Life’s Little Mystery

THIS MONTH, our cover feature, ‘The King of Vinyl’, will both delight and frustrate anyone who built up a record collection decades ago only to cast it – along with their turntable – aside to make room for CDs and digital downloads. Lovers of music carried across the warmer tones of medium frequencies are seeing a strong comeback of vinyl in music stores across the world. We tracked down Zdeneˇk Pelc, an unassuming man who ‘kept the faith’ – along with a trusty old black ‘cake’ press, and today heads a successful record business out of Prague. For his story, and the inspiration to rebuild a record collection, turn to page 38.

It seems that the most innately human thing – crying – and why we do it have split the medical science world. We know the physical reason for tears, but what drives our need to express this emotional response has lead to a research boom into why tears flow when we feel sadness, pain, joy or anger. ‘Why We Cry’ (page 46) sets out all the reasons for emotional crying, something naturalist and evolution theorist Charles Darwin long ago discounted as “purposeless”. As a soppy sentimental from way back, I’m glad our modern-day scientists are up for the challenge.

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