In the news

Police say 13 people are in critical condition after two trains collide head-on in Dutch city's western district of Sloterdijk

Airline owner is banned from leaving country after crash during stormy weather outside Islamabad

Shift workers getting too little sleep at the wrong time of day may be increasing their risk of diabetes and obesity, according to researchers.

Steve Mahan, who is legally blind, gets behind the wheel of a Google self-driving car to test out the possibilities of the technology.

British soldiers' uniforms could soon use electrically conducting yarn woven directly into the clothing, replacing cumbersome batteries and cabling.

A forensic science firm which wrongly linked the DNA of a Devon man to the rape of a woman in Manchester has said the blunder was down to human error.

Vibrating magnetic tattoos may one day be used to alert mobile phone users to phone calls and text messages if Nokia follows up a patent application.

Training should refocus on manual flying expertise to avoid 'automation dependency,' experts say

For James Dyson it's the Mini, for Ron Arad it's the Anglepoise lamp and for Barbara Hulanicki it's one of Dyson's own creations… As the V&A launches a retrospective, six of Britain's most creative minds choose their favourite object

To err is human, but to admit that error can be a powerful tool in the pursuit of air safety.

The emergency department at Belfast's Royal Victoria Hospital has come under such pressure recently that the system has been "pushed to its limits", a health chief has said.

Dr Robert Bennett Bean took the measure of his fellow men almost fanatically. Women, too. He measured the parts, then published the copious details, and sometimes pictures, for all to see.

The future of the Iris Recognition Immigration System (Iris), which has been criticised for adding to delays rather than cutting queues, is being reviewed and the system has already been scrapped at both Manchester and Birmingham airports.

Investigators blame human error for zoo's first fatal animal attack in 50 years

Drivers who use cannabis up to three hours before driving are twice as likely to cause a collision as those not under the influence of drugs or alcohol, says a Canadian study.

Policy could benefit good drivers who install performance tracking device

Survey of how parents control children's access to adult media also finds 40% of kids allowed to watch films above age limit

Britain's railways are at the bottom of the league for fares, efficiency and comfort compared with other European countries, according to a union-commissioned study.

The Times is right and Boris Johnson is wrong – our roads must be made safer to encourage more cyclists on to them

When it comes to moving people around in healthy ways, New York City already has a leg up on most cities and towns around the country.

Facebook and Spotify automatically want to share my every waking action, so that I'm like a character in The Sims. Hover the cursor over my head and watch that stat feed scroll

A growing desire for healthy lives has created markets across the world for new types of technology that help people deal with ageing, stress and pain

Cramped, claustrophobic working environments stifle employees' creativity and means they have fewer 'lightbulb' moments of inspiration, research shows.

Business leaders at some of Britain's biggest engineering companies have warned the Government is compounding major skills shortages in the industry and hampering efforts to rebalance the economy following plans to downgrade technical qualifications.

Finally, we're all going to be able to have a proper conversation with a robot

Driving Standards Agency says blocking pre-published study material mean drivers will gain better understanding of the road

THESE days, when a nursing student at the University of Iowa fields a question about a drug, “the answer is often, ‘I don’t know, but give me a few seconds,’ and she pulls out her phone,” according to Joann Eland, an associate professor there.

Is city driving more dangerous than country driving? It's a much harder question than you think, writes Michael Blastland.

A French court has found the British low-cost airline Easyjet guilty of discriminating against three disabled passengers in 2008 and 2009.

The Costa Concordia is the latest in a series of major disasters at sea since the Titanic sank 100 years ago

As icy seawater began to swamp the Costa Concordia, passengers desperately scrambled down ropes to safety

What is deja vu? And why do we sometimes enter a room only to forget why we're there? Christian Jarrett explains the science behind common memory misfits

At least three people are reported dead and more than 4,000 are being evacuated after the Costa Concordia ran aground

Firms have been urged to encourage their staff to literally switch off when they finish work after new research showed that constantly checking smartphones and other gadgets for emails and messages increased stress levels.

Smartphones are so addictive many users now hear "phantom vibrations" because they are desperate to receive new messages, a study has found.

The latest breakthrough in home technology is a fridge which orders your food online, offers up recipe ideas, then switches the oven on for you. Susie Steiner is not convinced

If you are due to have an operation, it might be worth checking the age of your surgeon beforehand, say researchers who claim age influences acumen.

Poor-quality training and 'sausage factory' courses leave companies struggling to recruit computer-literate workers

The problems caused when lorry and car drivers are misdirected by out-of-date directions from their sat-navs are to be tackled at a government summit.

