What exactly is happiness? Is it an unpredictable emotion or something rational we can strive for? Daniel Nettle is a biological psychologist at the Open University in the U.K. and he claims that evolution has predisposed us with a set of beliefs about the things that will make us happy and a drive to pursue these things. He looks at many surveys that show that people's sense of their own happiness is much more important than their actual plight in life. In this day and age, happiness is almost an obsession as people go to therapy, buy self-help books and even take pills that claim to make you happier. Nettle believes that we are meant to live in a world where we respond to immediate physical danger, but instead we live in relatively safe conditions. This can lead to anxiety and depression, and perhaps a more elusive pursuit of happiness...

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And finally, to announce the winner of last month's book competition... Congratulations to Judi Gomes who will receive a copy of Just Another Day by Adam Hart-Davis.