In my previous piece, I explained why, if it wants to be a member of the EU, Scotland cannot simply carry on using the pound without a formal currency union with the rest of the UK (rUK), and why having its own currency within the EU is also unlikely to be viable over the longer-term.

Angus Armstrong of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research has challenged the idea that Scotland’s immediately joining the euro, upon accession to the EU (which could presumably be negotiated so as to coincide with exit from the Sterling area) is an option.

He contends that, whatever the long-term situation, Scotland would initially have to have its own currency. The reason is that, under the rules of the euro, a country wanting to join must first be a member of the "Exchange Rate Mechanism II" (ERM II) for two years. Since the UK is not going to do that, he claims Scotland would have to have its own currency before adopting the euro.

I have two responses to this. First, even if true the only consequence for my other case is that, in addition to the economic losses Scotland would make in switching from the pound to the euro, Scotland would also make intermediate losses by having to convert its currency twice within only a couple of years. Second, although Angus is correct about what the rules say, I do not believe Scotland would, in practice, be forced to establish its own currency and join ERM II, and it is of interest to understand why.

The ERMII mechanism is designed to ensure that countries have a sufficiently stable exchange rate that the correct parity (rate of exchange of the old currency into the euro) can be chosen when the euro is joined. Under ERMII countries must demonstrate that they can keep their currency within 15% of the target conversion parity for two years before conversion. But over the past two years, for example, the pound sterling has varied by much less than 15% from its current exchange rate of around 1.22 euros to the pound.

Indeed, it has varied by less than 6%. That means that for practical purposes there is much less uncertainty over the correct parity for Scotland’s old currency (the pound) than there was for the Estonian kroon or the Lithuanian litas — both of which sat in ERMII whilst qualifying. To force Scotland to bear the currency conversion costs of creating its own currency simply so it could bear currency conversion costs again two years later to switch into euros would be regarded as perverse and unnecessary by all concerned.

Hence, I believe this likely to be a false issue in the event that Scotland obtains instant EU membership. Unless something very odd happened to the sterling-euro exchange rate between now and Scottish independence, if it secured instant EU membership Scotland would be able to convert straight from pounds into euros without needing to create its own currency in between.

There is, of course, the risk that Scotland would not be permitted to join the EU immediately upon becoming independent, and would instead face a qualifying period in many areas (not simply currency).Angus' case might well apply then.That could create significant additional disruption and uncertainty for the Scottish economy, which would sit in a strange limbo for years.

The statements by George Osborne, Ed Balls and Danny Alexander that no currency union with an independent Scotland would be feasible have exposed a large degree of confusion amongst Scottish politicians and other commentators regarding what the dissolution of a currency union implies. For example, some have made remarks along the lines of "The pound is a shared asset – the English can't deny Scotland its share" or "Scotland is entitled to its claim upon the assets of the Bank of England".

Each of those remarks is entirely correct, but have not the slightest thing to do with whether there is a formal currency union with England, rather suggesting that those making such remarks do not understand the basics of currency break-up.

When an independent Scotland left the pound to form its own new currency – let's call it the Scotch dollar – it would pass a currency conversion law, changing all debt contracts that fall under Scottish law from pounds into Scotch dollars and, if this were thought necessary, mandating the exchange of all sterling notes and coin in Scotland into Scotch dollars and cents.Scotland would establish its own central bank – say, the Reserve Bank of Scotland, which would inherit the Scottish portion of the assets and liabilities of the Bank of England – e.g. the Reserve Bank of Scotland would get some Bank of England gold and foreign currency reserves and the claim on coupon payments from UK government debt held under QE presumably matching its portion of total UK government debt (which, in political terms at least, it is ludicrous to suggest Scotland could walk away from whilst hoping to become an EU member – does anyone believe Scotland would get into the EU if it repudiated its responsibilities for UK debt?).

Thus there is no sense in which refusing to form a currency union with Scotland implies the rest of the UK attempting to deny Scotland its share of the pound or of the Bank of England's assets.

These are basic points.The independence debate in Scotland would benefit, considerably, if Scottish politicians and commentators were to grasp them.

