You may think you know Google, but here are lesser-known tools that can help journalists with everything from reporting on natural disasters to hunting for new sources.

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Good to see: "Official: UK's green goods and services grew £5.4bn last year http://t.co/hlGm2UIM" #econdev

Splitting facts from analysis would be where I'd start... "News articles as assets and paths http://t.co/jSA6Saw2"

@ Breakin' Conventions :) (@ Lyceum Theatre) [pic]: http://t.co/8BdFs6MV

RT @mala: (what everyone should visualise when Google Glasses is mentioned): http://t.co/S3bxzcAA < Howdy PKD... /cc @NEDymond

Thoroughly enjoying Toots and the Maytals: Reggae Got Soul on BBC Four :) #zeebox http://t.co/R6KSFNhO

RT @jjn1: “@jayrosen_nyu After Facebook fails by @dsearls is unmissable if you study the web. http://t.co/hWNt4sPm” Agreed: unmissable.

RT @PKNSheff: #MADEFestival launch
2012 is going up another level: 3,000 businesses.
The #Festival Party will be off the hook too! http: ...

Didn't expect to find myself in the same room as Nick Clegg today.. (@ Irwin Mitchell) [pic]: http://t.co/GBthQ934

@chrisdymond Adventure game bundle for $3: http://t.co/soKZhoE7
– Nick Dymond (NEDymond) http://twitter.com/NEDymond/status/205378978003943424

Wednesday morning inspiration: Neil Gaiman says "make good art" - http://t.co/JKDi6O1n

Fyi @saulcozens @graphiclunarkid "The aspatial city http://t.co/ty2yBX3N"

Use ad space to tell me about live conversations i'm interested in!! "The Facebook Fallacy - Technology Review http://t.co/Jo6kGEHx"

Zuck must be *steaming*!! "EXCLUSIVE: Here's The Inside Story Of What Happened On The Facebook IPO http://t.co/hbASQhd1"

@chrisdymond: Enjoyed reading this - very insightful: "Why Silicon Valley's economy isn't creating more jobs - http://t.co/EOQybxuU" #cdiscr #econdev

RT @wikileaks: WikiLeaks announces new 'encrypted Facebook' http://t.co/O6lEoSBh #fowl

RT @RavBhagdev: Unified social graph, San Francisco-based 'Ark' http://t.co/09dlON5G <scary *and* useful! ;)

And to think this is happening in my lifetime... "Book GP visit online 'by 2015' http://t.co/TWZUDmlK"

@keeftango @saulcozens @digikev @edgoring Reminds me a bit of this: http://t.co/SM3SXa3h (I've got one - shall i bring it in..? ;)

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RT @TEDxSheffield: Hi All. Next block of tickets go on sale 12 noon, Tuesday, 22 May.. http://t.co/D960HQvc #Sheffield RTs please?

Divorce makes it look like we're outliving our capacity to love. But chemical tweaks might help keep love alive

These days, hoteliers take a dim view of guests who smash up their rooms. But in 1850, as Orson Fowler travelled through Milton, Wisconsin, he stayed at the newly built Milton House inn, whose proprietor delighted in inviting guests to take a sledgehammer to the walls for 6 cents a swing. Intrigued, Fowler hefted a hammer and swung hard. It bounced harmlessly off the wall. The inn, it turned out, was built of concrete. This, Fowler decided, was the perfect material for the prototype house of the future that he was building back home: to his mind, modern housing should be both cheap and indestructible. The most important of all, however, was a home's shape. For Fowler, only one shape guaranteed a better way of living - the octagon.

The idea is simple. Instead of disappearing under mountains of our own waste, while paying through the nose for diminishing commodities, why not dig up and recycle what we have already thrown away?

Yet some brains are that little bit more remarkable than others. Why do the most gifted and talented brains stand out from the crowd? Is there anything physical or physiological that sets them apart? Here we take a look at some outstanding grey matter, and ask what brains are like at the outer limits of human achievement.

A growing band of experts are looking at figures like these and arguing that personal carbon virtue and collective environmentalism are futile as long as our economic system is built on the assumption of growth. The science tells us that if we are serious about saving Earth, we must reshape our economy.