Cameron's plans to 'kill off the health and safety culture' don't sit well with a report that he himself commissioned

Hospitals and doctors’ offices, hoping to curb medical error, have invested heavily to put computers, smartphones and other devices into the hands of medical staff for instant access to patient data, drug information and case studies.

Farming is the deadliest job in New Zealand, claiming a life every three weeks on average.

Alvaro Cassinelli explains how 'invoked computing' can turn everyday objects into communications devices

Jonathan Ive, Apple's head of design, has been awarded a knighthood in the New Year Honours list.

A free helpline for whistleblowers in the NHS and social services is to be launched on Sunday.

The Chinese government was accused of finding "scape goats" on Wednesday for the bullet train crash that killed 40 people in July after an official report blamed design flaws and sloppy safety procedures.

A promising new technology from Tokyo-based Senseg may change the way we interact with displays

The explosion at a nuclear plant in Japan in March caused concern around the world. Germany shut down its reactors, but the energy debate heated up in Britain

Capturing photos and videos while out and about has become so ubiquitous that a recent study tags smartphones with shooting more than 25 percent of all pictures taken by U.S. consumers.

Why do some people experience the symptoms of motion nausea after just 30 minutes of gaming activity?

More than 100 people have died in the past six years as a result of problematic alarms on ventilators, which are designed to beep warnings to caregivers when something goes wrong with the machine or the patient’s breathing.

The Design Museum has added a motorway sign to its collection. So is British road signage a design classic?

Professor Paul Seedhouse explains his talking kitchen, a new way to learn languages using motion sensor technology

The head of one of Europe's largest information technology services companies is to ban staff from sending each other emails, saying they waste time and are outdated.

The Lofstedt Review aimed at tackling needless rules and regulations would restore common sense to the workplace.

Rail operator to be prosecuted after two girls hit by express train on level crossing in Essex in 2005

Apple's voice-controlled 'personal assistant' Siri has got everyone talking (in more ways than one). Is this just the start of a computer revolution?

New Zealand has failed to learn from disasters such as Cave Creek and Mt Erebus in preventing tragedies, the Pike River inquiry has heard.

The Prime Minister said yesterday that he wanted children to dream about becoming engineers and welcomed the establishment of a new £1m prize for engineers who have done most to benefit humanity.

The technology has improved and simplified allowing recycled materials to be used for print purposes

Called the world's most important psychologist, Daniel Kahneman inspired the trend for pop-psychology books, won a Nobel in economics and has devoted his life to studying the logic of irrationality

David Willetts claims there is a new generation of stay-at-home fathers.

THE National e-Health Transition Authority insists that after two years in operation, the work of its clinical safety unit is "fully embedded" into all areas of software product development. Patient safety is emerging as a key risk as the adoption of clinical information systems accelerates.

AU: Human error and drug-seeking behaviour had contributed to drug overdoses and medication errors in the Alexander Maconochie Centre, ACT Health senior executive Tina Bracher said last night.

Research by the CIPD shows 'beyond any doubt' that concerns over the impact of extending flexible working were unfounded

A study found serious usability flaws in tools built to help users opt-out from online tracking.

MICROSOFT co-founder Bill Gates recently described universities as an endangered species. The university's traditional role as creator, curator and distributor of knowledge is under direct threat from the internet, he said.

Why do Wall Street traders have such faith in their powers of prediction, when their success is largely down to chance? Daniel Kahneman explains how cognitive illusions skew our thinking

More employers are adopting virtual work simulations to identify character attributes a CV cannot convey. George Anders reveals what's behind the recruitment obstacle courses

Apple has been granted a patent on unlocking a smartphone or tablet using a touchscreen gesture.

The man known as the "godfather" of the iPod has invested his energy in a home appliance: a thermostat.

More than three-quarters of UK viewers now use other media while watching TV, a new survey suggests. We look at how X Factor and Strictly Come Dancing have become mainstays of tweeting and online commentary.

Jaguar has recalled almost 18,000 cars over fears the vehicles' cruise control cannot be switched off.

Siri, the voice-driven assistant on Apple's new iPhone 4S, poses a security risk according to Sophos, which has pointed out that its default setting would allow it to be used to send emails and texts even while the screen is locked with a passcode.

We stage mock crashes to see how apparently minor mistakes in fitting car seats can lead to terrible results

Four reported survivors including two pilots after Airlines PNG Dash 8 plane comes down in forest near Madang

A car which stops itself instead of crashing and one which can tell if you're about to have a heart attack. These, apparently, are what we can expect to be driving in the future.

