Elderly Care Facts

As people get older, there comes a point when they need additional help to live independantly or may require nursing care. So if you have a family member in this situation, here are a few facts.

Step 1: Ask your loved one's GP for advice or contact the local authority's social services for a needs asssessment. A social worker will decide whether they qualify for support and organise their care package.

Step 2: Those eligible for local authority support will be given a means test, including the value of their property (unless a partner is still living there, or they themselves will continue to live in their own home). Below a certain level of assets, the local authority may fund care completely or partially. They may also be eligible for some NHS contribution towards care.

Those who expect to fund their own care should still ask for a local authority assessment to identify the type of care needed. You can ask for a re-assessment at any time - especially of someone's health deteriorates or they financial position worsens.

Over-65s may qualify for an Attendance Allowance, a non-means tested benefit towards care.

Step 3: Choose the right care option. To find a good care home start with the Care Quality Commission (cqc.org.uk) for a list of local care homes and inspection reports. Also try findmegoodcare.co.uk

Meet the home's manager and chat to staff, residents and their families. Does it have a warm and friendly atmosphere? Are staff caring? Is it clean and maintained? Arrange for a trial period. Selling or ending the tenancy on your loved one's existing property should be left until the move is permanent.

Step 4: Anyone caring for someone for at least 35 hours a week can apply for a Carer's Allowance. If you don't qualify for the allowance, still claim as you may get Carer's Credit and/or contributions to your state pension. Ask for an assessment from social services to see if you qualify for support; this may include respite care. You also have the right to request flexible working from your employer under the Work and Families Act 2006.

Feature in Good Housekeeping October 2013

Permeable Paving and Surfaces

With recent increases in flooding and flood prevention awareness, permeable paving and hard surfaces are becoming more common. SuDS (Sustainable urban Drainage Systems) is an approach to water management introduced by the Water Agency in 2011which encourages the rapid drainage of water, eliminating the problems caused by standing water which contributes to flood prevention. A number of companies now offer these products.

SureSet www.sureset.co.uk specialises only in resin bound surfaces and guarantees all surfaces for 15 years against: loose stone; cracking; oil damage; UV degradation; colour change and frost damage.

Newspaper advert 20 September 2014

Creating Interactive Stories

Q. A while ago fantasy game books were popular; at the end of each passage you read you chose from several numbered options to continue the story. Thus you could read the book several times over, each with a different storyline.

A. Inklewriter (www.inklestudios.com/inklewriter) allows you to do exactly that. It is designed to help writers create interactive stories with branching passages. It's very easy to use - there is no set up, nothing to programme, no diagrams to create and it's free. When you have created your story you can share it online or perhaps even get it converted to be read on a Kindle.

Phil Bradley in CILIP Update August 2014

What Can I Recycle?

While it is best to avoid buying packaging and consumables where we can, it is not always possible. In order to recycle as much of what we end up buying, we need to know what the options are and whether this is easy for us to do. Every local authority now provides some form of doorstep recycling collection, but what is collected varies from authority to authority. [These details are for the UK.]

Plastics: The type of plastic determines whether it can be recycled or will end up in landfill. Plastics can be identified by a logo printed or embossed on the product (though many items and packaging materials do not state this). The logo is made up of three arrows making a triangle with a number inside and a code in letters underneath.

• 1 (or 01) PETE = Polythene Terepthalate. Most drinks bottles are made of this.
• 2 (or 02) HDPE (or PEHD) = High Density Polythene. Includes bottles for bleach and other household cleaning products, plastic pill bottles, shampoos, milk bottles.
• 3 (or 03) V = PVC (Polyvinyl Chloride). 
• 4 (or 04) LDPE = Low Density Polythene. Includes packaging typically found on fresh fruit in supermarkets.
• 5 (or 05) PP = Polypropylene.
• 6 (or 06) PS = Polystyrene. This includes yoghurt pots.
• 7 (or 07) OTHER = Items made from other types of plastic.
• Typically doorstep collections are made for types 1, 2 and 3 above. You may be able to recycle some of the other plastics by taking them to a local recycling centre - check first.

Plastic film and carrier bags can't usually be recycled in household collection schemes, but some can be recycled at supermarket carrier bag collection points. Here's what you can and can't recycle.

