A bouquet of flowers can indeed have a powerful impact on romance, scientists have found. Psychologists have discovered that the presence of flowers make women significantly more receptive to men’s advances, even when the flowers are in the background rather than presented as a gift, the Telegraph reported. The findings prove that flowers can play a major role on making love blossom, suggesting that the Bard was right all along. A team of psychologists from the University of South Brittany in France found that young women shopping on their own are >>>

I’ve long argued that the eurocrats have a very poor grasp of market psychology. And the contribution of Richard Corbett, an adviser to European Council president Herman Van Rompuy, on Newsnight last night reinforced me in this opinion. Mr Corbett was asked by Jeremy Paxman where the money for the forthcoming Spanish bailout will come from. His answer, here at about 11.08 minutes in: “It’s from the EFSF, as it’s called, the European Financial Stabilisation Fund [sic], which was set up a couple of years ago. It’s a tool that didn’t exist before this crisis. Now the European Union, >>>

And those who self-define as “conservatives” tend to prize order, tradition and certainty, as well as being suspicious of novel ideas and more distrustful of difference – at the extreme, they are psychologically “authoritarian” and inclined to view the world in black and white. Can these fundamental ideological differences have any basis in biology? If so, this would mean a radical rethink of how we view humans as political animals – and give pause for thought for those who dismiss their political opponents as irrational, stupid or even evil. Recent research conducted >>>