Government plans to roll out e-petitions across the UK could offer people a real say in the democratic process, a conference has heard. The legislation to make e-petitions compulsory for all councils in the UK comes into force in April 2010. It could result in a national e-petition scheme and force Westminster to take more notice of people power, thinks...

Why do hammerhead sharks have such a famously strange-shaped head? One hypothesis is that having eyes on either side of such a wide ‘hammer’ allows the sharks to see better. But even this idea divides scientific opinion, as researchers argue over whether the hammerhead design makes it more or less difficult to see. The mystery may now be...

The threat of Chile being thrown out of the 2010 World Cup looks over after domestic club Rangers backed down in their legal battle against relegation. Chile had been warned by Fifa that their World Cup place was in jeopardy after Rangers turned to the Chilean courts to try and avoid the drop. Fifa does not approve of civil or government intervention...

Sure, everyone knows that Oprah, Shaq and Ashton Kutcher are huge on Twitter. They’re famous — they should be huge on Twitter. But Heather Armstrong? John Dickerson? Adventure Girl? These people can stroll unmolested through a paparazzi convention, and yet each has more than 1.2 million Twitter followers — enough to rank them in the...