Accidents dropped by 40 per cent in Abu Dhabi and 20 per cent in Dubai the past week due to a disruption of BlackBerry services.

The captain of a cargo ship that has grounded off New Zealand and is leaking oil into the sea has been arrested and charged, officials say.

Dutch National Railways is introducing emergency plastic bags for passengers to urinate in as part of its first-aid provision on some commuter trains.

BEIJING: Human error was responsible for a subway crash in Shanghai last week that injured more than 290 people, and 12 people have been punished, the official New China News Agency reported.

CANADA: Local planners doing good job, urban design consultant says.

"Guilty" crowed the headline. And the article continued, in heart-wrenching detail, to describe how Amanda Knox lost the appeal against her conviction for the murder and sexual assault of British student Meredith Kercher. It was sadly riveting. It was also wrong.

The internet has changed the way we view our homes – and offers another virtual one online

At least 30 soldiers killed in evening bombing on abandoned school used as shelter by army's 119th Brigade

Sensors could collect visible, radio and thermal radiation to understand what activities occur when

Empathy makes you more aware of other people’s suffering, but it’s not clear it actually motivates you to take moral action or prevents you from taking immoral action.

A study of the impact of 3D in the classroom has found that it improves test results by an average of 17%.

Transport secretary to announce proposed increase in speed limit from 70mph to 80mph at Tory conference

ITV has apologised after footage it said was from an IRA propaganda video was in fact from a computer game.

Young people today would rather have the latest smartphone than a flashy car. And the number of them who can drive is plummeting. Is Britain's love-affair with the car really over?

A nuclear accident anywhere has the potential to be a nuclear accident everywhere. That is why it is encouraging that the United Nations this week is examining the lessons and implications of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant in Japan, the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl in 1986.

German industrial and engineering conglomerate Siemens is to withdraw entirely from the nuclear industry.

If you're a deskbound office worker, your health could be at serious risk, experts say. MyHealthNewsDaily offers a six-point strategy to reduce your risks without losing your job.

Hospital staff in Wales have been told they can no longer wear Croc-style sandals while at work due to safety fears. There are concerns the rubber footwear does not offer sufficient protection against sharp objects such as needles.

Insurers are turning to telematics to reduce premiums and encourage people to drive more safely. Matthew Wall explains.

Moves to keep up with 'express train' of life expectancy could mean retirement age rising to 67 as early as 2026

Active head restraints, adaptive cruise control, antilock brakes, backover warning devices, breathalyzer ignition locks, daytime running lights, fatigue warning methods, lane departure warning systems, roof strengthening for rollover prevention, smarter seat belts, telematics, traction control, tire pressure monitoring, and even driverless pod cars and automated highways are concepts and innovations that could make taking the wheel less dangerous. A brief look at some of these devices follows.

Fortunately, pressures to practice evidence-based medicine are reducing preventable errors. That isn’t the case, however, in most workplaces, where failure to consider sound evidence repeatedly inflicts unnecessary damage on employee well-being and group performance.

“Forward, forward . . . smaller, faster, thinner, lighter,” each new generation of technology convincing consumers that the next thing will be the thing they want, the thing they need, the thing that will complete them.

Outsourcing is seen by firms as a way of hedging economic risks. Stephen Overell looks at the psychological consequences for the workers who have to deal with the uncertainty

With the Olympic Games around the corner and an extra two million people expected in the capital, Matthew Caines explores how London is preparing for possible emergencies

A Warwickshire hospital trust has admitted liability after a man suffered permanent brain damage when he was subjected to unnecessary surgery.

Harry Beck's Tube map is an undisputed classic, but a recent attempt to improve on it has derailed the consensus, as Chris Beanland discovers

A man spotted using two mobile phones while behind the wheel of his car has been banned from driving for 12 months.

A police officer on duty during riots in Manchester and Salford on Tuesday has said outdated heavy protective gear made it "difficult" to make arrests.

THE rise of the iPad could prove to be a serious pain in the neck if its ergonomic failings are not addressed, experts warn.

The cost of the NHS IT scheme has been staggering. Some £6.4bn has been spent. Another £4.3bn is needed. The House of Commons Public Affairs Committee argues in its new report into the fiasco today that the Department of Health should have consulted more extensively with health professionals before embarking on the project.

AUSTRALIA: Jetstar's cabin crew employees are accusing the airline of ignoring their concerns about fatigue after being forced to work up to 20 hours straight.

Plans to build a network of rest areas on Britain’s motorways and trunk roads have been quietly ditched.

