Mars is lovely at this time of year: futurists imagine life in 2050

From family holidays in space to robot doctors and an end to work… Four experts predict what life will be like 30 years from now

From gaslighting to gammon, 2018’s buzzwords reflect our toxic times

Oxford Dictionaries’ words of the year are products of our heightened politics, says Guardian columnist Emma Brockes

‘Philosophically speaking, we can never fully trust our memory’

Sisters Hilde and Ylva Østby, a neuropsychologist and a novelist, have written a book exploring the true nature of memory. What can their findings tell us?

Matt Haig: ‘I wanted to end it all, but surviving and thriving is the lesson I pass on’

At 24, he wanted to kill himself. Now a novelist, he teaches the readers of his books – and his children – how to get through when the future looks bleak

Don’t be a juggins – why some words deserve to fall out of use

We shouldn’t worry when a word falls into obscurity, says Sam Leith, literary editor of the Spectator

‘Gammon’ is a playground insult, not something to be celebrated

That ‘gammon’ has been named one of the words of 2018 doesn’t say much for our political discourse, says Guardian columnist Poppy Noor

I can see Odysseus lashed to the mast of this ship, struggling to resist the Sirens’ song

The eerily beautiful wreck discovered in the Black Sea takes us right back to Homer’s Greece

Blueprint by Robert Plomin review – how DNA dictates who we are

An introduction to the brave new world of personal genomics argues that it solves the puzzle of nature v nurture

Brief Answers to the Big Questions by Stephen Hawking review – God, space, AI, Brexit

This absorbing posthumous book draws on essays, lectures, speeches and the questions the physicist was so often asked

Essays reveal Stephen Hawking predicted race of ‘superhumans’

Physicist said genetic editing may create species that could destroy rest of humanity

How the ‘blues’ of polar heroes throws light on Sad syndrome

A ‘peculiar madness’ afflicted Antarctic explorers, a new book reveals. Their battles with light deprivation hold lessons for today

Life on Earth by David Attenborough review – how has science changed in 40 years?

David Attenborough influenced a generation with this fascinating survey, which is still inspiring 40 years after its first publication

How the Finnish lifestyle of getting drunk while wearing pants became the new hygge

Many of us are familiar with the idea of stripping to our pants, opening a beer and watching TV. But in Finland ‘Pantsdrunk’ has been elevated to an official activity

Climate change apathy, not denial, is the biggest threat to our planet

Now the public must be convinced to make sacrifices, says the author Leo Barasi

Myth-busting study of teenage brains wins Royal Society prize

Inventing Ourselves by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore wins £25,000 prize with investigation praised by judges as ‘truly a book that everyone should read’