Pop songs have become angrier and sadder over the past 60 years, experts say.  Researchers analysed lyrics in best-selling songs from the 1950s to 2016 to find expressions of anger and sadness had increased, while words about joy had dropped.

The US study team looked at lyrics of more than 6,000 songs from Billboard Hot 100 in each year.  These are the most popular songs in the US each year as chosen by music fans.

In the past songs were ranked mainly by record sales, radio and jukebox plays, but more recently it is based on other popularity indicators such as streaming and social media to reflect changes in music consumption.

Tones expressed in each song were analysed using 'automatic quantitative sentiment' which looked at each word or phrase in the song with a set of tones they express.  The combination of the tones expressed by all words and phrases of the lyrics determines the sentiment of that song.  The sentiments of all Billboard Hot 100 songs in each year are averaged and the average of each year measured whether the expression of that sentiment increased, decreased or remained the same.

The analysis showed the expression of anger in popular music lyrics has increased gradually over time.  Study co-author Lior Shamir, of Lawrence Technological University in Michigan, said: 'The change in lyrics sentiments does not necessarily reflect what the musicians and songwriters wanted to express, but is more related to what music consumers wanted to listen to in each year.'

Songs released during the mid 1950s were the least angry and the anger expressed in lyrics has increased gradually until peaking in 2015.  The analysis also revealed some variations with songs released between 1982 and 1984 being less angry compared to any other period, except for the 1950s.  In the mid 1990s, songs became angrier and the increase in anger was sharper during that time in comparison to previous years.

The expression of sadness, disgust and fear also increased over time, although the increase was milder compared to the increase in the expression of anger.

Disgust increased gradually, but was lower in the early 1980s and higher in the mid and late 1990s.

Popular music lyrics expressed more fear during the mid 1980s and the fear decreased sharply in 1988.  Another sharp increase in fear was observed in 1998 and 1999, with a sharp decrease in 2000.

The study also showed that joy was a dominant tone in popular music lyrics during the late 1950s, but it decreased over time and became much milder in the recent years.  An exception was observed in the mid 1970s, when joy expressed in lyrics increased sharply.

The study shows that the tones expressed in popular music change over time and the change is gradual and consistent, with a few exceptions.

Since the researchers analysed the most popular songs in each year, the study does not show that music changed, but that the preferences of music consumers have changed over time.  While music fans preferred joyful songs during the 1950s, modern music consumers are more interested in songs that express sadness or anger.

The findings appear in the Journal of Popular Music Studies..

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A report has found companies waste billions of dollars in wasted hours as a result of forcing staff into pointless meetings.

It found that, on average, a working professional spends around 13 total work days a year in meaningless meetings.  This, the report claims, will cost the UK economy £45 billion in 2019 alone and is considered by employees to be more irritating than a stubbed toe, delayed commute, running out of toilet roll and getting caught in the rain without an umbrella.

Scheduling platform Doodle interviewed over 6,500 professionals across the UK, Germany, the USA and Switzerland, and examined 19 million meetings arranged through its platform in 2018.

It found more than a third (37 per cent) of professionals consider unnecessary meetings to be the biggest cost to their organisation and nearly half say they create confusion in the workplace and negatively impact their ability to actually do their work (43 and 44 per cent, respectively).   Of all the time invested in meetings in the workplace, a third of people (33 per cent) revealed they felt unable to contribute to the wider group.

Researchers did find that face-to-face meetings are still preferred to many other alternatives despite their flaws.  Seventy-six per cent of professionals surveyed said it is their favoured format, with other methods scoring poorly.

Conference calls were favoured by a mere seven per cent of people whereas video calls and instant messaging were favoured by only five and four per cent of the study participants.

An overwhelming majority (95 per cent) also feel that an in-person meeting was an effective way of building relationships at work, with instant messaging scoring less than half of this (47 per cent).