Jenni Murray on BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour interviewed two IEHF members, Clara Greed, Professor of Inclusive Urban Planning at the University of the West of England and Anne Ferguson, BSI Consumer & Public Interest Manager. The interview was prompted by a Toilet Talk Seminar taking place and the discussion covered design and size of cubicles, the decline in provision, the historical perspective and community and unisex toilets.

Technical standards may seem arcane, but they are often powerful tools of economic development and social welfare. They can be essential building blocks for innovation and new industries. The basic software standards for the Web are striking proof.

After observing children on playgrounds in Norway, England and Australia, Dr. Sandseter identified six categories of risky play: exploring heights, experiencing high speed, handling dangerous tools, being near dangerous elements (like water or fire), rough-and-tumble play (like wrestling), and wandering alone away from adult supervision. The most common is climbing heights.

The government is attempting to measure national wellbeing alongside earnings – but what difference does happiness make?

Sitting in an airport tower peering into the darkness or working inside a quiet, dimly lit radar room can be disastrous for air traffic controllers who work long, grueling hours and must stay awake all night.

After thousands of years of intra-species fighting we have to face the possibility that the institution of war may no longer need us

The way forward for brands is more likely to release apps that have real functionality, solving a problem for users or providing features that are genuinely meaningful.

Even more common than illness as an aftermath of swimming are injuries and drowning. Yet swimmers and their guardians can easily prevent an overwhelming majority of these accidents and tragedies.

Independent report expected to say pilots should not have been blamed for crash that killed 29 on Scottish hillside in 1994

Many of the sounds we hear every day are entirely fabricated by engineers to persuade us to buy things.

This year, a Seattle nurse named Kim Hiatt committed suicide. Ms. Hiatt’s death came nearly seven months after she had given an unintended overdose to an infant heart patient, a medical error that was said to have contributed to the child’s death days later.

This in-depth interview features the work of human factors specialist & IEHF Fellow Prof Bob Stone and his team who design simulation and serious game systems used to train bomb disposal specialists and other personnel facing extreme situations. Bob was awarded an MoD Chief Scientific Adviser's Commendation in June for his work.

The Ambassador Theatre Group begins installing 49,000 high-tech seats nationwide. Each will be fitted with ProBax technology designed to increase comfort by improving posture (something that's already used in Lotus cars and is currently under trial by aircraft companies).

WASHINGTON – Airline pilots who commute long distances before flying are at greater risk of dangerous fatigue, and little is done to monitor the practice, a study released Wednesday finds.

Australia: Poor road design has been identified as a significant cause of traffic crashes previously blamed on human error.

EVERYONE wants to avoid back trouble, but surprisingly few of us manage to escape it. Up to 80 percent of Americans experience back pain at some point in their lives, and each year 15 percent of all adults are treated for such problems as herniated discs, spinal stenosis or lumbar pain.

The accumulating evidence has led Niosh to recommend that police officers and other workers on bicycles use a no-nose saddle that puts pressure on the “sit bones.”

ZURICH — While American cities are synchronizing green lights to improve traffic flow and offering apps to help drivers find parking, many European cities are doing the opposite: creating environments openly hostile to cars. The methods vary, but the mission is clear — to make car use expensive and just plain miserable enough to tilt drivers toward more environmentally friendly modes of transportation.

Details of the accidents prevented – and the fines raised – by every speed camera in England are to be made public for the first time, allowing drivers to distinguish the cash generators from the life savers.

ONE of the great strengths of science is that it can fix its own mistakes. “There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong,” the astrophysicist Carl Sagan once said. “That’s perfectly all right: it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process.” If only it were that simple.

Law Society warns cases being needlessly drawn out by health trusts as patients face cuts to legal aid

A report into the cause of a helicopter crash on the Mourne Mountains found that the pilot's recent family bereavement was probably "the most significant contributory factor".

The bottom line: Resist the temptation to squeeze one more thing into the end of your day.

Do roundabouts make your head spin, or are they things of beauty? A national competition shows that we're a nation divided.

Exasperated academic completes study on the faults in home entertainment technology

The smartphones in our pockets are far more powerful than the desktop computers we dreamed of in the 1980s. This year they are outselling PCs – and soon they could replace our wallets as well

Car manufacturer Ford is developing a car seat for older drivers that keeps a check on their heart.

It is intended to be built beside the M4 in Chiswick. The radical design has been toned down because the Highways Agency feared it would become a "serious safety hazard" for drivers.

To improve its vehicles' safety, Toyota should reform its corporate structure, pay more attention to customer complaints, cooperate better with regulators and take other actions, the panel says.