Yes: Plastic carrier bags; plastic bread bags (shake crumbs our first); plastic cereal bags, e.g. for porridge oats (not inner liners from boxed cereals); plastic wrappers and ring joiners from multi-packs of cans and plastic bottles; plastic wrappers from toilet roll and kitchen towel packs; plastic freezer bags; plastic magazine and newspaper wrap (the type used for home delivery); thin bags used for fruit and veg at supermarkets; bubble wrap.

 No: Cling film and other types of film; food and drink pouches (e.g. for coffee, baby food or cat food); crisp packets; film lids from ready meals and food trays.

Paper and Cardboard: These can be recycled but must be separated for different processes.

• Paper, newspapers, magazines, catalogues.
• Paper with confidential information (e.g. bank & credit card statements). It is often recommended that these are shredded but shredded paper is often excluded from paper and cardboard collections as it is very bulky for its weight. Your bank may be willing to shred statements. Another option is to put such items into your garden compost bin, where it will break down.
• Cardboard may include greetings cards. On hygiene grounds, items with food residue on them should not be included.
• Typically there are doorstep collections for paper, and increasingly for cardboard.

Glass: Is 10% recyclable and can be recycled endlessly without loss in quality or purity. Recycled glass can be substituted for up to 95% of the raw materials. Glass Packaging Institute.

• Glass containers for food and beverages are 100% recyclable.
• Other kinds of glass, like windows, ovenware, Pyrex, crystal, etc. are made using a different process. If they are introduced into the glass container manufacturing process, they can cause production problems and defective containers.
• Separating recycled glass by colour allows the industry to ensure that new bottles match the color standards required by glass container customers.
• Typically there are doorstep collections for glass bottles.

Metals:

• Aluminium - drinks cans and foil - is made from bauxite ore, which is mined causing huge environmental damage. The same energy is needed to make 20 recycled aluminium cans or just one new one.
• Steel cans be recycled time and time again, without any loss of quality.
• Typically there are doorstep collections for metal cans and aluminium foil. 

Batteries: We use an increasing number of batteries in everyday life.

• Wet-cell acid batteries used to power vehicles and by industry.
• Dry-cell non-rechargeable: zinc-carbon, zinc chloride and alkaline manganese are the most common household types.
• Primary button cells: mercury oxide (hearing aids, pacemakers), zinc air (hearing aids, radio pagers), silver oxide (watches, calculators) and lithium (watches and photographic equipment). These are also increasinlgy found in children's toys and books.
• Dry-cell rechargeable: e.g. nickel cadmium, nickel metal hydride and lithium ion. Used in mobile phones, laptop computers, cordless appliances, power tools, etc.
• You can take your batteries to most household waste recycling centres and most supermarkets now have collection points too. Some councils also offer a kerbside recycling service - check with your council to see if they do.

Food waste: Ideally we would only buy the amount of food we will eat and we would only have waste from food preparation (vegetable peelings). 

• Vegetable peelings and leftover boiled vegetables that are not re-used (e.g. for soup or in a stirfry) can be added to your garden compost bin.
• It is also a good idea to buy local / British where possible as these items will have travelled less air miles to get to your local shops.
• Some local authorities have doorstep collections for food waste.

Garden Waste: If you have a garden, the best option is to put as much as you can into your garden complost bins. Items which don't compost quickly may need to go back into the bins for a second composting cycle.

• Includes lawn mowings, weeds, hedge clippings, tree and shrub prunings.
• Does not include soil, stones, and building materials. These must be taken to local recycling centres.
• Local authorities often make doorstep collections, but there may be an a fee for this service.

Nappies: It is not clear whether reusable nappies or disposable nappies (and nappy sacks) are better environmentally, if all costs of production (and in the case of washable nappies, laundry costs) are taken into account. A third option is biodegradeable disposable nappies (and nappy sacks); these need to be composted to break down efficiently (landfill lacks the environment to help them do this).

Textiles: Increasingly people buy cheap clothing and wear it little before it is discarded, creating a large amount of discarded clothing. Depending on the fibre used and the quality of the item, clothing can be recycled.

• Items in good condition (especially branded items in demand) can be donated to charity shops or sold to vintage / collectables shops or online.
• Clothing and shoes can be recycled.
• Other textiles ( bedding, towels) can also be recycled.
• There are doorstep collections by (or on behalf of) charities. Otherwise, take items in good condition to a charity shop or to a local recycling centre.

Various sources (April 2015) including:
https://londonrecycles.co.uk/a-to-z/plastic-film-carrier-bags

END

Healthy Gut

Our gut bacteria are very important for our general health. There is growing evidence that probiotics in certain foods and supplements may help protect against and combat traveller's tummy, prevent diarrhoea during a course of antibiotics and help to treat ulcerative colitis.

