You wear it well

Gwyneth Paltrow and Julia Roberts have donned 'fat suits' for recent film roles. But what do real overweight women think of their on-screen portrayal, asks Rachel Shabi

For gaming, read learning

Do the hours kids spend playing computer games teach them anything useful? Jack Schofield tracks downs some answers.

A dream dies

On the 50th anniversary of the first commercial mainframe, Guy Kewney laments its disappearance

Christie was film pioneer

A British Museum curator has discovered a reel of film shot by Agatha Christie that inspired the author to write some of her most famous detective novels, including Death on the Nile.

Another fine mess

Bob Monkhouse is a self-confessed Laurel and Hardy obsessive, but can he have too much of Simon Louvish's Stan and Ollie?

Mae’s dark secret

Jill Watts's biography of Mae West puts a surprisingly different complexion on a screen legend

A spliff, a glass and Bob’s your uncle

Lee Server's style veers between the lofty and the tabloid in his biography of Robert Mitchum

I robot

Kevin Warwick is Professor of Cybernetics at Reading University

Coming soon to a planet near you

Astronomers cannot be sure there is no asteroid impact due soon, says Duncan Steel