Modern life is 'producing a generation of weaklings', claims research as physical strength declines in 10-year-olds

Health and safety agency issues advice but warning is ruse to persuade people to read website

It is a unique and slightly bizarre question facing the car industry, as most electric vehicles are virtually silent. This can cause problems for other road users.

As we all know, sleep deprivation can lead to exhaustion-fueled mistakes in the workplace, whether they be a simple typo in a quarterly report or life-threatening errors while operating machinery. (Or as the FAA discovered recently, embarrassing front-page headlines about workers napping on the job.) But according to two business school professors, it can make people more unethical too.

US: The latest public service announcement warning against distracted driving has an interesting twist: it presupposes that people know about the dangers of multitasking behind the wheel. Instead, it illustrates the emotional toll for those who are affected by an accident caused by a person texting or talking on a phone.

In simulated surgeries, students and experts who drank excessively the night before performed more poorly

US: The union representing the nation's 15,000 air-traffic controllers launched a campaign Friday seeking federal approval for some of its members to take naps during breaks, potentially setting up a clash with senior Obama administration transportation officials who oppose such a move.

Researchers found males make snap all-or-nothing decisions whereas women are more likely to mull over a choice and hedge their bets.

US: An air traffic controller who is paying more attention to DVD movies than planes in the sky is not just a travel nightmare. It is a classic example of a workplace gone awry.

We all know that we don’t get enough sleep. But how much sleep do we really need?

US: More than 20% of the nation’s air-traffic controllers work at least one midnight shift in 14 days, which puts them at risk of falling asleep or making critical safety errors, the government’s own records show.

Researchers urge broader use in the home of outlet covers, cabinet locks and more

A four year old boy died after trapping himself in a tumble dryer and inadvertently turning it on, an inquest has heard.

An air traffic controller in the US state of Nevada was asleep and out of communication for about 16 minutes while a medical plane was landing, federal officials have said.

Train drivers claim a steep increase in the number of trains running red lights is further proof that Perth's rail system is in crisis.

Motorists could not believe their luck when an error with a decimal point meant fuel was on sale for just 12.9p a litre at a supermarket.

Dozens have gathered at Three Mile Island to mark the 32nd anniversary of America's worst nuclear accident.

The car of the future will do the driving for you, writes Barry Park.

Federal Aviation Administrator Randy Babbitt said Friday that he will revamp air traffic control guidelines nationwide after an incident in which the lone supervisor on duty in the Reagan National Airport tower slept while two airliners landed on their own.

Thirty-nine years ago, one of the most senior nuclear safety officials in the United States penned a stark memorandum to colleagues. It warned that a key bulwark against a catastrophic accident in the kind of reactors now in meltdown at Fukushima was so flawed it should be banned.

Japan's nuclear disaster shows us false assurances are counter-productive. Risky technologies must be debated honestly

A small crew of technicians, braving radiation and fire, became the only people remaining at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station on Tuesday — and perhaps Japan’s last chance of preventing a broader nuclear catastrophe.

The connection between banks and nuclear reactors is not obvious to most bankers, nor banking regulators. But to the men and women who study industrial accidents such as Three Mile Island, Deepwater Horizon, Bhopal or the Challenger shuttle – engineers, psychologists and even sociologists – the connection is obvious.

A report on a fatal tourist boat crash in Philadelphia shows the tugboat pilot was consumed by a family emergency and was on his cellphone at the time.

(CNN) -- He laughs about it now, but to hear former flight instructor Dave Domino describe his near-death experience flying over the bright lights of Chicago, it sounds anything but funny.

AUSTRALIA: THE computer system that runs emergency departments in NSW hospitals is compromising patients' care, according to the first systematic review of the troubled project that found it was crippled by design flaws.

Ford, Chrysler, Chevy and other car companies are betting on the proposition that, as long as your eyes don’t stray from the road for more than a moment, your other senses can enjoy a cornucopia of diversions on your dashboard.

The Chinese man who didn't notice he had a 10cm knife in his head is one of a surprising number of patients who have things left inside them after surgery

The flap over sudden acceleration in Toyota cars gave automotive electronic systems a black eye. So what's in store now that a team of rocket scientists (literally) have concluded that people, not electronic throttles, are to blame for most accidents caused by runaway cars?

Network Rail (NR) have released CCTV images of pedestrians and motorists putting their lives at risk on Britain's level crossings.

A follow up article to obese patients being too large for ambulances, which also focuses on the wider implications of people being larger, with input from IEHF Fellow Gary Davis.

Here’s a wake-up call to the maintenance industry: More than half of all maintenance managers in a May 2010 Baines Simmons Americas survey* think their employees complete jobs despite the non-availability of specified tools or equipment. Another 16% said they believe their employees have signed off for uncompleted work due to limited time or resources. And one in 10 managers admitted their line supervisors would approve a mechanic’s actions if he didn’t follow procedures in order to get an aircraft out.

A Dutch prisoner described by his lawyer as a giant has gone to court over the size of his single cell, arguing that it is inhumanely small.

A driver in Canada with a camera on his dashboard captured the moment he came within inches of being struck by an out of control lorry.

Department for Work and Pensions call centres are a living hell for employees and callers alike. That's why we're on strike

Raw information helps determine what targets to hit and what to avoid, but sometimes the data is overwhelming.

Taking lots of breaks from sitting at a desk is good for the waistline and heart health, research suggests.

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has confirmed that "human error" was the reason why one of its trading platforms crashed last November.

WASHINGTON — The Deepwater Horizon blowout and oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was an avoidable accident caused by a series of failures and blunders by the companies involved in drilling the well and the government regulators assigned to police them, the presidential panel named to study the accident has concluded.

Thirty passengers were ordered off a plane which had been loaded with too much fuel to take off, it has emerged.

TORONTO (AP) — A pilot's spilled coffee accidentally triggered a hijacking alert and caused a United Airlines flight from Chicago to Frankfurt, Germany, to make an unscheduled stop in Canada.

The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was an avoidable disaster caused in part by a series of cost-cutting decisions made by BP and its partners, the White House oil commission said last night.

Turning off mobile phones, avoiding the internet and tuning out of the television and radio can leave people suffering from symptoms similar to those seen in drug addicts trying to go cold turkey, researchers have found.

From the web to wildlife, the economy to nanotechnology, politics to sport, the Observer's team of experts prophesy how the world will change – for good or bad – in the next quarter of a century

There can be few motorists who have not been tempted to hurl a satnav system out of the window when it effortlessly guides the car into a traffic jam.

A baby was tested for HIV after she was twice given breast milk from strangers at a south-east London hospital.

SciDev.net: Careless handling of seeds may be the reason for unintended spread of genetically modified crops, study finds

A Paris court has said Continental Airlines was "criminally responsible" for the crash of a Concorde supersonic jet 10 years ago, and fined it 200,000 euros (£170,000).

The Qantas Airbus A380 that experienced an engine explosion would not have arrived safely without the quick thinking of crew, a report has said.

'There was a pinging noise, familiar to anyone who's ever pulled the pin from a grenade. I had walked into a tripwire'

It has been revealed that five prisoners may have spent too long in jail because of an error in the calculation of their sentences.

Women who are stressed at work are more likely than other working women to have a heart attack or other forms of heart disease, a new study suggests.

It is the human issues the new system raises, not its technical challenges, that should concern us, writes Richard Harper

Grasping after certainty about gender roles has fostered some bad science and stereotyping that harms both sexes

Heavy goods vehicles involved in 43% of London's cycling deaths

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust had become preoccupied with cost-cutting, independent inquiry concluded

A driver involved in the UK's worst mass water poisoning has told an inquest he had to guess which tank to put 20 tonnes of aluminium sulphate in.

It has been called the "money box" – a traffic camera at a yellow box junction in Battersea, south London is raising a million pounds a year in fines levied on hapless motorists.

Row with US over arming system put Trident warheads at risk, papers reveal

Highlighting the fact that looking at the internet on your TV shouldn't be challenging but a remote with 81 buttons...

Helvetica or Gothic? Bodoni or Baskerville? Verdana or Comic Sans? As a new book charts the history of typography, Nigel Farndale explains why we care more about fonts than you might think

Fifty-seven patients underwent operations on the wrong part of their body last year due to NHS errors, figures show.

Ofcom survey shows mobile phone companies are failing disabled consumers

Satnav sends man down road that ends in La Serena, the biggest reservoir in the country

JAKARTA — The Indonesian authorities have initiated criminal and civil investigations into the cause of a high-speed collision between two intercity trains over the weekend that killed 36 people and injured dozens, officials said Sunday.

NTSB recommendations ignored or abandoned, while hundreds die in accidents, investigation finds

A little sleep in the cockpit might be good for safety; do you mind if your pilot nods off?

A small plane made an emergency landing on a busy motorway near Atlanta.

It's 50 years this week that the first travelator opened in the UK, prompting visions of a future where walking would be superseded by standing on a moving walkway.

On Sunday in Washington DC, BP's oil spill investigators came head to head for the first time with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) committee appointed by the US Department of the Interior to determine the cause of the spill.