Probiotic supplements: You need to take them for at least four weeks to see any effect, and there are several different types. Most contain lactobacillus or bifidobacterium bacteria, and the effects are strain specific- if one type does not work, try another.

Food: Up your intake of foods such as lentils, oats, bananas, asparagus and leeks, which contain non-digestible nutirents that 'feed' the beneficial probiotic bacteria in your gut.

Feature in Good Housekeeping September 2014

UK Constituency Boundary Commissions

Boundary Commissions in the UK are non-departmental public bodies responsible for determining the boundaries of constiuencies for elections to the Westminster (UK) Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales.There are four boundary commissions in the United Kingdom: one each for England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

There are four members of each Commission, of which three actually take part in meetings. The Speaker of the House of Commons is the ex officio Chair of each Boundary Commission, though s/he takes no part in the proceedings. The Deputy Chairman of a Commission, who presides over Commission meetings, is always a Justice in a British court. The Boundary Commissions are required to apply a series of rules when designing constituencies. Boundary changes can have a significant effect on the results of elections, but Boundary Commissions do not take any account of voting patterns in their deliberations, or consider what the effect of their recommendations on the outcome of an election will be. [For more detail see Wikipedia entry.]

The Commissions are currently established under the Parliamentary Constituencies Act 1986, most recently amended by the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2011.

The Sixth Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies was launched on 4 March 2011 and would have resulted in 600 constituencies for the United Kingdom Parliament: a reduction from the 650 constituencies that existed for the General Election of 2010. The number of constituencies in each of the 4 home countries is calculated in proportion to the electorate using a formula set out in the legislation. For the Sixth Review, the formula specified 502 constituencies in England, 16 constituencies in Northern Ireland, 52 constituencies in Scotland, and 30 constituencies in Wales.

In January 2013, parliament amended the legislation governing the Sixth Review with the effect that the review was cancelled. Each Commission is required to conduct subsequent reviews of all constituencies in its part of the United Kingdom every 5 years. [Why?]

Source: Wikipedia entry

Save or Spend at the Chemist

Once a branded product is out of patent, cheaper generic versions containing exactly the same drug can be sold. But in some cases, it may be better to pay a bit more.

• Pain relief SAVE. Generally it's not worth spending more on branded versions of over-the-counter medicines as they usually contain the same ingredients. But: sometimes branded versions have formulations that people prefer (e.g. tablets that melt on the tongue). Also some branded versions of ibuprofen contain different versions of the medicine that provide faster pain relief - which in turn may mean taking fewer doses.
• Vitamin supplements SPEND. Healthy people under 50 do not need to take vitamins routinely. If you do decide to take supplements, there can be significant differences between branded and generic products. Branded versions are prepared to high standards and you know you are getting what it states on the label.
• Contact lens and solutions CHECK FIRST. All contact lenses have to be medically approved and are stringently tested - but one type may suit you better than another. In general, cheaper lenses may not let as much oxygen through to your eye, and so won't be comfortable for as long. All lens solutions do a similar job, but vary in the preservatives they use. Your optometrist will know the health of your eyes and whether a particular solution is suitable - so get their advice before changing solutions.
• Toothpaste SAVE. As long as it contains fluoride, you don't need expensive ones offering whitening or plaque control - but make sure you like the taste. Toothbrushes SPEND. With a toothbrush you need to go for quality. Branded versions have rounded filaments and bristles that are softer and kinder to your gums than cheaper brushes.
• Coughs and colds SAVE. Cough syrups don't do a lot except possibly soothe the throat. While generally safe they should not be given to children under six years old. Some cold and flu remedies differ from each other in terms of the ingredients they contain. Most contain paracetamol, while some contain pseudoephedrine or phenylephedrine, which can be useful for relieving congestion. However it is unlikely that a branded product with the same ingredients as a generic one will be significantly better.
• Eye drops SAVE. There is only one over-the-counter drug available for use in allergy eye care -cromoglycate. It is available under lots of trade names (Allergon, Optrex and Opticon) and pharmacists make their own versions. There is no difference between branded and generic versions - so you are just paying for the trade name.
• Hay fever treatments SAVE.Cheaper antihistamines or generic brands have to comply with the same quality standards as branded versions and often the only difference is the packaging. So try these generic versions of well-known brands. Ceterizine is the generic name for Zirtec. Loratidine is the generic name for Clarityn. Acrivastine is the generic name for Benadryl.

