This year marks the 110th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. TOM GALLAHUE and ROBERT POOLE from Educators for a United Ireland discuss the role played by the Irish diaspora, and why the Rising remains relevant today
SCIENTISTS are suckers for stories of discovery. In 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick went for a drink in The Eagle pub in Cambridge after having worked out their model of the DNA double helix.
According to Watson, Crick announced to the other bemused drinkers: “We have found the secret of life.”
A great story — except that, according to Crick, he never said it. But the story became so memorable that it stuck.
RICHARD SHILLCOCK examines an enjoyable, but philosophically conventional book, and urges Marxists to employ their capacity to embrace the totality in any explanation
JOHN GREEN’s palate is tickled by useful information leavened by amusing and unusual anecdotes, incidental gossip and scare stories
New research into mutations in sperm helps us better understand why they occur, while debunking a few myths in the process, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
A maverick’s self-inflicted snake bites could unlock breakthrough treatments – but they also reveal deeper tensions between noble scientific curiosity and cold corporate callousness, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT



