The architecture of the human brain may hold the key to career selection, according to scientists who have successfully identified parts of the brain that correlate with aptitude for specific skills and knowledge. The new findings, discussed in the July 22 edition of BMC Research Notes, indicate that through mapping different brain areas to specific talents and then associating these talents with anatomical differences in brain structure, choosing the right career could in the future boil down to a simple brain scan.

The 1984 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Desmond Tutu has announced his retirement from public life, though he said he would continue his work with the Elders, a group of international leaders he cofounded in 2007.

In 1995 South African President Nelson Mandela appointed Tutu head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and it is here where Tutu’s life intersected with Britannica. In April of this year Britannica published a new article on the TRC written by Tutu, in which he discusses both its challenges and weaknesses–as well as it successes.

Britannica is proud to count Tutu as one of the more than 100 Nobelists who have written for us and wishes Tutu well in his retirement from public life.

In a much-anticipated ruling, the International Court of Justice in The Hague rejected Serbia’s claim that Kosovo’s declaration of independence, led by Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaçi in 2008, was illegal.

What might the ruling mean?

On the ground, it probably means little, thought it is of course of important symbolic importance.

But, the decision could have far-reaching consequences in a number of areas–well beyond Kosovo’s 1.8 million people and its 4,200 square miles.

Centenarians hold the key to longevity in their genetic codes, according to research published earlier this month in the journal Science by Boston University researchers Paola Sebastiani and Thomas Perls.

The two scientists have long suspected that when it comes to exceptional longevity genes trump lifestyle.

Mozambique has finally risen from the ravages of war that tore through the country from the mid-70’s to the 90’s. Once a nation plagued with civil unrest, it is now at peace as one of Africa’s premier location for adventure travel.

Dubai is super hot and very dusty. The combination of the hot sun, dry desert air, and constant construction dust give the place an overall ‘whiteout’ look. You can tell the sky is blue somewhere straight up, but anywhere near the horizon it just looks like a gray, hot haze.

In Hungary’s parliamentary elections in April 2010, the center-right Fidesz crushed the Hungarian Socialist Party, capturing more than two-thirds of the seats to become the first non-coalition government in the history of postcommunist Hungary. Viktor Orbán, prime minister from 1998-2002, once again took the reins of government. This followed nearly two years after the previous government, with the country rocked by the global financial crisis, was forced to accept a rescue package of $26 billion from the EU, the IMF, and the World Bank. Our friend Joshua Tucker, associate professor of Politics at New York University, wondered what impact the election might have on Hungary and its relations with the IMF. In this post, he asks two experts for their views.

Show girls, singing and dancing. A band with blasting bugles. A dental chair poised at the ready in the bed of a horse-drawn wagon. And there at the center of it all is Painless Parker, dressed to the nines in his spotless white frock coat and trademark gray brushed-beaver top hat.

“This quest for self-definition may be said to be the main theme of all American literature. It is a unique theme: we do not find the Roman or the French or the British writer debating the question What is a Roman, What is a Frenchman, or What is an Englishman. But few American novelists and poets have been able to resist the theme What is an American….”

Is “the zed word” all right for polite company? Can “civilisation” be saved? For answers, you can do no better than to spend a couple of hours with Simon Pegg’s delightful zomcom Shaun of the Dead.