburbs, renting expensive houses and installing sophisticated irrigation and heat lamps to net crops worth up to €280,000 in eight weeks. CONOR LALLY , Crime Correspondent, reports on the lucrative drug cultivation under our noses
- Midterm report: a litmus test
California, a microcosm of the US, is about to decide who is the ‘least worst’ candidate for governor after a ‘bloodbath’ of a campaign. It’s just one of Tuesday’s elections across the US when voters will give their verdict on the Obama presidency
Environment »
- Bord na Móna's 'contract with nature' is convincing
ANOTHER LIFE : AS THE sedges begin to wither, some stretches of the Connacht moors have the richness of medieval velvets: russets, madders, smoky reds. Later on, when the moor grass dies, bright lion-mane ochres will sweep across the bogs. And up in north Mayo a great area of cutaway peatland is slashed with black and glittering silver: these, too, can be colours to enjoy.
- Horizons
A roundup of this week's other heritage & habitat news in brief
Science »
- Sharks that circle our shores
A new doctoral thesis throws fresh light on the presence and activities of some 40 species of shark off our waters, writes CLAIRE O’CONNELL
- New find raises the prospect our forebears came out of Asia
Fossils suggest the mammals that evolved into primates – including humans – arose in Asia not Africa