Imagine a car so narrow that two can drive next to each other in one lane; a car so small and short that three can park in one parking space.

A new aircraft “standing seat” model aimed at cramming more airline passengers onto budget flights has been unveiled.

Russian pilots have safely landed a passenger plane in Siberia after the aircraft lost power at 10,600m (34,800ft).

Don't stifle employees with a rigid office set-up. Flexibility and team work are where it's at for forward-looking businesses

As Facebook adds "Places" to its array of features, Rory Gilchrist looks at how users could be putting themselves at risk by sharing their location with friends.

Installing smart meters may not result in households saving energy, a study has suggested.

Ryanair chief Michael O'Leary will seek permission from aviation authorities to have just one pilot on shorter flights

Why silent electric cars need to make their presence felt. And have your say about what sounds you would like to hear emitted by electric cars.

Ministers and scientists traded blows yesterday over the Government's threatened cuts to science funding.

Doctors do not have enough time to properly diagnose patients and some are harmed or even die because their real problems are not spotted early enough, a doctor has warned.

We are to blame – but so are Transocean and Halliburton, concludes oil firm's report on Deepwater Horizon rig explosion

Flying in the developing world is 13 times more dangerous than flying in first world countries, according to a new study.

Volvo has set itself the difficult task of building a car that can't be crashed, but do we really want technology taking control?

Onboard systems intended to keep airliners from colliding in midair have been triggered more than 45 times this year in the skies over Washington as air traffic controllers have made dangerous mistakes at a record-setting pace.

Fat-fingered sumo wrestlers, unable to tap the keys on a standard mobile phone, are being given iPads to help improve communication.

Fatigued surgeons have been ordered to work up to 80 hours a week to slash the state government's surgical waiting lists, putting lives at risk.

Evan Harris issues a call to arms to British scientists facing swingeing cuts in funding in the forthcoming spending review

Budget airline's weight restrictions on mobility equipment mean that many disabled passengers are unable to fly, critics say

Self-service checkouts were intended to bring an end to long supermarket queues, but research suggests some lines have lengthened since the technology was introduced.

Naturally left-handed people who have been 'converted' into right-handers by cultural discrimination have been offered retraining to revert to their natural state.

1,300 dosage mistakes leave three dead as research finds patient safety directives not being met

Most parents would balk at the idea of toddlers in high heels, but what about sandals or trainers? Some experts now believe that all shoes are best avoided in childhood, says Sam Murphy

Imposing the arbitrary 48-hour cap on working hours ignores the specialist needs of surgery and is not in patients' interests

Rail watchdog to look into criminal charges after jury says maintenance failures led to accident in which seven died

People with severe paralysis may soon be able to surf the internet or drive a wheelchair simply by breathing, according to scientists in Israel.

The government is planning to scrap the default retirement age in the UK from October 2011.

Passenger jet with 152 people aboard was flying from Karachi to Islamabad

The litany included overdue maintenance on critical equipment, a dire warning that went unnoticed by key personnel, and a series of decisions about drilling procedures that allegedly sacrificed safety to save money.

Vital warning systems on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig were switched off at the time of the explosion in order to spare workers being woken by false alarms, a federal investigation has heard.

Motorway lights are being switched off at midnight across the country, raising safety concerns.

Given that, as fallible beings, we are incapable of driving cars as intended, it must be time to deal with the world the way the world is and design a car that can be crashed with impunity.

The proposal is based on the suggestion that octogenarians are less alert and more easily distracted than younger motorists.

FIFA officials will meet to discuss goal-line technology in the wake of errors, including a goal by England’s Frank Lampard against Germany that was not counted.

There will be a heavy price to pay if Lord Young's review of health and safety legislation only plays to popular prejudices

Ryanair is planning to run flights where passengers stand during the journey at a cost of just £5 per ticket.

The head of the Health and Safety Executive tells Jane Dudman why workplace wellbeing is non-negotiable

Ten per cent of Britain’s motorways and major roads pose an unacceptable risk to those that use them, a road safety group has said.

Nearly half of all children aged four to 12 years are at risk of serious injury if the car they are travelling in is hit from the side, according to new research by Which?.

Few things are said to be easier than riding a bike but scientists investigating our ability have discovered that it is actually extremely complicated.

While there never has been an oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico quite as large as the current disaster, there have been other terrible mishaps and, as in every industry, near misses. These close calls are what Scott Shappell, professor of industrial engineering at Clemson University, looks for when he works with airlines on quantifying their risk from human errors.

Cathay Pacific Airways and Air France have begun introducing seatbelt-mounted airbags in their economy-class cabins as authorities tighten regulations aimed at reducing the risk of fatalities in plane crashes.