More on this story:
Westminster dynamites Alex Salmond's currency union
Is Cameron an asset or liability against Salmond?
There are two men who could help Mr Cameron save Britain

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Marie-Anotinette knew it: bread and cake (and brioche) are very different things. As patissier Eric Lanlard has told The Telegraph previously, there is a rivalry between bakers and pastry chefs in France, and woe betide he who confuses them. Pastries may steal the show when it comes to aesthetics - nothing beats gold-rimmed glass windows filled with glistening fruits and sweet Chantilly cream - but bread is what keeps Paris going. Baking this staple carbohydrate is highly regulated in France - there are ministry papers longer than a Budget report detailing yeast, flour and water specifications.

You can forget all that and just take our advice on where to go to buy the best baguettes, loaves - and the odd pain au chocolat - in the French capital.

Don't forget to download the Telegraph Travel app from the App Store for more expert recommendations on where to eat, what to see and where to shop in Paris. You will also find on the app advice on New York, Rome, Amsterdam and St Kitts.

Poilâne

The fun might have been spoilt now that you can buy Poilâne bread in Waitrose, but nothing compares entering the olde-worlde wooden-shelved Paris shop at 8 rue du Cherche-Midi, which stands slightly incongruously against the designer shoe boutiques that occupy surrounding units. Pierre Poilâne moved to Paris in 1932 to open this very shop, and the family has been selling the off-white crumb sourdough loaves ever since. Eat slices – cut from the famous miche (loaf) – toasted and topped with melted goat’s cheese, or join the queue for the hot-from-the-oven apple turnovers, demand for which supply finds hard to keep pace with. (8 rue du Cherche-Midi, 75006; 00 33 1 45 48 42 59; poilane.com )

Specialties at Eric Kayser's bakeries include fig bread and a mixed grain round loaf. Photo: David Grimbert

Eric Kayser

Eric Kayser prides itself on using liquid yeast, a mixture of fermented flour and water, which is said to be more difficult to master than hard yeast – but yields superior results. The bread has a soft crumb and a thick golden crust, and each loaf is baked in the branch in which it is sold. Specialities include fig bread, and the mixed grain round loaf, perfect with honey or jam as a snack. (Various shops in Paris, including one at 85 boulevard Malesherbes, 00 33 1 45 22 70 30; maison-kayser.com )

Lemarié

Natasha Edwards, Telegraph Travel's resident Paris expert, goes to four or five different bakeries near her home, as each has some things that they do better than the others. Her current favourite is Lemarié, on Place de la Contrescarpe. Natasha says "no-one's heard of them but they do a really good crusty Tradigrain baguette." (Place de la Contrescarpe, 75005)

Moisan

As Parisians become more health conscious, the humble white flour baguette has ceded its place in recent times to wholegrain and wheat-free loaves. Moisan is at the helm, supplying well-to-do Parisians with wholemeal sourdough loaves in a variety of shapes and sizes, the most popular being the fat, brown country-style loaf, ready for breaking and dunking into vegetable broth with a hunk of French cheese. Maybe not so healthy, then, but very, very good. All the bakery’s flour is certified organic (“Bio” products are the hottest thing since red wine and garlic in Paris at the moment) and the results are enough to make you forget the 5:2, 4:3, or whichever is the latest diet craze. (Available from bakers and delis across Paris; 00 33 1 49 58 10 48)

Ridha Khadher of Au Paradis du Gourmand with his award-winning baguettes. Photo: Getty

Au Paradis du Gourmand

Baker Ridha Khadher won the Best Baguette in Paris competition last year – a serious contest entered by 203 of the city’s boulangers. The entries are strictly tested and must meet certain criteria, including having a length of 55-70cm and a weight of 25-300 grams. All the entries were pulled apart, sniffed, tasted and examined before Mr Khadler, whose bakery Au Paradis du Gourmand (“In the food lover’s heaven”) is in the 14th arrondissement, won. His prize? Supplying bread to the Elysée Palace for a year. (156 Rue Raymond Losserand, 75014; 00 33 9 62 30 47 13)

