Male clocks tick too

Men shouldn’t leave it too late to start a family, as they too have a biological clock. Scientists have discovered that miscarriage rates climb steeply after a prospective father reaches 35. When fathers-to-be are between the ages of 30 and 34, the miscarriage rate is 16.7%. Between 35 and 39 it rises to 19.5%, and 32.5% for the over40s. Jacques de Mouzon, of the French National Institute for Medical Research, followed the progress of 12,000 couples. “People say men are fertile into old age,” he commented. “That may be true sometimes, but there are more semen abnormalities as age advances. It is necessary for men to try to have children before the ages of 40 and 45.”

Not so retiring

There’s clearly more to retirement than playing bowls: those over 70 are enjoying more sex than ever before. Researchers found that 68% of married men were still enjoying sex, compared with just 52% when a similar survey was conducted in 1971. The figure for married women was 56% compared with 38% in 1971. Just 12% of unmarried women are having sex in their seventies (0.8% in 1971) compared with 54% of unmarried men (30% in 1971). The research, published in the British Medical Journal, was conducted by a team at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, who interviewed more than 1,500 people in the city in the years 2000-2001.

Write a slim volume

Keeping a food diary like Bridget Jones’s can double the amount of weight you lose on a diet. Slimmers in an American study were asked to eat less fat and more vegetables, fruit and whole grains.

They were also asked to exercise three hours a week. Over six months they lost an average of 13lb. But those who kept food diaries lost about 18lb, compared with 9lb for those who did not. “Writing down everything you eat is a pretty powerful technique,” says Dr Victor Stevens, of the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon. “It helps the participants see where the extra calories are coming from.”

A boost for 2:2s

Degree not quite as good as you hoped? No need to worry – big companies no longer require a 2:1. More employers are happy to take graduates with a 2:2 or even a third. According to the Association of Graduate Recruiters, companies now think life skills are as important as academic achievement. Almost a third of companies say they would accept a 2:2 degree this year, compared with 24.7% last year. “Employers are realising that 2:1 degrees are not standard at all,” said Carl Gilleard, the association’s chief executive. More than half the employers questioned expressed concern about the literacy of today’s graduates.

Natural disaster

Half of Britain’s children can’t recognise an oak leaf or tell the difference between a bee and a wasp. Yet they have no trouble identifying one of Doctor Who’s Daleks or Yoda, the Star Wars Jedi master, according to a survey by the National Trust.

More than 1,600 children, aged between 10 and 12, took the online quiz.

You can test yourself at www.nationaltrust.org.uk.

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