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A front view of a young brunette woman carrying two bags of garden waste that is to be composted and reused. She is working on a community space garden in Hexham in the North East of England with a group of friends.

The mental tricks you can use in your lifelong pursuit of happiness

10 May 2023

Evidence-based tweaks to the way you think about your day are the secret of how to be happy over the course of your life

How interior design choices can boost your mental and physical health

13 April 2022

Neuroscientists have figured out what interior design choices, from flooring to lighting, can help create homes that improve our mental health, decrease stress and fatigue, and even spark creativity

What really makes people happy – and can you learn to be happier?

19 January 2022

Our life satisfaction is shaped by many things including our genes and relative wealth, but there is now good evidence that you can boost your basic happiness with these key psychological strategies

Two senior woman in launderettes, laughing, portrait

The real reasons we laugh and what different types of laughter mean

15 December 2021

What the three varieties of laughter say about your relationships, how giggling helps babies develop their sense of self, and why so many animals like a chuckle

The 7 primes of life: Why each decade comes with its own superpowers

30 June 2021

You might think we peak in our 20s or 30s before enduring a slow decline, but each era of our lives brings new strengths – even old age. Here's how to make the most of them

Evolution explains why social distancing due to covid-19 is so hard

11 November 2020

Hugs, handshakes and air kisses serve the same crucial purposes as animal greetings like sniffing, eye poking and buttock grabbing

'Ums' and 'ers' are a hidden code that helped complex language evolve

14 October 2020

Filler words such as uh, mmm and huh may seem inarticulate, but without them human communication would be far less sophisticated

The surprising ways little social interactions affect your health

12 August 2020

Greeting neighbours or gossiping with a colleague can boost your health and well-being, but coronavirus lockdowns are putting that in jeopardy. Here’s how to stay connected