Boulangerie Murciano

This kosher Jewish bakery in the Marais district sells fluffy white plaited loaves alongside rich, nutty pastries and famous apfelstrudel - apple pastries. Customers enter via a blue doorway and are served by women in (authentic) traditional dress. Those avoiding the calories in the baker's creations can admire them piled up in the pretty glass and white plastic window shelves. (Rue des Rosiers, 75004 Paris, France; 00 33 1 48 87 48 88)

Murciano, in the Marais, sells Jewish bread. Photo: Getty

Du Pain et des Idées

In a shop that dates from 1870, retaining its bevelled mirrors and painted glass ceiling, Christophe Vasseur runs a bakery that promises to use only natural ingredients, with all loaves baked on the premises. He keeps it simple, making only a couple of varieties of bread, some viennoiserie and, on Fridays, a bread with apples, grapes and orange flowers, and “Le Rabelais”, a sweet bread with chestnut honey, saffron, Perigord nuts and turmeric. Flour is the finest French organic kind; butter is of the extra fine variety, from Montaigu, and in his pastries Valrhona chocolate is secreted. The crème de la crème. (34 rue Yves Toudic 75010; 00 33 1 42 40 44 52; dupainetdesidees.com )

Boulangerie - Pâtisserie A. Torres

A real boulanger du quartier (local neighborhood baker), this shop in the Latin Quarter emits glorious smells of freshly baking bread that are difficult to resist. Inside you will find a fine selection of traditional baguettes – white, country-style and seeded – alongside sugared almonds and little packs of sweets that French mummies buy to keep les enfants happy. Also look out for the doorstep wedges of quiche. You won’t find many other tourists here, but if you want to live like a local, this is where to come. (45, rue Claude Bernard, 75005; 00 33 1 43 31 21 57)

Boulangerie Gosselin

In Paris's 7th arrondissement, near the Musée d'Orsay, this 25-year-old business sells bread made from traditional family recipes, and the baguettes have the obligatory encrusted flour dusting and a light texture. Also come here for soups in winter, cakes, and macaroons (258, boulevard Saint Germain 75007 Paris; 01 45 51 53 11; boulangeriegosselin.com ) .

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Making your own investment decisions can seem confusing and complicated – but Andy Bell, who has written a book about the subject, has boiled down the key lessons into this 10-point checklist.

1. Have a plan

Before you do anything else, you must define your investment goals. A well-defined plan will ensure you focus on your targeted annual and overall return, your investment time horizon and also what you consider to be an acceptable level of risk. This will help shape which types of investment are best for you.

2. Understand risk and reward

Risk is best considered as "losing your money". It's amazing how many people say they have a high risk tolerance until they suffer a first loss and then completely change their minds.

Anything you do involves risk – even keeping cash in the bank, as your money is likely to be eroded by inflation and you may miss out on better returns elsewhere. The key is to ensure that any rewards on offer match your appetite for risk and overall investment goals.

3. Make the most of tax breaks

You should use up as much of your Isa and Sipp (self-invested personal pension) allowances as you can. You can put £11,520 into an Isa before April 6 and then £11,880 for the new financial year. Don't forget Junior Isas for your children – you can put in 50pc of the adult allowance.

You can put £50,000 into a Sipp this tax year and £40,000 next, or even sweep up unused tax relief by carrying forward contributions from the last three years. Pensions are especially tax-efficient if you pay higher-rate tax.

4. Have a mix of different investments

Don't put all of your eggs in one basket. A portfolio that features some shares in both large and small companies, some bonds and maybe even specialist commodity or property funds should ensure that some income or capital gains are trickling into your savings pot whatever happens. You need no more than 12 to 15 holdings. Otherwise your investments become time-consuming and expensive to manage. Isas can now hold companies listed on London's junior investment market, called Aim, so don't overlook these.

5. Dividend reinvestment is crucial

Stock markets are really get-rich-slow schemes and the way to do it is to target shares or funds that pay a decent dividend yield and then reinvest it, so the power of compounding works in your favour. Around two thirds of total returns from over time come from these precious payments and their reinvestment.

