Some people are born happy, scientists say. Researchers have identified a "happiness gene" that makes people more likely to feel satisfied with their lives. Their sunny dispostion is an accident of birth, at least in part.

With so many ways of storing data, are we forgetting how to remember? Not according to US writer Joshua Foer, who reveals new and remarkable strategies for memorising. By Robin McKie.

If you can be sure of one thing, then surely it is that you exist. Even if the world were a dream or a hallucination, it would still need you to be dreaming or hallucinating it.

Scientist says that exercise is the key to mental fitness.

It may be boring for parents - but reading the same book over and over again to children is the best way to develop their vocabulary.

The human nose contains roughly 400 olfactory receptors, but no two people have the same sense of smell.

Ethics experts have approved NZ's first clinical trial using adult stem cells to treat people with spinal injuries.

What if a DNA reading machine could be fed through a machine, much like swiping your credit card?

A couple so desperate for a baby girl that they terminated twin boys are fighting to choose the gender of their next child.

Researchers claim to have found the first proof that getting a regular eight hours' sleep a night can make you appear more attractive.

Mohamed Taranissi, the so-called 'bad boy of the fertility world' is still Britain's most successful IVF specialist.

It is not yet a panacea for all ills, but it is getting close.

An Otago University study has challenged the idea that depression and anti-social behaviour are primarily influenced by genes.

Good-looking couples are more likely to have daughters than plainer parents, according to a study.

Organs and bones were illegally harvested from the bodies of dead nuclear industry workers.

The many genes that influence body weight can interact in a complex and unpredictable way that sometimes defies scientific explanation.