Art? What is it and what’s it for? These eternal questions kept coming up on our very artsy visit to London last week, where we took in:   Hajj: journey to the heart of Islam at the British Museum; Dickens & London at the Museum of London; the play “The Pitmen Painters” at the Duchess Theatre on Drury Lane, and even a visit to ancient Stonehenge. (2012/02/27)

My father in his last years was tentatively diagnosed as having Alzheimer’s. I never believed it. Now, new research on the human genome and, among other things, how canaries learn new songs brings us a little closer to understanding how memory works, and why it doesn’t.