Features in Good Housekeeping November 2014 and August 2015

Political Voting Systems

First past the post:

• It is a common, but not universal, feature of electoral systems with single-member legislative districts (constituencies) and generally results over time in a two-party competition.
• Larger parties gain a disproportionately large share of seats, while smaller parties are left with a disproportionately small share of seats. 
• To a greater extent than many other electoral methods, the first-past-the-post system encourages tactical voting. Voters have an incentive to vote for one of the two candidates they predict are most likely to win, even if they would prefer another of the candidates to win, because a vote for any other candidate will likely be "wasted" and have no impact on the final result.
• One-party rule is more likely to lead to radical changes in government policy that are only favoured by a plurality or bare majority of the voters, whereas multi-party systems usually require greater consensus in order to make dramatic changes.
• A large majority of votes may play no part in determining the outcome. This "winner-takes-all" system may be one of the reasons why "voter participation tends to be lower in countries with FPTP than elsewhere.

The Electoral reform Society is a political pressure group based in the United Kingdom which advocates abolishing the First Past the Post system (FPTP) for all national and local elections. It argues FPTP is "bad for voters, bad for government and bad for democracy". It is the oldest organisation concerned with electoral systems in the world.

Proportional Representation Systems
Electoral systems by which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If 30% of the electorate support a particular political party, then roughly 30% of seats will be won by that party. All votes contribute to the result: not just a plurality, or a bare majority, of them. Proportional representation requires the use of multiple-member voting districts; it is not possible using single-member districts alone. On average, compared to countries using plurality systems, governments elected with PR accord more closely with the median voter and the citizens are more content with democracy.

Single Transferable Vote
The single transferable vote (STV) is designed to achieve proportional representation through ranked voting in multi-seat constituencies (voting districts). Under STV, an elector has a single vote that is initially allocated to their most preferred candidate and, as the count proceeds and candidates are either elected or eliminated, is transferred to other candidates according to the voter's stated preferences, in proportion to any surplus or discarded votes. The exact method of reapportioning votes can vary. The system minimizes "wasted" votes and allows for approximately proportional representation without the use of party lists. It is the system of choice for the Electoral Reform Society.

Alternative Vote
Instant-runoff voting (IRV), alternative vote (AV), transferable vote, ranked choice voting, or preferential voting is an electoral system used to elect a single winner from a field of more than two candidates. It is a preferential voting system in which voters rank the candidates in order of preference rather than voting for a single candidate. Ballots are initially distributed based on each elector's first preference. If a candidate secures more than half of votes cast, that candidate wins. Otherwise, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. Ballots assigned to the eliminated candidate are recounted and added to the totals of the remaining candidates based on who is ranked next on each ballot. This process continues until one candidate wins by obtaining more than half the votes. Where preferential voting is used for the election of an assembly or council, parties and candidates often advise their supporters on their lower preferences. This can lead to "preference deals", a form of pre-election bargaining, in which smaller parties agree to direct their voters in return for support from the winning party on issues critical to the small party. However, this relies on the assumption that supporters of a minor party will mark preferences for another party based on the advice that they have been given.

Party List Proportional Representation
Political parties define candidate lists and voters vote for a list. The relative vote for each list determines how many candidates from each list are actually elected. Lists can be "closed" or "open". Open lists allow voters to indicate individual candidate preferences and vote for independent candidates. Critics claim this can give extreme parties a foothold in parliament, but these problems can be limited, as in the modern German Bundestag, by the introduction of higher threshold limits for a party to gain parliamentary representation.

Various pages on Wikipedia

Invasive Non-native Species

Non-native species have been introduced into the Uk for commercial or personal interests, but many have 'hitch-hiked'  via planes, ships and even people's luggage. Many are invasive creatures and plants which threaten native wildlife by eating native species, rapid breeding, damaging habitats or spreading disease. Many have no natural predators in the UK. There are more than 3,000 of these species, which cost our agriculture, horticulture and building industries an estimated £1.8bn every year.

What can you do?: Think about what you are growing in your ponds and gardens; never release anything into the wild; and report any invasive weeds or creatures that you see. Anglers and people with boats should also check, clean and dry their equipment to make sure they have no unwanted hitchhikers.

Here are the species do the greatest damage to our rivers and canals. If you want to help, contact the Canal & River Trust (canalrivertrust.org.uk), which is a charity that works to help control the threats to our native species and their environment.

