The Conversation

Government elites want parents to rush to turn their progeny into units of human capital as quickly as possible. It risks 'damaged goods'. ShutterstockBy Pam Jarvis, Leeds Trinity University

Don't look so worried Cromwell, she's just asleep. BBC/Company Productions LtdBy Derek Gatherer, Lecturer at Lancaster University.In the first episode of BBC historical drama Wolf Hall, based on Hilary Mantel’s novel of the same name, Thomas Cromwell returns home to find his wife and two daughters have all died during the night, victims of a pestilence – the “sweating sickness” – that is scything through the Tudor world.

Spot the biggest star. Rutherford ObservatoryBy Jillian Scudder, Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Astrophysics at University of SussexThe universe is such a big place that it is easy to get baffled by the measurements that astronomers make. The size of UY Scuti, possibly one of the largest stars we have observed to date, is certainly baffling.

Bronks/Wikimedia CommonsBy Mark Beeson, Professor of International Politics at University of Western AustraliaOf the many things academics obsess about, few rank more highly than citation counts. We all like to think our work is at least read by our peers, even if it doesn’t actually change the world. Google Scholar has become one of the more important indicators of our relative standing, although it can be a rather humbling one at times. The simple fact is that most of us simply don’t make it into what we might call the intellectual Premier League.

Raspberry Pi 2. Raspberry PiBy Simon J Cox and Steven JohnstonThe Raspberry Pi has been a great success, selling millions since launch in 2012 and igniting hobbyists' imagination everywhere. The Pi is a tiny computer at a tiny price, but now the arrival of a seriously upgraded Raspberry Pi 2 has brought the performance that the first lacked, in a package the same size at the same cost of US$35.

Carl Djerassi. Boris Roessler/EPABy Sonia Oreffice, Professor of Economics at University of SurreyCarl Djerassi, who died recently aged 91, has been honored globally for his work.

'Steam douche' advocate Gwyneth Paltrow. More like hot air. Erprofe, CC BY-NCBy Helen King, Professor of Classical Studies at The Open University Gwyneth Paltrow stirred up an interesting discussion with her latest recommendation for the spa fan: the Mugworth V-Steam. As she put it: “You sit on what is essentially a mini-throne, and a combination of infrared and mugwort steam cleanses your uterus, et al. It is an energetic release …”

There is confusion about whether immolation is permissible under Islamic law. EPABy Jon Hoover, Associate Professor of Islamic Studies, Faculty of Arts a University of NottinghamThe killing of Jordanian pilot Moaz al-Kasasbeh by Islamic State has been explained as an act of retaliation for the air campaign against it. But there have been many questions about whether immolation is a valid form of punishment in Islamic law – and many Muslim scholars have argued that it is not.

The UK has just recorded its second outbreak of bird flu in less than three months. At the end of November, the relatively new subtype H5N8 – which was first spotted in late 2009 in China and which has since made its way westwards as far as the Netherlands – turned up in Yorkshire.

Image: Peter Hermes FurianIn 1971 Richard Nixon declared “War on Cancer” with the signing of the National Cancer Act. Significant progress has been made in the intervening 44 years – and Europe has been at the forefront of many of the advances.But on February 4, World Cancer Day, it is worth asking whether we are winning the war on a disease which affects more than 22m people annually?First, the good news – more people are surviving cancer than are dying of the disease. The recent European Cancer Registry shows that in Europe there were almost 16m cancer survivors in 2012.

Distraught Seattle Seahawks fans after their team lost the Super Bowl. Jason Redmond/ReutersBy David G. Myers, Hope College

Learning disabilities may make life more of a challenge, but a diagnosis is not a life sentence. ShutterstockBy Sue O'Neill; Iva Strnadová, and Therese M. Cumming