A woman's compassion is largely due to the genes she inherits - but for men it comes from the environment.

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.

If travelling to a new home might take thousands of years, would humans be able to successfully procreate along the way?

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.

You can sequence your own genome for $10,000 USD - and it will only take around eight days to complete.

Where would the world of childbirth be without those uninhibited European women who feature so prominently in birthing videos?

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.