There was a time when we thought humans were special in so many ways. Now we know better. We are not the only species that feels emotions, empathises with others or abides by a moral code. Neither are we the only ones with personalities, cultures and the ability to design and use tools. Yet we have steadfastly clung to the notion that one attribute, at least, makes us unique: we alone have the capacity for language. Alas, it turns out we are not so special in this respect either.

"Layard is quietly effecting a revolution in this miserable, materialistic, overworked country. A Labour peer since 2000, he has been able to influence first Blair's administration and then Brown's into making his happiness agenda government policy. His calls for cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), for school lessons in emotional intelligence, and other allegedly happiness-causing reforms have been greeted warmly by education secretary Ed Balls, health secretary Alan Johnson, the health guideline-setting National Institute for Clinical Excellence and by local authorities up and down the country. Layard is founder director of the Centre for Economic Performance at the London School of Economics, and runs its Well-Being programme. He speaks cheerfully of how the word "well-being" now figures in job titles at government departments, how the new government policy includes commitments to well-being, how the Office for National Statistics is developing the measurement of well-being, how Ed Balls's Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning programme is devoted to making secondary school children focused on well-being."

Two types of thought processes that drive motivated behaviour are controlled by different parts of the brain suggests a study in tomorrow's Nature. An imbalance of these two factors is common in neuropsychiatric disorders such as drug addiction and eating disorders, in which responding to general feelings, such as the satisfaction of delicious fast food, may directly contradict desires for the current outcome. By teasing apart the mechanisms for the two processes, this study points to a possible cause for this imbalance.

Nicholas Carr argues in his most recent article in the Atlantic that the Internet is beginning to have a profound impact on reading skills which has an accompanying negative consequence for deep thinking and cognition.