Bittersweet by Susan Cain review – a mawkish manifesto for the happy-sad

The author of Quiet again bangs the drum for the world’s sensitive souls, but her unflagging earnestness is depressingly short of nuance and humour

Preventable by Devi Sridhar review – inside the fog of war on Covid

A survey of the global response to coronavirus draws together fascinating data but fails to construct a compelling narrative about the spread of the virus

Morgan Levine: ‘Only 10-30% of our lifespan is estimated to be due to genetics’

The Yale scientist explains her research into biological and chronological age – and why she’s joined a $3bn startup funded by the likes of Jeff Bezos

Sounds Wild and Broken review – a moving paean to Earth’s fraying soundtrack

David George Haskell’s often wonderful book explores the often lost frequencies of nature – heard clearly during Covid’s initial human hush

Dr Suzie Sheehy: ‘The eureka moment may come once in your career, or never’

The Australian physicist on the small victories that make lab work fulfilling, how she found forgotten female scientists to include in her first book, and why research is an investment

After my sister died I didn’t know what to do with my furious pain – but poets and horses led the way

I was heartbroken and angry but horse riding and medieval poetry revealed the quest I was on, says Clover Stroud

The big idea: should we get rid of the scientific paper?

As a format it’s slow, encourages hype, and is difficult to correct. A radical overhaul of publishing could make science better

Cathy O’Neil: ‘Big tech makes use of shame to profit from our interactions’

The mathematician and author talks about the exploitation of our feelings, cancel culture, and why she believes JK Rowling is an example of ‘punching-down shame’

Stolen Darwin journals returned to Cambridge University library

Seminal works left in pink gift bag with ‘happy Easter’ note for librarian after going missing in 2001

Books are my refuge, but I had to overcome dyslexia to write the stories I was bursting to tell

Nobody could read my writing but, desperate to conjure another world, I eventually became an author

A forensic pathologist on the legacy of lockdown: I look at death every day – let’s change the way we talk about it

The language we use to talk about death has become increasingly sanitised. It’s time for a more healthy approach

AI could decipher gaps in ancient Greek texts, say researchers

From imperial decrees to Sappho’s poems, Ithaca system can find word patterns and suggest age of text

The zoologist sticking her neck out in the battle of the sexes

Our ideas about males and females are wildly out of date, says zoologist Lucy Cooke. Here, she reveals some radical truths about the birds, the bees… and the bonobos

Mary-Frances O’Connor: ‘People struggle to understand grief, but it is a byproduct of love’

The US psychology professor talks about her new book on the experience of losing a loved one and the lessons we can learn

Bees can play soccer – 10 little-known facts about insects

If the climate crisis leads to an insect die-off, human life will be less livable – and more boring