Mink: Predators living in holes in the riverbank. The population of native water voles has fallen by 90% after mink escaped or were released from fur farms. Action:The Trust has been creating new habitat for watervoles across the country. They also monitor numbers of mink and supports targeted control of numbers.

Terrapins: Bought as pets but grow to the size of a dinner plate and are abandoned in waterways. They prey on dragonfly larvae, small fish and frogspawn, and even bully ducklings. Action:When found, these unwanted pets are taken to a rescue centre.

Giant Hogweed: Can grow up to 3m high, keeping native plants in the shade; in the summer each plant produces up to 80,000 seeds before it dies. The plant's toxic sap reacts with sunlight to blister your skin. The burns can be so deep that people have been hospitalised. The damaged skin then becomes hypersensitive to sunlight; a condition that can last for years. [If you do come into contact with the sap, cover the area to prevent the sap reacting with sunlight, and wash with soap and water.] It is an offence to cause this to grow in the wild under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981. Action: It needs to be removed professionally.  

Chinese Mitten Crab: Their pincers are coverred in fine hair, giving the appearance of mittens; they damage riverbanks by burrowing into them.

Japanese Knotweed: The bamboo-like weed can grow to 3m in just 10 weeks. It is so hardy it can burst through tarmac and concrete, causing costly damage to pavements, roads and buildings. It can grow from tiny fragments, and its presence can make a property unsaleable. Action:The Trust treats patches all over the canal network before small branches snap off and spread downstream.

Floating Pennywort: This fleshy stemmed plant was introduced to garden ponds in the 1980s. Now it infests watrerways, taking oxygen from fish and insects. It can grow from tiny fragments. Action: The Trust spends around £25,000 a year treating a single infestation of floating pennywort.

Killer Shrimp: These voracious predators were first spotted in 2010. They survive out of water for two weeks and spread from the Black Sea through commercial fishing. They prey on native shrimp, damselflies, water boatmen and smaller fish; and even kill prey and leave it uneaten.

Zebra Mussels: They degrade water quality and disrupt nature's balance. They rapidly form large colonies that attach to almost any submerged hard surface and gobble up the food supply. They also provide an ideal home for the killer shrimps, which have striped patterns to blend in with the mussels' shells. They are mostly spread through recreational boating and angling, when the mussels attach themselves to the hull and equipment and are then transported to other waters.

Himalayan Balsam: Introduced into gardens in 1839, this plant has pink orchid-like flowers. It has spread rapidly in the wild as its fruit pods can project the seeds several metres. Its impenetrable thickets bully out any other species and when it dies out in the winter it leaves riverbanks bare. Action: In June and July teams of volunteers organise balsam bashing parties to uproot the plants growing beside canals and rivers.

Azolla: This voracious water fern forms a dense blanket, which deprives other plants and animals of light and oxygen. Action: Large numbers of 2mm weevils originating from North America, like the azolla, are released and eat their way through the azolla in just a few weeks. The weevils don't eat anything else, so they don't damage native populations and once the azolla dies off, the weevils die off too. [Biocontrol is the use of a natural predator to control a pest. Any release of a biocontrol organism is carefully checked and tested to ensure there are no unforeseen or harmful results.]

Water Patrol (Canal & River Trust canalrivertrust.org.uk) April 2015

Calculating Tips

Q. Ever been out to a meal with friends and ended up trying to work out how much everyone should contribute to the tip?

A. Google has a tip calculator - just type in those two words and you'll get a pop-up box into which you can type the amount of the bill, a percentage for the tip and the number of people. Google then works out the total tip per person and the total proportion of the bill.

Phil Bradley in CILIP Update Dec/Jan 2014

Bottled Water Facts

Today we buy more bottled water than ever before - the average Brit will spend £25,000 on bottled water and drinks in their lifetime. But there are other  costs too.

• Bottled water typically travels 1,000 km from bottling plant to house and the majority end up in landfill.
• In UK supermarkets, 30% of all bottled water sold is actually tap water.
• Big companies make big money out of reprocessing tap water. Some simply distill tap water (look out for 'purified' on the label) before artificially adding the minerals that have been lost in the purification process.
• Only about 20% of plastic bottles are recycled in the UK; the rest are sent to landfill.

There may be health risks too.