Steven Rogelberg, professor of management at the University of North Carolina and author of 'The Surprising Science of Meetings' said: 'Research on meetings is just so critical.  There is perhaps no other work activity that is just so common, and yet so complained about.  Although technology has made it easier and easier to meet remotely, and that is a good thing, there is something particularly powerful associated with individuals coming together to meet face to face.  Communication tends to be more rich and nuanced given that verbal and non-verbal cues readily abound.  These additional layers not only can promote deeper understandings, but can help actually foster relationships as communication intent is easier to see and empathise with, and misunderstandings are a bit easier to avoid.  Unlike a virtual meeting where it is easier to hide in the background and multi-task, face to face meetings tend to have more accountability and engagement.'

Dr Sankalp Chaturvedi, associate professor of organisational behaviour and leadership at Imperial College London comments on what makes a good meeting: 'The secret of a successful and time-efficient meeting is preparation.  The agenda mustn't be too long.  Otherwise there's a risk of spending too much time on the first items and later items are rushed.  The agenda should be circulated well in advance, including the goals of what is expected from the meeting, and specific detail on the subjects and time allocation.'

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Researchers have managed to recreate a 'freak wave' in the lab for the first time - and found it perfectly mirrors a famous Japanese painting from 1800.

Freak waves, officially known as Draupner waves, are unexpectedly large in comparison to surrounding waves.  They are difficult to predict, often appearing suddenly without warning, and are commonly attributed as probable causes for maritime catastrophes such as the sinking of large ships.

Most famously, they were captured in 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa' - also known as 'The Great Wave' - a woodblock print published in the early 1800s by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.

The Draupner wave was one of the first confirmed observations of a 'freak wave' in the ocean; it was observed on the 1st of January 1995 in the North Sea by measurements made on the Draupner Oil Platform.

To recreate them in the lab, the team at the University of Oxford recreated the wave using two smaller wave groups and varying the crossing angle - the angle at which the two groups travel.

'The measurement of the Draupner wave in 1995 was a seminal observation initiating many years of research into the physics of freak waves and shifting their standing from mere folklore to a credible real-world phenomenon.  By recreating the Draupner wave in the lab we have moved one step closer to understanding the potential mechanisms of this phenomenon,' said Dr Mark McAllister at the University of Oxford's Department of Engineering Science.

To the researchers' amazement, the wave they created bore an uncanny resemblance to 'The Great Wave off Kanagawa' - also known as 'The Great Wave' - a woodblock print published in the early 1800s by the Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai.  Hokusai's image depicts an enormous wave threatening three fishing boats and towers over Mount Fuji which appears in the background.

Hokusai's wave is believed to depict a freak, or 'rogue', wave.  It was the crossing angle between the two smaller groups that proved critical to the successful reconstruction.

The researchers found it was only possible to reproduce the freak wave when the crossing angle between the two groups was approximately 120 degrees.  When waves are not crossing, wave breaking limits the height that a wave can achieve.  However, when waves cross at large angles, wave breaking behaviour changes and no longer limits the height a wave can achieve in the same manner.

Prof Ton van den Bremer at the University of Oxford said: 'Not only does this laboratory observation shed light on how the famous Draupner wave may have occurred, it also highlights the nature and significance of wave breaking in crossing sea conditions.  The latter of these two findings has broad implications, illustrating previously unobserved wave breaking behaviour, which differs significantly from current state-of-the-art understanding of ocean wave breaking.'

The laboratory-created freak wave also bears strong resemblances with photographs of freak waves in the ocean.  Previous experiments carried out in an ocean research facility showed that when waves intersect at an angle greater than approximately 60 degrees, they cause the surface level of the ocean to rise.  This adds to the overall height of the resulting combined wave.

Dr Ton van den Bremer, who led the study while at the University of Edinburgh, said: 'This improves understanding of rogue waves, decades after this aspect of their behaviour was suggested.  The more we know about this dangerous phenomenon, the better equipped we will be to design offshore structures and to navigate the oceans.'

