When companies face financial hardship, they are often tempted to merge, splitting their costs and combining their customers. Couples do the opposite. The weight of unpaid bills and overdue loans can break a relationship: the unspoken vow that haunts...

The study of laughter has entered mainstream psychology. Anthony Gottlieb reads the reports--and a new book on the history of jokes--and finds much to chuckle over ...

At the grand old age of 241, the Royal Academy is letting its hair down. After allowing itself to be spattered with red wax by Anish Kapoor, it now welcomes a gaggle of artists with a green tinge. For the second GSK Contemporary show, “Earth: Art of a...

Some weeks ago around 30 or 40 people gathered on the corner of 47th Street and Sixth Avenue in Manhattan in brightly coloured spandex exercise suits. It was the second instalment of the Midtown Games, a series of olympics-style flashmobs organised by...

We've questioned its relevance, we've paired it with Mozart, we've wondered at its news-reporting potential and we've praised its powers for delivering jokes. Now it's time for us to use Twitter the way everyone else seems to: to tell people what...

When dealing with intractable and often tragic problems, it can be difficult to focus. AIDS is an epidemic that kills 2m people annually. In sub-Saharan Africa, where the disease is most rampant, 1.9m people are infected each year. Between 31m and 36m...

While the politicians fiddle, the world keeps warming. The Arctic may be down to its last few summers of being white. Johann Hari, in Greenland, asks hunters and scientists how climate change really feels ... From INTELLIGENT LIFE Magazine, Winter...