6. A bad stock in a good sector will outperform a good stock in a bad sector

Certain sectors do well at certain times of the economic cycle – say retailers during an upturn and drug stocks during a recession. Picking the right sector will reduce the legwork and help you focus on certain funds, trackers or shares at the right time.

Analysts are very positive about technology for its growth potential and the profit turnaround that the banks could offer but remain negative about stodgy "defensives" such as utilities and consumer staples such as beverages and tobacco.

7. Convert to 'clean' funds

Funds are now available in new variants, called "clean share classes", which have a lower annual management charges (typically 0.75pc a year) than the old kind, on which charges were typically 1.5pc).

Both variants hold exactly the same investments, but one is twice the price of the other. If you convert to the clean class of a fund, there will be an annual charge imposed by your investment shop or "platform", but you will almost certainly still be better off.

8. Use up your capital gains tax allowance

Your capital gains tax allowance for 2013-14 is £10,900. You can protect profits by making use of your spouse's allowance by transferring investments to them, being selective about what you sell and offsetting any previous losses.

9. Review your choice of investment platform

As part of the move to clean funds, investment platforms can no longer share in the fund manager's annual management charge. So they are having to make an explicit charge for buying, selling and holding funds. Most investment platforms are using this opportunity to review all charges so platforms that were cheap in 2013 may not be quite as attractive in the future.

But don't forget, it is not all about price. Service and online functionality are equally important.

10. Write or update your will

Always ensure that your will, and the nomination of beneficiaries for your pension, are up to date and take account of any recent changes in circumstances. This will ensure your loved ones can benefit from your careful planning and investments.

Andy Bell is the head of AJ Bell, the investment platform, and author of The DIY Investor, published by Pearson

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Chefs in France have spoken out about the increasing number of diners who disrupt their restaurants by taking endless photos of their food

For some diners, taking a photo of your perfectly-presented plate is a standard a way of showing appreciation.

But for some French chefs, it is an insult to their art.

Now a group of leading restaurateurs – among them a man with three Michelin stars – is campaigning to end the culture of "food porn" and ban smartphone photos from their restaurants.

"Before they took photos of their family, of their granny – now it's photos of the dishes," said Alexandre Gauthier, chef at the Grenouillere restaurant in La Madelaine-sous-Montreuil, 40 miles from Calais.

"There is a time and a place for everything. Our aim is to create a special moment in time for our clients. And for that, you have to switch off your phone."

The 34-year-old chef told La Voix du Nord, a local newspaper, that his customers had sometimes set off a series of flashes, repositioned their tables, taken each photo several times, then posted it on social media – leaving the dishes to go cold.

"It's flattering in a certain way," he admitted. "But we want to encourage people to relax."

Mr Gauthier has introduced a symbol on his menus depicting a camera with a line through it. Cameras are not banned, he said, but he wanted to "raise the issue" with his clients.

Another chef, Gilles Goujon, told the Midi Libre newspaper that he wanted to ban cameraphones at his three Michelin-starred restaurant, L'Auberge du Vieux Puits, in Fontjoncouse, near Perpignan. But he was yet to find an "acceptable formula" of doing so.

"If people take a photo and put it out on social media, it takes away the surprise," he said, adding that his signature dish "oeuf de poule pourri de truffles" (chicken egg laden with truffles) was now commonly pictured on social media.

"It takes away a little bit of my intellectual property too. Someone could copy me.

"Plus a photo taken on an average smartphone is rarely a great image. It doesn't give the best impression of our work. It's annoying."

The French chefs are not alone in their displeasure. Some restaurants in New York have become so frustrated with clients climbing on chairs to photograph the dishes that they too have banned smartphones.

"My philosophy is it's not your own dining room, you're there with many other diners," said Joann Makovitzky, owner of Tocqueville restaurant in New York, where the walls are made of metal and there is no mobile phone reception. "People are there for their own dining experience and anything you do to infringe on that experience, we frown on."

But others say that the images are good publicity for the restaurants.

"We must move with the times" says David Toutain, who opened his eponymous Paris restaurant in December.

"I think social networks helped me at the start of my career and still help me. It is advertising for us."