Experiments were carried out in the FloWave Ocean Energy Research Facility at the University of Edinburgh.  The testing tank is able to simulate ocean currents and waves of any type, which are monitored using overhead sensors.  Researchers used the 25-metre circular tank to study the complex interactions that occur when waves cross in open water.  The study was carried out in collaboration with the University of Oxford and supported by the UK's Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council.

Dr Mark McAllister, who took part in the research while at the University of Edinburgh, said: 'These experiments provide new insight into how a heightened, or set-up, wave actually forms.  They revealed that this behaves like a partial standing wave, which forms underneath waves as they cross.  This insight allowed us to create a simple theory to predict when such waves might occur.'

Rogue waves happen spontaneously and cause huge damage as well as risk to human life.  The unpredictable nature of the waves is a particular problem for oil-rigs and other off-shore structures and can have devastating consequences.  The rogue waves are referred to by scientists as 'extreme storm waves' and are steep sided, have deep troughs and can become twice the size of surrounding waves.

The paper was published in the Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

Swedish researchers have recreated how birds see the world using a special camera.  The 'birds eye view'  reveals just how different a bird's view of the world is.

While human colour vision is based on three primary colours: red, green and blue, birds can also see ultraviolet.  This, the images reveal, allows them to see foliage in stunning detail, for example.

'What appears to be a green mess to humans are clearly distinguishable leaves for birds.  No one knew about this until this study,' said Dan-Eric Nilsson, professor at the Department of Biology at Lund University.

For birds, the upper sides of leaves appear much lighter in ultraviolet.  From below, the leaves are very dark.  In this way, the three-dimensional structure of dense foliage is obvious to birds.  This in turn makes it easy for them to move, find food and navigate.

People, on the other hand, do not perceive ultraviolet, and see the foliage in green; the primary color where contrast is the worst.

The project is the first time that researchers have succeeded in imitating bird colour vision with a high degree of precision.  To create the images, they built a special camera equipped with rotating filter wheels and specially manufactured filters, which make it possible to show what different animals see clearly.  In this case, the camera imitates with a high degree of accuracy the colour sensitivity of the four different types of cones in bird retinas.

'We have discovered something that is probably very important for birds, and we continue to reveal how reality appears also to other animals', says Dan-Eric Nilsson, continuing: 'We may have the notion that what we see is the reality, but it's a highly human reality.  Other animals live in other realities, and we can now see through their eyes and reveal many secrets.  Reality is in the eye of the beholder'.

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For most it would bring back terrible memories of the scene from Jaws when the immortal line 'you're going to need a bigger boat' was uttered.   But when a team of divers spotted the largest great white shark on the planet they only hesitated to grab their cameras before they jumped into the sea.

The enormous predator named Deep Blue is up to 50 years old, weights 2.5 tons and measures 20ft long.  It was drawn to the water around Hawaii for what one diver described as an 'all you can eat buffet' - to feed on a dead sperm whale.

Deep Blue was last spotted in Mexico in 2013 where it was fitted with a tracker which is how divers were able to identify it this time.

Conservation photographer Juan Oliphant was one of the divers who took the plunge along with marine biologist Ocean Ramsey.  Remarkable photos shot by Oliphant show him and Ramsey swimming right next to the enormous predator.

Posting on Instagram shortly after the swim, Oliphant wrote: 'Face to face with the worlds largest great white ever recorded 'Deep Blue' with @oceanramsey.  I'm still in shock that we spent almost the whole day with this amazing animal in my backyard.  I hope my conservation images like this help people to question their perceptions and realize the beauty, and importance of sharks and I hope that they inspire the kind of compassion and connection we need to have with nature and sharks, to help protect them and coexist alongside them.'

Another diver who swam with Deep Blue. Kimberly Jeffries, wrote: 'If you asked me a few days ago what the most amazing thing I've ever seen in Hawaiian waters the answer probably would be pretty different.  If you asked me yesterday the answer would be freediving with Deep Blue, a great white, the largest ever documented, who was last seen in 2013 in Mexico.  If you asked me right now, it would be freediving with, interacting with and photographing not one but multiple, different great whites AND Deep Blue.'

