Vanilla has been crowned the world’s favourite smell by a team of international experts. Scientists from the University of Oxford and the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm presented ten scents, including sweaty feet, decaying fish and rose, to 235 people from nine different cultures around the world, including hunter-gatherers in the south-east Asian rainforest. Joining vanilla in the top three most popular scents was the smell of peaches and lavender, said The Daily Telegraph.
John Travolta goes to Wetherspoons
John Travolta surprised locals in Norfolk by popping into a Wetherspoons. The Hollywood star, who is believed to be filming nearby, was spotted at the Romany Rye in Dereham, enjoying burgers and pizza with two friends. He then went shopping at a nearby Morrisons store where he bought steak and other groceries. “Dereham doesn’t usually play host to some of the most famous Hollywood stars on the planet,” a local told The Times.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Builder fired after poo throwing
A construction worker in Ireland has been fired after throwing a bag of his own poo from a crane onto the side of a building. In a video of the incident, which took place in Dublin, the man jokes about “the joys of being a crane driver” before dropping a full bag of faeces over the side of a crane onto a building below, where it explodes. A spokesperson for the building management company told the Daily Star that the incident was “highly regrettable”.
-
Nasa’s new dark matter mapUnder the Radar High-resolution images may help scientists understand the ‘gravitational scaffolding into which everything else falls and is built into galaxies’
-
Is the US about to lose its measles elimination status?Today's Big Question Cases are skyrocketing
-
‘No one is exempt from responsibility, and especially not elite sport circuits’Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
Israel retrieves final hostage’s body from GazaSpeed Read The 24-year-old police officer was killed during the initial Hamas attack
-
China’s Xi targets top general in growing purgeSpeed Read Zhang Youxia is being investigated over ‘grave violations’ of the law
-
Panama and Canada are negotiating over a crucial copper mineIn the Spotlight Panama is set to make a final decision on the mine this summer
-
Why Greenland’s natural resources are nearly impossible to mineThe Explainer The country’s natural landscape makes the task extremely difficult
-
Iran cuts internet as protests escalateSpeed Reada Government buildings across the country have been set on fire
-
US nabs ‘shadow’ tanker claimed by RussiaSpeed Read The ship was one of two vessels seized by the US military
-
How Bulgaria’s government fell amid mass protestsThe Explainer The country’s prime minister resigned as part of the fallout
-
Femicide: Italy’s newest crimeThe Explainer Landmark law to criminalise murder of a woman as an ‘act of hatred’ or ‘subjugation’ but critics say Italy is still deeply patriarchal
