WEIRD STUFF

Dogs may be dreaming

Researchers believe dogs dream about places they've been, people they've met and activities they enjoy, with the telltale movements of sleeping pets offering clues about what's going on inside their minds.

According to experts, dreaming is not uniquely human but a shared feature across many animal species.

Science writer Beki Hooper explained that advances in brain science have helped researchers move beyond guesswork.

She told BBC Wildlife magazine: "Most of us have watched a dog, cat, rat or bird twitching in their sleep and these movements are likely to indicate dreaming. But the absence of movement does not mean the absence of dreams. Many wild animals may have evolved not to move too much in their sleep in case it attracts predators."

Scientists have examined brain activity during sleep and found striking similarities between animals and humans

Hooper added: "Scientists have started looking at brain activity. When sleeping animals have brain activity that mirrors wakeful brain activity this indicates they are dreaming. By looking in detail at brain activity during sleep scientists can figure out exactly what animals are dreaming of."

Studies on rats show that while asleep they mentally revisit specific places, such as mazes they explored earlier.

Evidence suggests dogs do something similar. The Blue Cross animal welfare charity says the same brain regions involved in human dreaming also activate in dogs.

A spokesperson said: "Just like us, dogs enter different cycles throughout their sleep. Dreaming is most likely to happen in the REM - rapid eye movement - phase of sleeping."

Typical signs include paw twitching, flickering eyes, altered breathing, whimpering and tail swishing.

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Dark music has exploded

Pop music has grown steadily gloomier over the past 50 years.

Hit songs are now packed with more misery, stress and emotional pain than their chart-topping predecessors, researchers claim.

In a large-scale analysis, scientists examined the lyrics of 20,000 Billboard Top 100 songs released between 1973 and 2023, tracking how the emotional tone of popular music has shifted over time.

Their focus was on stress-related language linked to threats, negative emotions, pain and failure.

Classic feel-good anthems such as YMCA by the Village People and Michael Jackson's Man in the Mirror were compared with darker tracks including Justin Timberlake's Cry Me a River and Nine Inch Nails' The Perfect Drug.

The results suggest a clear drift away from optimism.

According to the study, published in Scientific Reports, negative words like "bad", "cry", "wrong", "miss", "kill" and "hurt" now appear far more frequently in hit lyrics than they did half a century ago. At the same time, the language used in songs has become simpler and more direct.

Study author Professor Mauricio Martins, of Vienna University, said: "Lyrics have become more stressful, more negative, and simpler.

"These findings align with increasing rates of depression, anxiety, and stress and mirror trends of rising negative tone in the news and fiction books."

The shift appears to echo broader changes in society. Polling suggests young people in Britain today are roughly twice as likely to experience mental health problems such as depression or anxiety compared with the previous generation. Researchers believe popular music may both reflect and reinforce those emotional pressures.

However, the scientists stress that pop has not become wall-to-wall despair.

Professor Martins said: "Even in recent years, many tracks are upbeat, hopeful, or lyrically rich."

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Vegan kids grow differently

Vegan children tend to be slimmer and shorter than their meat-eating peers.

Researchers from the US, Italy and Australia reviewed data from 59 studies across 18 countries, covering around 48,000 children and adolescents consuming different diets.

The findings suggest that while meat-free diets can be healthy, they may come with growth trade-offs if not carefully managed.

Overall, vegan children were found to be up to 4cm shorter than omnivores, while both vegan and vegetarian youngsters had lower body mass index (BMI) - a measure of body fat relative to height that, when too low, can signal underweight.

The team compared 7,280 vegetarians, 1,289 vegans and 40,059 omnivores. Vegetarians were on average 0.69kg lighter and 1.19cm shorter than meat-eaters, while vegans were 1.17kg lighter and 3.64cm shorter.

Plant-based diets can lack key nutrients needed for growth, including vitamin B12, calcium, iron, iodine, selenium and zinc - all of which are especially important during childhood and adolescence.

Study author Dr Wolfgang Marx, of Deakin University in Australia, said: "Well-planned vegetarian and vegan diets are nutritionally adequate and beneficial for adults. [But] there is far less clarity about their suitability for children - leading to inconsistent or even conflicting advice for parents."

He added: "Our findings suggest that a balanced approach is essential, with families paying close attention to certain nutrients - particularly vitamin B12, calcium, iodine, iron and zinc - to ensure their children get everything they need to thrive."

Co-author Professor Monica Dinu, of the University of Florence, added to the Daily Mail: "Included studies covered children and adolescents, with ages ranging from infancy to late adolescence, depending on the individual study."