Footage of Deep Blue was also captured back in 2013 by shark researcher Mauricio Hoyos Padilla off Mexico's Guadalupe Island.  The video shows the enormous apex predator swimming near researchers in steel cages, with one bold enough to be swimming outside the protection of the protective metal bars.

The massive predator was also featured back in 2014 in a Shark Week documentary, when researchers tagged the gigantic fish.

Great whites, the largest predatory fish on earth, typically grow to 15 feet in length, with some, like Deep Blue, exceeding 20 feet in length and weighing up to 5,000 pounds, according to National Geographic.

German tourist Michael Maier also described filming the predator during a 2014 trip to Mexico.  Mr Maier, 48, said: 'Deep Blue is a very large female shark and she is known to be found in Mexico.  When we entered the water we had to wait because there was nothing to see.  All of a sudden out of the deep blue, there she came. We realised almost immediately that she was very big.  She was very calm and not at all nervous and was circling us. She was very interested and was looking at us.  During the circles we realised just how big she was - she must have been something like seven metres long.  Everything was very well prepared.  The whole team felt safe.  We had a very long beautiful dive with her and we were all very much enthusiastic about the encounter.'

George Burgess, director emeritus of the International Shark Attack File at Florida Museum of Natural History, told ABC News: 'It's a very big white shark, obviously.  One of the largest that has ever been seen in the water.  She's a big girl.'

The shark got her name from Discovery Channel diver Mauricio Hoyos Padilla, who swam with the creature as part of a Shark Week documentary.

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Drugs could be delivered by microscopic, shape-shifting robots you swallow in the future, scientists believe.

Researchers have created the tiny gadgets, which are around 5 mm in length and can navigate the narrow channels of the human body.

The tiny robots, developed by Swiss researchers, even change shape and speed as they travel through bendy blood vessels and thick bodily fluids.  The engineers at ETH Zurich and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) have released stunning footage showing the robots in action.

The robots, which are yet to be named, are made up of a gel that responds to heat, with added magnetic nanoparticles.  This allows them to be controlled by an electromagnetic field, the authors wrote in the journal Science Advances.

Using 'origami design principles', the researchers, led by Dr Bradley Nelson, folded the gel into 3D shapes.  To make the robots move effectively, inspiration was drawn from bacteria, which get from place-to-place via a propeller-like tail known as a flagellum.  This was mimicked to create an 'oar-like' extension from the nano-robot, to allow it to swim through the body.

Microorganisms also change shape to 'navigate complex environments and occupy a variety of ecological niches', the authors wrote.

Dr Nelson said: 'Nature has evolved a multitude of microorganisms that change shape as their environmental conditions change.  This basic principle inspired our microrobot design.'

When tested in a sucrose solution 'with a similar viscosity to blood', the robots 'moved much faster compared to other prototypes', the authors wrote.  They also changed shape to squeeze through glass tubes with lots of bendy passages, before reverting back to their original size.  The robots must be highly flexible if they are to travel through narrow blood vessels and dense fluids at high speeds.

'Our robots have a special composition and structure that allow them to adapt to the characteristics of the fluid they are moving through.  For instance, if they encounter a change in viscosity or osmotic concentration, they modify their shape to maintain their speed and maneuverability without losing control of the direction of motion,' said Professor Selman Sakar, one of the researchers.

Changes to the robot's shape can be 'programmed' in advance to maximise the robot's effectiveness without the use of bulky sensors or machinery.  They can then be controlled by an electromagnetic field or left to navigate their own way through the body by following fluid flow.  Either way, they automatically mould into the most efficient shape.

The researchers are working on improving how the robots swim through different fluids in the human body.  If studies are successful, they believe the gadgets will be relatively cheap to produce.

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A peacock’s multi-colored tail feathers are its most distinctive feature.  But, according to new research, they may also help to keep them hidden from predators in the wild.  While it might seem that these feathers would attract the attention of other animals, experts say their native threats, including big cats, lack the color receptors needed to distinguish a peacock’s tail from its surroundings.