One in four people in the UK often works all day without taking a break, a survey suggests.

Smart clothes could soon be helping their wearers cope with the stresses of modern life.

The RNIB has praised Apple for the iPad's accessibility features that make it easy for blind and partially-sighted people to use the device

The belief that a cup of coffee stimulates the brain and makes drinkers feel more awake is a myth, a new study shows.

Forceps, needles, fragments of a bone drill and swabs are among the objects left inside Scottish patients during operations, it has emerged.

A captain returned to the cockpit after taking a bathroom break and found the first officer facing away from the instruments and talking to a flight attendant. Unnoticed was the fact that the autopilot had disconnected and the plane was in danger of stalling.

Apple iPad applications are often confusing for users and need more consistent features to be successful, according to Jakob Nielsen, one of the internet’s leading experts in usability.

Safety rules that are making modern cars bigger have been blamed for an increase in scrapes and minor accidents.

Millions of workers resign or call in sick every year due to stress at work, according to research that suggests the "Monday Blues" could be worse than ever.

A BMA survey shows doctors fears over reporting concerns about patient safety. But are they just being melodramatic?

Working overtime is bad for your health, according to a study which shows it brings an increased risk of heart disease and heart attacks.

Can you cut petrol costs just by driving more smoothly? Patrick Collinson gave it a go and found that a driver doing 15,000 miles a year at an average 119.9p a litre could save a fortune.

Cars that can stay in a motorway lane without the help of a human driver are being developed by researchers at North Carolina State University.

The number of mistakes made at IVF clinics in England and Wales nearly doubled in 12 months, figures obtained by the BBC show.

Not even a volcanic ash cloud deterred Helen McLaurin from flying holidaymakers to their destinations, finds Jill Insley (although getting back again was another matter)

They are stressful, boring and unproductive. And yet many people's working lives are dominated by meetings. Why do we have them? And why are they so awful?

Musicians suffering aches and pains from heavy instruments could be given hope by the work of a design expert at the University of Glamorgan.

Council officials have urged people to ensure their child's car seat is fitted correctly, after more than 80% failed a recent check in Derbyshire.

A grandmother has solved one of life’s most fiddly domestic tasks by inventing a sewing needle that can be thread by the clumsiest of hands.

A council has been condemned for wasting taxpayers’ money after it built a cycle lane just 8ft long.

Tapping your forearm or hand with a finger could soon be the way you interact with gadgets. US researchers have found a way to work out where the tap touches and use that to control phones and music players. A tiny projector creates the display. See the BBC news website or visit the Skinput project website

Last week I sat through my fourth "manual handling" training session – or "how not to damage yourself when moving patients and equipment around" – in under three years... But with so much focus on health and safety, I am perplexed by the design of the wheelchairs in UK hospitals: they are heavy, bulky and difficult to steer safely. Sara Morgan, from Baltimore and writing in The Guardian, is a lead nurse at an NHS hospital in London.

An aviation industry source said the scanners used by Qantas meant that some items could be hard to identify if they were at a certain angle, reports The Australian.

An inquiry is being demanded into ambulance services after a Sunday Telegraph investigation uncovered a major flaw in the 999 system that may have left hundreds dead.

With some rare exceptions, mobile phones are only good at making calls and sending texts. They're not going to kill off the calculator anytime soon, writes Harry Wallop in The Telegraph.

A Royal Navy commander crashed a nuclear-powered submarine into a large rock in the Red Sea after misreading a number one as seven on a navigational chart, a court martial heard today. Read the report by The Guardian.

Imagine you're stuck in a burning building, trying desperately to escape. After stumbling to the end of a smoke-filled corridor, you have to choose whether to turn left or right. The decision could determine whether you live or die – but the way you make it is not as random as you might think, according to Ed Galea, professor of mathematical modelling at the University of Greenwich. Read the full story in The Guardian.

During the next ten years, the first generation of consumers who grew up with computers, mobile phones and electronic gadgets - those who have fully integrated technology into their everyday lives and rely on these devices to live a full and happy life - will begin to (or have already begun to) have difficulty using this technology due to the physical constraints of aging. The Independent reports.

Three years on from the introduction of tougher in-car mobile phone rules, many motorists are still flouting the law, according to a survey today, as reported in The Independent.

US officials are investigating how a child was apparently allowed to direct planes at New York's JFK airport - one of the country's busiest. The BBC gives the full story.

The Telegraph reports on a German invention that means 'silent communication' could end commuters' irritation with mobile phone conversations.