Like many of us I’m keen to do my bit to save the planet, writes Julia Stephenson 

I precycle, recycle and cycle; I darn and dye my old clothes so I don’t have to buy new ones, I save the plastic bags newspapers are often wrapped in at the weekend and use them as sandwich bags (over and over again until they fall apart).  I even get my inamorato to pee on the compost heap.

Cocaine use in London is higher than in any other European city.  It verges on acceptable, within the environmentally proactive middles-classes, to pull out a wrap of cocaine at the tail-end of a dinner party alongside the Cointreau.

Most of us are aware of the detrimental effects of drug trade and use within our inner-cities and ports, but what about the global environmental effect each time a couple of grams of cocaine are snorted up, between friends winding-down for the weekend?

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For thirteen years, astronomers have inferred only the presence of planets circling other stars. Now, they have finally spotted them with their own eyes.

In two papers published online today in Science, researchers report imaging four planets circling two other stars. Experts say this direct view could shed light on planet formation - and eventually even provide signs of alien life.

The three red dots orbiting the central blob are the exoplanets. 

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Very, if you buy them from Marks and Spencer, who have recently opened the world’s first 100 per cent carbon neutral, 100 per cent green, 100 per cent ethical factory in Sri Lanka, living up to their claims of being the UK's most sustainable retailer. 

The only problem is that these sumptuous organic undies won’t be available until January so we’ll just have to hang on to our old ones till then.

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Most of us experience loss at some point in our lives. Diane Southam gives some tips on grief management

A pioneer in preventative medicine, Dr Dean Ornish, Professor of Medicine at the University of California, was the first physician to demonstrate that comprehensive lifestyle changes could reverse even severe coronary heart disease, without drugs or surgery.

He founded the Preventative Medicine Research Institute, where his current research shows that changes in lifestyle affect gene expression, "turning on" disease-preventing genes and "turning off" genes that promote disease. He argues that our natural state as humans is to be happy, healthy and peaceful, with our bodies possessing a remarkable capacity to heal.

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