A new article publishing online today in the Quarterly Journal of Medicine has reported the first case showing an association between exposure to head injuries in rugby union players and an increased risk in neurodegenerative disease.

Until now, the association between head injuries and neurodegenerative disease, specifically chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), has predominantly been made with boxers. However Dr Michael Farrell and colleagues have presented the first comprehensive case report of CTE in a former amateur rugby union player, who died six years after displaying the first symptoms of neurological decline at age 57.

When people do terrible things, it seems reasonable to believe we should have taken steps to identify them beforehand. If we can do that, then surely we can prevent them from doing harm.

The crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 in March, which appears to have been an intentional act, is an example. It shocks us (and understandably so) when a trusted professional harms those who have entrusted their lives to him or her.

So why not identify pilots at risk and take steps to prevent similar events from ever occurring again?

Because it is likely impossible, and maybe even counterproductive.

Recently on Countryfile (BBC) we saw a presenter and a photographer together in the Pennines, the mountains that form the ‘backbone’ of England.  The photographer makes a living by taking spectacular scenes with a high-end camera and all different lenses, whereas the presenter was comparing what she took with her mobile. 

He was worried that in the public domain the best images would be lost in a massive cloud which includes a lot of inferior (though he didn’t specifically use the word) data.

This clicked with me, because of my experience of attempting astrophotography with what is known as a ‘bridge’ camera, somewhat between a compact and an SLR.

A new fossil hominid species has been discovered in the site of Woranso-Mille in the central region of Afar, in Ethiopia.

The new species is named Australopithecus deyiremeda and consists of the upper and  lower jaws and a collection of teeth in the sites of Burtele and Wayteleyta, in Woranso-Mille, in the central region of Afar, about 50 kilometers north of Hadar and 520 kilometres northeast of the capital Addis Ababa. The fossil specimens are 3.3 – 3.5 million-years-old.

The Red Lady burial site in El Mirón cave, outside Ramales de la Victoria in Cantabria, Spain, dates back to the Upper Palaeolithic 16,000 years ago. The archaeological site was discovered in 1903 but it wasn't until 2010 that bones were discovered at the back of the cave, in a small space between the wall and a fallen block. Both the bones and the sediment under them were reddish.

The remains turned out to be of a woman, between 35 and 40 years of age, and because of the color the Red Lady mystery was born. The reddish color means the use of ochre and ochre has been linked to religious symbolism in various cultures.

Women are a lot more likely to put up with misbehavior in a man if he looks like Ryan Gosling, but if he is ugly, shunning will happen much quicker, according to a paper by Jeremy Gibson and Jonathan Gore of Eastern Kentucky University, who found that a woman’s view of how law-abiding a man is can be influenced by how handsome he is.

'First impressions' are a popular field of study because of their role in forming relationships, but it is often based on physical appearance and adherence to social norms. First impressions can be misleading and when someone is getting a positive reaction, a “halo effect” it can help them in many ways. Likewise, the opposite can occur for unattractive traits.

Many have questioned the efficacy of the common antidepressant medications known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).

They don't work for many people, studies have found, and even when they work they lose effectiveness quickly. Psychiatric medications have also been the common denominators in tragedies like mass shootings, which has increased concern about whether or not it is better to be depressed than homicidal.

An extract from the thunder god vine, long used in traditional Chinese medicine, reduces food intake and causes up to a 45% decrease in body weight in obese mice. The weight-loss compound, called Celastrol, produces its potent effects by enhancing the action of an appetite-suppressing hormone called leptin. The findings are an early indicator that Celastrol could be developed into a drug for the treatment of obesity.

A new assistance system wants to help users in a wide variety of situations and it will do so by measuring user brain activity to determine whether they are pleased or displeased with system-initiated help.

NeuroLab is measuring brain activity as part of the EMOIO project that will run until the end of 2017. The project scientists use electroencephalography and functional near infrared spectroscopy to try and measure emotions, focusing on how far a combination of the two methods can improve the accuracy of classification algorithms that can enable emotion recognition in real time, during the interaction process.

Female journalists in Norway between the ages of 25 and 35 are twice as likely to be bullied and threatened as male colleagues of the same age, and nearly half of all Norwegian journalists and editors have experienced bullying during the past five years.

25 percent have been threatened and the majority were men but there are clear gender differences to be found in online harassment, according to Aina Landsverk Hagen of KILDEN - Information Centre for Gender Research in Norway.