Researchers argue the point in a new paper published pre-print to bio-Rxiv.  According to the team, a peacock’s feathers may not stand out quite as much to animals in the wild, such as tigers or stray dogs, as they would to the human eye.

The researchers write: ‘Feathers perceived by humans to be vividly colorful are often presumed to be equally conspicuous to other mammals, and thus to present an enhanced predation risk.  However, many mammals that prey on adult birds have dichromatic visual systems with only two types of color-sensitive visual receptors (one sensitive to ultraviolet light), rather than the three characteristic of humans and four of most birds.’

As a result, the researchers argue, a male peacock’s tail feathers may allow them to show off for a potential mate without catching the eye of predators.

In the study, the team investigated how peacocks’ tail feathers would appear to predators and to other birds of their kind.  Using multispectral imaging and reflectance spectroscopy, they compared the appearance of color, brightness, and texture contrast in relation to green background vegetation.  And, they found these features would look very different to mammals and other peacocks.

The researchers write: ‘When viewed by tetrachromatic birds against a background of green vegetation, most of the feathers studied had color and brightness contrasts similar to values previously found for ripe fruit.  By contrast, when viewed by dichromat mammalian predators, the color and brightness contrasts of these feathers were only weakly detectable and often did not reach detection thresholds for typical viewing distances.’

The findings suggest peacocks’ most recognizable feathers may be more than just a mating display, but also a means of camouflage.  But, not everyone is convinced.

Marion Petrie of Newcastle University told New Scientist: ‘At the end of the day, it’s a great big bird.  It shouts, it rustles its feathers, there’s a lot of movement when it’s courting another bird.  It’s not skulking around in the bushes trying to hide away from predators.’

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Britain and other countries are treating the oceans ‘like a sewer’ as the amount of plastic in the world’s seas is expected to treble by 2025, MPs warn.

The Government was accused of an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude to the seas and was urged to instead take the lead on plastic, pollution and ocean protection.  Plastic litter, untreated sewage, fertilisers and heavy metals, is pouring into the oceans, Parliament’s Environmental Audit Committee warned.

It said Britain can do a lot more to stop plastic ending up in the ocean via rivers sewers and drains.  Around 80 per cent of waste dumped in the sea worldwide comes from the land.  The UK needs to stop exporting waste to countries with poor recycling infrastructure - with the risk it ends up in the sea.  It must also improve recycling in the UK to stop rubbish ending up in the sea from rivers in this country.

The Daily Mail has led the way by campaigning for bans on plastic microbeads in cosmetics and for a levy on plastic bags to reduce plastic pollution.  This paper is also calling for a deposit return scheme to stop plastic bottles ending up being burnt or in landfill, or polluting the environment.

Target dates for the UK to improve its performance at recycling plastic need to be brought forward.  At present, the country has a target to produce zero avoidable plastic waste by 2042, and to introduce a bottle return scheme by 2023.  The panel urges that both dates should be brought forward.

The EAC also restated its calls for the introduction of a 25p ‘latte levy’ on disposable coffee cups, which contain plastic, and for all coffee cups to be recycled by 2023.

The Chancellor Philip Hammond ruled out a latte levy in the Autumn budget statement - although he said the Treasury would consult on taxing the manufacture and import of plastic packaging which contains less than 30 per cent recycled plastic.

In further comments the report said Britain also needs ‘clear milestones’ to reduce chemical pollution from land based sources such as fertiliser from farms.  A ‘Paris Agreement’ for the seas - a worldwide initiative to clean up the Oceans - similar to the world’s commitment in 2015 to reduce global warming - is vital, the report said.

The report said: ‘The Government must show leadership on plastic and make progress to ban those plastics that are difficult or impossible to recycle.’  Oceans are also threatened by climate change, with temperature rises of 2C above pre-industrial levels set to destroy almost all the world’s coral reefs and significantly harm fish stocks and other wildlife.