This has led some to claim that science - and its handmaiden, technology - are changing so fast that it is impossible for science fiction to keep up. In the past, science fiction notably failed to predict the transistor, whose year-on-year miniaturisation has enabled computers to conquer the modern world. In the future, goes the argument, it is going to be even harder for science fiction writers to predict the technological developments which will transform our lives. Science fiction, claim the doomsayers, is dead - or, if not dead, in terminal decline.

A new generation of experiments might shore up the cosmic orthodoxy - or blow it out of the water. That unexpected alternative, some people go so far as to say, might be no bad thing at all.

WANTED: Rocky planet outside of our solar system. Must not be too hot or too cold, but just the right temperature to support life.

It sounds like a simple enough wish list, but finding a planet that fulfils all of these criteria has kept astronomers busy for decades. Until recently, it meant finding a planet in the "Goldilocks zone" - orbiting its star at just the right distance to keep surface water liquid rather than being boiled off or frozen solid.

"I HAVEN'T paid an electricity bill since 1970," says Richard Perez with noticeable glee. He can afford to be smug. While most of us fretted over soaring utility bills this year, he barely noticed. Nor is he particularly concerned about forecast price hikes of 30 to 50 per cent in 2009...

Autistic savant Daniel Tammet shot to fame when he set a European record for the number of digits of pi he recited from memory (22,514). For afters, he learned Icelandic in a week. But unlike many savants, he's able to tell us how he does it. We could all unleash extraordinary mental abilities by getting inside the savant mind, he tells Celeste Biever

Welcome to the stressful world of dyscalculia, where numbers rule because inhabitants are continually trying to avoid situations in which they have to perform even basic calculations. Despite affecting about 5 per cent of people - roughly the same proportion as are dyslexic - dyscalculia has long been neglected by science, and people with it incorrectly labelled as stupid. Now, though, researchers are starting to get to the root of the problem, bringing hope that dyscalculic children will start to get specialist help just as youngsters with dyslexia do.

IN JULY 1837, Charles Darwin had a flash of inspiration. In his study at his house in London, he turned to a new page in his red leather notebook and wrote, "I think". Then he drew a spindly sketch of a tree.

Crystal-ball gazing is a fraught endeavour, but we've decided to take the plunge. In this special feature, we assess the prospects of 10 of the coolest gadgets that in 30 years' time may change our lives as much - or maybe more - than cellphones, iPods and the internet.

What are the biggest gaps in evolutionary theory?

WHILE many institutions collapsed during the Great Depression that began in 1929, one kind did rather well. During this leanest of times, the strictest, most authoritarian churches saw a surge in attendance.

This anomaly was documented in the early 1970s, but only now is science beginning to tell us why. It turns out that human beings have a natural inclination for religious belief, especially during hard times.

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The idea that a person's character can be glimpsed in their face dates back to the ancient Greeks. It was most famously popularised in the late 18th century by the Swiss poet Johann Lavater, whose ideas became a talking point in intellectual circles. In Darwin's day, they were more or less taken as given. It was only after the subject became associated with phrenology, which fell into disrepute in the late 19th century, that physiognomy was written off as pseudoscience.

TAKE anyone with a psychiatric disorder and the chances are they don't sleep well. The result of their illness, you might think. Now this long-standing assumption is being turned on its head, with the radical suggestion that poor sleep might actually cause some psychiatric illnesses or lead people to behave in ways that doctors mistake for mental problems.

We have created a monster. Financial markets have grown so complex that neither intuition nor standard economic models can get to grips with them. So what's to be done to avoid a repeat of the financial disasters of the past couple of years?

In the following pages, Mark Buchanan looks at some of the creative ideas being explored to tame the markets, not just by economists, but by physicists, engineers, biologists and others. What does science have to say - and will anyone listen?

A small but growing coterie of evolutionary biologists argue that it leaves us blind to crucial evolutionary processes at higher scales - among groups, species and even whole ecosystem. If they are right, the popular view of evolution and the biological world needs a radical shake-up.

