The teenage me didn't aspire for much in a material sense but if pushed, I knew what I'd have wanted when I grew up - a fast car and a room full of CDs. Cars and music, so far so predictable. But now I can finally afford such things, how...

An interesting piece of research caught my eye this week - Dr Stephann Makri from the University College London is investigating the nature of serendipity in his project SerenA - chance encounters in the space of ideas. His plan is to collect people's stories of serendipity so his team can...

A meeting appeared in my diary this week that mystified me - it indicated that someone whose name I didn't recognise was going to turn up in my office to discuss something simply but obliquely headed "Reward". A few stalker-like clicks on the intranet revealed the person in question to...

As we dream of 'fulfilment' in our working lives, we'd do well to bear in mind that in Samuel Johnson's widely acclaimed Dictionary, published in 1755, the word doesn't even make an appearance. Now, 10 generations or so later, we've reached a point where personal fulfilment is so crucial that...