• Bottled water may be more harmful than tap water. Some bottled waters have been found to contain potentially dangerous levels of bacteria - far more than would ever be allowed in tap water.
• UK regulations for tap water are among the strictest in the world. Contrary to popular belief, tap water is not re-cycled waste water. What comes out of your tap originally came from streams, springs and resevoirs - which sounds remarkably similar to what you pay for in a plastic bottle.
• It is an urban myth that single-use plastic bottles release 'cancer-causing'  chemicals (e.g. BPA, DHEA and dioxins) since none of these substances exist in today's bottles. But some scientists have recently detected low levels of chemicals in bottled water that can act on the body like the female hormone oestrogen; more research is needed on whether they are harmful.

Finally, taste tests have proven that most of us can't tell the difference between mineral water and refrigerated tap water. So save money and reduce plastic waste by keeping a bottle of the free stuff in the fridge.

Dr Stuart Farrimond feature in The Wiltshire Times 13 March 2015

Spoof and Fake Websites

Spoof or fake websites can be obvious, but not always. Phil Bradley put together a couple of pages on his website listing some 50 spoof and fake websites. (But since this clipping is dated 2007, there will be many more out there).

Scientific and commercial sites are at www.philb.com/fakesites.htm

Social, political and religious examples are at www.philb.com/fakesites2.htm

Phil Bradley in CILIP Update Jan/Feb 2007

Dandruff

A dry, scaly scalp and flakes affect at least half of us at some point.

• Dandruff is not caused by having unclean hair - in many cases a yeast called malassezia is to blame. It's often worse in Winter, as sunlight inhibits the yeast, and it thrives in the sweaty environment under a hat. Natural bacteria on your scalp can protect agains the yeast but hair dyes can destroy them, so avoid dyeing if possible.
• Dandruff shampoos that contain selenium sufide or zinc (check the small print on the bottle) are active against malassezia yeast. Leave them on for three to five minutes before rinsing.
• The anti-fungal shampoo Ketoconazole is the most effective way to get rid of the yeast. Leave it on for three to five minutes before rinsing. Use it twice a week for two weeks, then once a fortnight to keep the yeast at bay. 
• For a natural alternative, tea tree oil was found in one study to reduce dandruff by almost half. 
• The skin condition psoriasis can affect just your scalp, causing red patches covered in silvery, flaky scales and it can be itchy or uncomfortable. If you suspect you might be affected, see your doctor.

Feature in Good Housekeeping October 2014

Good and Evil

Over many years British neuroscientist Prof Adrian Raine and his team scanned the brains of numerous murderers; nearly all showed similar brain changes. There was reduced activity in the pre-frontal cortex, the area of the brain which controls emotional impulses, and over activation of the amygdala, the area which generates our emotions. So it seems that murderers have brains that make them more prone to rage and anger, while at the same time making them less able to control themselves.

Raine's studies suggest that part of the reason may be childhood abuse, which can cause physical damage to the brain. The pre-frontal cortex is especially vulnerable. But only a small proportion of those who have a terrible childhood grow up to become murderers.

A breakthrough came in 1993 with a family in the Netherlands where all the men had a history of violence. Fifteen years of painstaking research revealed that they all lacked the same gene - one which produces an enzyme called MAOA, which regulates the levels of neurotransmitters involved in impulse control. It turns out that if you lack the MAOA gene or have the low-activity variant you are predisposed to violence. This variant became known as the warrior gene.

About 30% of men have this so-called warrior gene, but whether the gene is triggered or not depends crucially on what happens to you in childhood. Jim Fallon, professor of psychiatry at the University of California, has a particularly personal interest in this research. After discovering a surprisingly large number of murderers in his family tree he had himself genetically tested and discovered he had an awful lot of genes that have been linked to violent psychopathic behaviour. But Jim isn't a murderer - he's a respected professor.

His explanation is that he was protected from a potentially violent legacy by a happy childhood. "If you've the high-risk form of the gene and you were abused early on in life, your chances of a life of crime are much higher. If you have the high-risk gene but you weren't abused, then there really wasn't much risk. So just a gene by itself, the variant doesn't really dramatically affect behaviour, but under certain environmental conditions there is a big difference".

So it seems that a genetic tendency towards violence, together with an abusive childhood, are literally a killer combination - murderers are both born and made. Research is focusing on ways to reduce violent behaviour and there is good evidence that teaching families who are at risk positive parenting skills is effective at improving impulse control. The hope is that now we know so much more about the causes of murderous behaviour we can spot the early warning signs and intervene before it's too late.

BBC Horizon programmes Are you good or evil? and The mystery of murder, 9 March 2015 and article by Dr Michael Mosley on BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-31714853