Do you really know?

The Scottish have a long history of cultural and political ties with Scandinavia, dating back to the Viking era. Many Scottish place names, words, and traditions have Nordic origins. For example, the word loch comes from the Old Norse word for lake, and the kilt is similar to the plaid worn by the Norsemen...

According to the British Coffee Association, we drink around 98 million cups of coffee per day in the UK. That’s around one and a half cups for every single person in the country! It’s said that drinking coffee in the evening or even late afternoon has a negative impact on sleep quality, but a lot of people do so anyway. Coffee contains various molecules, such as antioxidants and caffeine, which has a psychostimulant effect and is therefore behind the links to disrupting sleep...

In the period from 2018 to 2020, the life expectancy at birth for women in the UK was 82.9 years, while it was just 79 for men. That’s according to data from the Office of National Statistics. And that disparity is a common trend across various countries and even among certain other species of mammals, like great apes. There certainly are, and they span both biological and behavioral factors. Dr...

According to a 2014 study by the Pew Research Center, people in wealthier countries are happier on average, but only up to a point. Even in so-called "emerging" countries like Indonesia, Pakistan and Turkey, there was a correlation between rising wealth levels and the percentage of happy people. Interestingly though, in well-off nations, people don't necessarily attribute their happiness directly to money...

Vitamin D is known as the ‘sunshine vitamin’, and it’s not for nothing. Our bodies make it from cholesterol when exposed to sunlight. The sun’s ultraviolet B rays hit cholesterol in the skin cells, providing the energy needed for vitamin D synthesis to occur. Naturally, during autumn and winter, there’s less sunlight and government advice suggests that everyone should consider taking Vitamin D supplements during these seasons...

The microwave first emerged in the 1950s and has since become a common fixture in kitchens worldwide. 2018 data from Statista showed that 93% of UK household now own a microwave, with that figure also being over 90% in the United States according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.  Love it or hate it; you can’t deny that it’s hard to beat the microwave for convenience when it comes to quickly reheating food...

The world of cinema is full of films and sagas which leave their mark on a generation, sometimes becoming cult films. And another phenomenon is becoming more and more common: that of the spin off. Spin-off films involve the creation of a new work based on the original, focusing on the story of a secondary character. There are a number of reasons why directors and screenwriters have chosen to carry out such projects...

In this day and age, it’s common to feel stressed every day, even right through to the evening. Have you ever struggled to lower your stress levels when it comes to bedtime, and taken a long while to fall asleep as a result? The worry of not getting enough sleep then just gets you even more frustrated; it’s a vicious circle...

The Green Belt is a policy for controlling urban growth in the United Kingdom. It refers to a ring of countryside where urbanisation will be resisted for the foreseeable future, maintaining an area where local food growing, forestry and outdoor leisure can be expected to prevail. The Green Belt policy was first introduced in 1935 by the Greater London Regional Planning Committee, and now covers 14 areas of land around the 16 largest urban cores of England...

We all know that having sex is a great form of stress relief. It releases pleasure hormones, like endorphins and oxytocin, also reinforcing the cardiovascular and immune systems. But slow sex may be a way of further enhancing pleasure and allowing you to fully savor the multi-sensory experience that is good sex. It doesn’t have to be a race to the finish line! First of all, it’s a bit of a leveller between men and women in a heterosexual relationship...