LONDON - FAR FROM being a waste of time, doodling can make a boring presentation or speech easier to memorise, according to research published in Britain on Friday.

Scribbling is normally taken to signify boredom and a short attention span, but a new study at Plymouth University in southwest England has shown that doodling while listening actually helps memory recall.

SAN FRANCISCO - FACEBOOK is giving power to the people when it comes to deciding what to do with policies and products at the leading social-networking website.

Facebook on Thursday said it hopes that by giving its more than 175 million users a voice in how the service is run it will avoid the backlash and controversy that have greeted changes implemented by the company.

PARIS - UNDER Darwinian pressure, genes that don't help the struggle to survive get squeezed out of the genetic code, leaving the ones that are fitter.

Given that the vast majority of humans are right-handed, why is it that left-handedness - of which President Barack Obama is a proud practitioner - is still around? In a study published on Friday, French evolutionary biologists offer an explanation: left-handedness, they say, has survived because it is so rare.