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US court orders tobacco firms to admit lying. 28 November 2012Last updated at 01:27 GMT There has been a long debate about how adverts on smoking risks should be worded A US judge has ordered tobacco firms to pay for a public campaign laying out "past deception" over smoking risks.

US court orders tobacco firms to admit lying

The ruling sets out the wording of a series of "corrective statements" that the companies are being told to make over a period of up to two years. Details of which media will carry the statements and how much they will cost are yet to be determined. Tobacco companies can appeal against the decision. District Judge Gladys Kessler used proposals from the US justice department as the basis for the statements. Each is to be prefaced by wording that the tobacco firms had "deliberately deceived the American public about the health effects of smoking". Nile Rodgers' battle with prostate cancer. 24 November 2012Last updated at 20:06 ET Music writer and producer Nile Rodgers was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer just over two years ago.

Nile Rodgers' battle with prostate cancer

He now frequently walks the streets of New York to help his recuperation, and still blogs musings of his musical journey. BBC producer Paul McClean spent time with Nile following his footsteps. In pictures: Maker Faire Africa. Elevated indoor carbon dioxide impairs decision-making performance. Overturning decades of conventional wisdom, researchers at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have found that moderately high indoor concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) can significantly impair people’s decision-making performance.

Elevated indoor carbon dioxide impairs decision-making performance

The results were unexpected and may have particular implications for schools and other spaces with high occupant density. “In our field we have always had a dogma that CO2 itself, at the levels we find in buildings, is just not important and doesn’t have any direct impacts on people,” said Berkeley Lab scientist William Fisk, a co-author of the study, which was published in Environmental Health Perspectives online last month. “So these results, which were quite unambiguous, were surprising.” The study was conducted with researchers from State University of New York (SUNY) Upstate Medical University.

Vitamins 'may shorten your life' Research has suggested certain vitamin supplements do not extend life and could even lead to a premature death.

Vitamins 'may shorten your life'

A review of 67 studies found "no convincing evidence" that antioxidant supplements cut the risk of dying. Scientists at Copenhagen University said vitamins A and E could interfere with the body's natural defences. "Even more, beta-carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E seem to increase mortality," according to the review by the respected Cochrane Collaboration. The research involved selecting various studies from 817 on beta-carotene, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, and selenium which the team felt were the most likely to fairly reflect the impact of the supplements on reducing mortality. It has been thought that these supplements may be able to prevent damage to the body's tissues called "oxidative stress" by eliminating the molecules called "free radicals" which are said to cause it.

This damage has been implicated in several major diseases including cancer and heart disease. Vitamins may reduce cancer risk in men, study finds. 17 October 2012Last updated at 21:08 ET Are vitamins a new frontier in fighting cancer?

Vitamins may reduce cancer risk in men, study finds

Taking a daily multivitamin pill may lower the risk of developing cancer in men, US researchers have claimed. Their study followed nearly 15,000 men, aged over 50, for more than a decade. The findings, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, reported a small reduction in cancer cases in men taking vitamin pills. Creativity 'closely entwined with mental illness' 17 October 2012Last updated at 06:49 GMT By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online Novelist Virginia Woolf killed herself Creativity is often part of a mental illness, with writers particularly susceptible, according to a study of more than a million people.

Creativity 'closely entwined with mental illness'

Writers had a higher risk of anxiety and bipolar disorders, schizophrenia, unipolar depression, and substance abuse, the Swedish researchers at the Karolinska Institute found. They were almost twice as likely as the general population to kill themselves. The dancers and photographers were also more likely to have bipolar disorder.

Continue reading the main story. New human species identified from Kenya fossils. 8 August 2012Last updated at 13:06 ET By Pallab Ghosh Science correspondent, BBC News A new species of human: One of several co-existing in Africa two million years ago Researchers studying fossils from northern Kenya have identified a new species of human that lived two million years ago.

New human species identified from Kenya fossils

The discoveries suggests that at least three distinct species of humans co-existed in Africa. The research adds to a growing body of evidence that runs counter to the popular perception that there was a linear evolution from early primates to modern humans. The research has been published in the journal Nature. Japan invents speech-jamming gun that silences people mid-sentence. BBC - Earth News - Promiscuous apes shout about sex. Go Figure: What bananas tell us about radiation. 13 October 2011Last updated at 12:30 By Michael Blastland GO FIGURE - Seeing stats in a different way There's been concern about radiation after damage to Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant in March and now a hot spot has been detected in Tokyo. But how do we think of radiation in ordinary terms, asks Michael Blastland in his regular column.

Freaky, isn't it, radiation? Invisible, baffling, harmful (bombs) and helpful (X-rays) or both (nuclear power). Ocean trench: Take a dive 11,000m down. Icy cold, pitch black and with crushing pressures - the deepest part of the ocean is one of the most hostile places on the planet.

Ocean trench: Take a dive 11,000m down

Only three explorers have made the epic journey there: 11km (seven miles) down to the bottom of the Pacific Ocean's Mariana Trench. Deepwater Oil Drilling Returns to Gulf and Grows as Blast Fades. CES 2013: Looking beyond 4k to the TVs of the future. 9 January 2013Last updated at 19:20 ET By Leo Kelion Technology reporter, Las Vegas.

CES 2013: Looking beyond 4k to the TVs of the future