This is where international relations theory & technology meet: "Digital may be next 'manifest destiny' for America http://t.co/nyGw3r59"

@chrisdymond http://t.co/oW6XAO4q
– onlinefn5 (onlinefn5) http://twitter.com/onlinefn5/status/204047107190046720

This is a great bit of entrepreneurship from a 14 year old kid! "ManCans http://t.co/8pLgnRQg"

Is it really impossible to escape the matrix? "Online friendships light up shadow social networks - http://t.co/tPUkEelo"

Just found out the Opportunity Rover woke up from hibernation last week & is rolling again :) http://t.co/YlgK3sF7

Our grandchildren's Internet is toddling..."Teleportation record heralds secure global network - http://t.co/IurdJj7s"

In a sketching workshop with Candy Diemer :) (@ Technophobia Ltd w/ 2 others) [pic]: http://t.co/yFN9gwmv

Tickets for TEDxSheffield on Tuesday the 12th June are now on sale here: http://t.co/eKlvPVvX - get 'em while they're hot! #TEDxSHF

RT @TEDxSheffield: The first 50 tickets for TEDxSheffield, 12th June, Crucible Studio go onsale today at noon.. http://t.co/VMcrMUhK

@chrisdymond http://t.co/JZ1eLHc2
– Darcy Sosebee (Darcyfmo83mm) http://twitter.com/Darcyfmo83mm/status/203032630017523712

RT @kevinmarks: Programming is part of cultural context now. This is a good thing: http://t.co/OIYxV6LD

So not too controversial then, too *partisan*. Curation is about balance. "Too Hot for TED: Income Inequality http://t.co/Em1XWLYJ"

Well I never... "Early school entry 'detrimental' http://t.co/Ipebh0Ul"

RT @evgenymorozov: Plumb or be plumbed! http://t.co/Xw2bP8p1

My kids rarely choose picture books over games... "Children’s publishers join forces online - FT" http://t.co/mKnAxCzj

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@Jagusti look what's on the telly ;) http://t.co/intKFEU9

RT @jamesjefferies: I do think this sounds great - http://t.co/5h9EvNQl < I do too :)

Getting ready for Pecha Kucha #10 - in the bloomin' cathedral! :) (@ Sheffield Cathedral w/ 3 others) [pic]: http://t.co/s2MNp6Le

@chrisdymond My mistake. It is not a Paperback but a new version http://t.co/JygdFtNv not out until September though. Get the original.
– Aden Davies (aden_76) http://twitter.com/aden_76/status/200610764703281153

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RT @RenaudGuerin: Facebook launches its App Store, huge deal ! https://t.co/zwtSAYxl

This is what engagement looks like :) #instapaper http://t.co/zVOz5nBD

Let's see if 'growth over austerity' govs tackle this... "Where are the jobs? Ask the patent trolls. http://t.co/Ht8tY4JS"

Not just me then :) "Washington Post writer turns Benedict Cumberbatch into ‘Bandersnatch Cummerbund’ http://t.co/VSRBSW0F"

RIP Maurice Sendak - thank you!! http://t.co/OOryClwT

RT @herbkim: Another year, another @ThinkingDigital, another set of amazing people. Thank you Higher Powers :'-) http://t.co/nB7S6Vjm #TDC12

RT @Nico_Macdonald: Speakers @ThinkingDigital conference, 29–31/5 (Gateshead), inc. @rbanks @Sugatam @alansmlxl and @wonderlandblog http ...

Stay classy American Airlines... "The frequent fliers who flew too much http://t.co/nQPGOlub"

As long as 'add up to something' means enhancing lives not a $1t market cap, they'll be fine.. "Apple's induction note http://t.co/5flIPr6e"

It was born 40 years ago, in a lab at the University of California, Los Angeles. Today it wraps the entire planet and features in the daily routine of more than 1.5 billion people. Of course, it's easy to take the internet for granted and forget that it's very much a work in progress. So what forces are shaping it, how big has it grown, and will it ever evolve a mind of its own? To find out, New Scientist posed eight simple questions.

For inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, being human with limited intelligence and doomed biology was never good enough. So he came up with an idea called the Singularity - a time when humans merge with machines, become smart and live forever. From MIT to the White House, people either hate the idea or can't wait for it to happen. So, asks Liz Else, will any of us live long enough to see it?

New Scientist brings you five of the most interesting future-movers and shapers.

It's hard to stay upbeat when your penny-pinching bosses are counting paper clips, but here's some good news: workplace discontent may just be a vast,

Why are people so mean to others for no apparent reason? Perhaps it's because a little spite helps make society fairer

Savants have phenomenal talents in music, art and mathematics, but their brains are not fundamentally different from the rest of society – can we all unlock the potential?