The brightest star returns this week, twinkling and sparkling unmistakably in the southern skyThere’s a treat in store all week for early risers. Sirius, the brightest star in the night sky, will be glittering in the southern sky in the pre-dawn hours. Having been absent from view for several months, the star is now rising shortly after midnight. Located just 8.6 light years away, Sirius is...

Celebrating the discovery of your unborn baby’s sex has been coopted by people with repressive, polarised ideas, says the woman who began the trendIn 2008, Jenna Myers Karvunidis was pregnant and itching to throw a party. “Life is hard, but I like to have fun,” she explains. “I think it’s important to mark moments of joy.” Karvunidis (who loves celebrating so much that she baked a cake...

Design Museum, LondonThis fascinating show offers close encounters with an actual Mars rover, footage from the planet’s surface – and ambitious plans for inhabiting it, should the need arise…On the surface of Mars, temperatures average about -60C. The thin atmosphere, containing almost no oxygen, is unbreathable. Intense solar radiation, were you to survive the cold and asphyxiation, would...

New restrictions needed for leading cause of deaths of men under 50New restrictions are needed on Britain’s drinking culture, which is behind a huge rise in deaths of men and women under 50, according to the government’s former chief drug adviser, sacked a decade ago for claiming that ecstasy and LSD were less dangerous than alcohol.Ahead of a speech to the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies...

Parents of Abbie Mifsud created the charity that has funded vital research on brain stem tumoursResearchers say they are close to testing a drug that could tackle a previously untreatable childhood brain cancer. The condition is known as DIPG – diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma – and every year it affects between 30 to 40 boys and girls, aged between five and 10. All develop tumours caused by...