Speaking multiple languages may slow brain aging by up to 13 years, a new study finds. Language learning can improve attention, working memory and executive function at any age.

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How healthy is your brain? In our efforts to keep our brains healthy, how do we know what is working? It shouldn't have been difficult: 72 x 72. From the back seat, my daughter, newly confident in mental maths, wanted to check her answer. Whether it was because it was the end of the day, I was trying to park or something else, I stalled, cognitively speaking. Lately, though, I have had the sense that my brain isn't firing on all cylinders.

A large-scale clinical trial has shown that even long-term consumption of DHA--an omega-3 fatty acid found in abundance in oily fish--may not lead to improvements in cognitive function. Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), an omega-3 fatty acid found in abundance in oily fish such as mackerel and sardines, is thought to improve cognitive function by supporting connections between brain cells. However, it has never been conclusively demonstrated that DHA taken as a dietary supplement actually reaches the brain or provides measurable benefits against dementia . Against this backdrop, a research team at the USC School of Medicine has published the results of a large, two-year clinical trial involving older adults at elevated risk of developing Alzheimer's disease . The study found that while high-dose DHA supplements do indeed reach the brain, they did not improve memory or cognitive function, nor did they slow brain atrophy.

The US government wants to get hold of a quantum computer good enough to contribute to scientific breakthroughs in just two years. It will use it to try to accelerate the research and development of new materials, pharmaceuticals and molecules useful in agriculture and manufacturing. Once a dream of theoretical physicists, quantum computers are now undoubtedly real, but have yet to prove unambiguously useful or to have broad commercial value. Their computational power depends on their size - how many components called qubits they comprise - and how reliable they are. Existing devices are still too small and too error-prone.

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Plus: The Trump administration has asked OpenAI to limit its next model release. Scientists are trying to figure out why. It's been hot in London this week. A dangerous heat wave has hit Western Europe. On Wednesday, the UK recorded its highest ever June temperature at 36.1 C (about 97 F). But as the weather app on my phone confirmed, it 39 C. Much of Western Europe is suffering, bringing awful consequences for agriculture, infrastructure, and the health system.

Children and people with mental health disorders are especially vulnerable.

Feedback could never be a professional chef. That's partly because there is no way we could stand the pressure of such a frantic work environment, to say nothing of the stress of potentially running into Gordon Ramsay. But mostly it's because we would tear up every time we had to chop an onion. The reason some of us cry when we chop onions is a chemical called syn-propanethial-S-oxide, which gets sprayed into the air . It triggers the trigeminal nerve, which, in turn, activates the tear ducts to wash away the irritating chemical.

Sci-fi columnist Emily H. Wilson rounds up her favourite reads of the year to date - and highlights one particular book as her top pick The best science-fiction book of the year so far has only just been published. The End of Everything, by M. John Harrison, is about half the length of a regular novel, but it's so powerful and complete that there is nothing slight about it. I consumed it in one greedy gulp before getting up one morning. Our main characters, Phillip and his grandmother Marnie, live along the south coast of England in the wake of an alien invasion. Since the iGhetti began to appear, the European mainland seems to have disappeared, and it has become very hard indeed to work out what is real and what isn't. Strange, dangerous artefacts wash up out of the sea.