Overfishing and other exploitation of marine resources such as deep sea mining also threaten the seas.

The report noted that because of pollution, 86 per cent of English rivers did not reach good ecological status in 2016, lower than the EU average, and that UK bathing waters are seventh from the bottom in the EU.

Chair Mary Creagh MP said: ‘Our children deserve to experience the wonders of the ocean but climate change poses a triple whammy of threats from ocean warming, deoxygenation and acidification, which are decimating marine life.

‘We have to stop treating our seas as a sewer. Plastics, chemicals, and sewage are choking our oceans, polluting our water and harming every ocean species from plankton to polar bears.  The Government’s ‘out of sight, out of mind’ attitude on the seas must change.  We are calling on the Government to push for the creation of a legally-binding ‘Paris Agreement for the Sea’ to protect the world’s oceans.”

Including its overseas territories, the UK has jurisdiction more than 2.6 million square mile of ocean, and the Government should take a lead on protecting marine resources, the MPs said.

Will McCallum, of Greenpeace UK, said: ‘Our government has repeatedly stated its desire to lead the world in ocean protection, and this report outlines exactly how to do that.  Reducing how much plastic we use in the first place will be vital, as well as banning problem plastics and introducing a plastic bottle return scheme as soon as possible.’

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Human beings have 17 different facial expressions that tell those around us we are feeling happy.

Experts have discovered that the human face is capable of contorting itself into more happy faces than any other emotion.  Only three facial guises successfully convey fear, four show surprise, and five display sadness and anger.

Researchers at the Ohio State University compiled a list of 821 words that expressed emotions and had these translated into a number of languages including Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Farsi and Russian.  These were entered into popular search engines across countries and the team collected approximately 7.2 million images of facial expressions online.

Using computer algorithms, the researchers established that human face is capable of configuring itself in 16,384 unique ways, combining different muscles in different ways.

Despite the plethora of facial arrangements that are possible with the human face, researchers found only 35 were transferable over different cultures.   This may be a testament to the variety of ways in which joy is felt by humans, such as in the form of cheer, delight and contentedness.

Professor Aleix Martinez, cognitive scientist, at The Ohio State University, said:  'Happiness acts as a social glue and needs the complexity of different facial expressions; disgust is just that: disgust.'

Disgust is only revealed by our faces via one culturally transferable expression.

The latest study builds on Martinez's previous research that showed people can correctly identify facial emotions about 75 per cent of the time based solely on tiny differences in differences such as the colour of a person's nose, eyebrows, cheeks or chin.  So they were shocked to find that only 35 expressions could be understood across all of human kind.

The latest findings are published in the journal IEEE Transactions on Affective Computing.

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A strange-looking disk of ice is creating a stir in a Maine city.  The naturally occurring disk formed over the weekend in Westbrook, Maine on the Presumpscot River, drawing curious onlookers to investigate the strange sight.

Resident Doug Bertlesman told the Portland Press Herald: 'It kind of looks like a crop circle.  It's pretty wild to look at.  It's certainly not every day that you can watch a spinning circle of ice in the river.'  Bertlesman estimated that the ice disk was about 100 yards in diameter, which would make it one of the largest on record - if not the biggest ever.

According to published reports, the largest ice disk recorded was a 160-foot diameter circle in Sweden's Pite River in 1987.

The ice disk in Westbrook has created a buzz among residents after pictures were posted on the city's official Facebook page.  Comments on the photos said that it looked like a 'frozen crop circle' and joked that it might be the work of 'space gremlins'.

Tina Radel, the city’s marketing and communications director, is also a licensed drone operator, and used the city's drone to shoot aerial footage of the phenomenon from the city's river walk.

Westbrook is a city of 17,500 just to the west of Portland.  City officials hope interest in the ice disk will drive business to local merchants.  'If you get out today to check it out, be sure to stop by one the many downtown eateries that are nearby,' the city wrote on Facebook.

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