While thousands of impoverished people in the crisis-hit countries of Europe have been marching in opposition to more spending cutbacks and austerity measures, rather different scenes will soon be played out in an Athens courtroom.

Modern publishing history abounds with "adult" writers who try their hand at books for younger readers, right across the spectrum from Salman Rushdie to Katie Price. Traffic in the other direction is far more risky and irregular.

Who invented the computer? This turns out to be a far more complicated question than you might imagine. There is no doubt that it was mathematicians who first conceived of a universally programmable machine, but which mathematicians?

Amerigo Vespucci remains a complex figure. By Peter Popham

He had two continents named after himself and thrilled Europe with the salacious tales of what he saw there. But, 500 years on, can we trust Amerigo Vespucci's accounts? Peter Popham discovers the full story

Graham Reynolds is the quintessential modern composer, able to turn his hand to anything from rock to ballet to movie scores to jazz.

Where are you now and what can you see?

If there was a theme to Festival of the Spoken Nerd's mix of science and comedy tonight then it was pyrotechnics. From a tale of homemade napalm to a demonstration of a standing wave flame tube there were flashes and bangs aplenty, if no explosive end result.

ICT in England's schools is a "mess" and must be radically revamped to prepare pupils for the future, Michael Gove has said.

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"It's not overlong, it's value for money!" exclaimed Robin Ince at the end of the second night of his third series of seasonal rationalist jamborees, celebrations that are akin to the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures with jingle bells on.

Nostalgia for a return to the Victorian era is usually prompted by a desire to regain the discipline of a less liberal and cosseted period and a more rigorous and stricter education system.

Few groups have the musical courage of The Roots. Philadelphia's favourite hip-hop sons approach a genre overrun with blandness and imitation, with the intelligence and precision of a mathematician, combined with an alchemist's passion for experimentation. What other group, regardless of genre, would not only employ a full-time sousaphone player but start their show with a solo from him? It's hard to imagine anyone else having the nerve, much less the talent, to make it work.