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The risk of a new mother suffering from post-natal depression could be predicted weeks before the birth of her child simply be monitoring her Twitter feed, computer scientists have found.

Microsoft labs has discovered that it is possible to spot which pregnant women will struggle with motherhood based on the language they use before the birth.

Intriguingly, the algorithm does not depend on the mother talking about the pregnancy or her baby, but picks up subtle verbal cues which reveal her underlying unhappiness or anxiety.

General negativity in language, with a rise in the number of words like 'hate' 'miserable' 'disappointed', increased use of the word 'I' and a jump in the number of expletives are all clues that a new mum will suffer post-natal depression.

Eric Horvitz, of Co-director of Microsoft Research in Washington, said: "We saw several patterns in the language of women with post-natal depression.

"Then we wondered if we could go back in time and see if this trend could be spotted before the birth. And we found we could.

"We found that two to three weeks before the birth the same clues were there in around 80 per cent of cases.

"It's very subtle. It's things like an increase in the word 'frustrated' and, for example, they curse more often.

"Psychologists have found in strong work that shifts to higher frequencies of the use of first-person pronoun can indicate onset of depression, as people become more self-focused.

"You really get a feeling of what is going on in the heads of those people who were struggling."

The study looked at the language of 2,929 women three months before their birth and three months afterwards.

They noticed that the 15 per cent of women who went on to be diagnosed with suffering post natal depression asked more questions, had lower levels of positivity and increased levels of anger and anxiety.

Horvitz believes an app could be designed which picks up on these clues and could direct new mothers towards help.

"Post natal depression is known to be under reported because of the stigma attached," he said.

"It's not one for Microsoft, but a welfare group could create an app that women could run on a smartphone which warns them of the onset of depression and points them to resources to help them deal with it."

Prof James Pennebaker of the Department of Psychology at the University of Texas has found that the content of what people say online is not as important as how they say it through their use of 'function words' such as pronouns, conjunctions and prepositions.

"Function words tell us how a person is analysing their world and about their mental state. We can get a sense of how psychologically well they are doing," said Prof Pennebaker.

He believes that in future the same algorithms could be applied to the work of historical characters to gain a greater insight into their mental state when they wrote diaries or letters.

Horvitz is one of several scientists who believe that 'big data' stores such as Twitter, Facebook and Google could all be used to spot general trends in the population.

Recently it was discovered that unknown side-effects of taking two drugs together could be predicted by looking at search terms related to the medication.

For example many people searched for allergy drug 'Claritan' and weight loss pill 'Adipex' alongside the word 'fainting', thereby exposing a problem in mixing the drugs which had not been picked up in clinical trials.

It is hoped that such data analysis could eventually complement drug databases.

A separate study showed that an increase in admissions to Washington hospitals for heart problems could be predicted by looking at how many people had Googled salty food recipes.

Therefore, monitoring online recipe trends could be a simple way for hospitals to improve staffing levels.

A team at Cornell University discovered that Twitter posts could be used to predict the general mood of the population, discovering that people are most happy when they wake up.

Michael Macy, professor of arts and sciences at the Department of Sociology at Cornell University said: "We found that people are happiest around breakfast time in the morning and it's downhill from there.

"But it wasn't about work because we found the same pattern on the weekend but delayed by an hour and a half and we think people are sleeping in.

"Baseline happiness was higher at the weekend and we think that being able to wake naturally rather than with an alarm clock was one of the key factors."

Prof Macy's team has also disproved the theory that the cyberspace is borderless.

He demonstrated that alliances on Twitter and Facebook are founded along the same lines as 8 traditional cultural and religious divides identified by Samuel Huntingdon, such as 'Western', 'Islamic' and 'Orthodox'.

"Looking at the digital records of social interactions really supports the idea that the world is aligned by these families of culture," said Prof Macy.

All the academics and scientists were speaking at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) meeting in Chicago.

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Scientists have developed the ultimate lie detector for social media – a system that can tell whether a tweeter is telling the truth.

The creators of the system called Pheme, named after the Greek mythological figure known for scandalous rumor, say it can judge instantly between truth and fiction in 140 characters or less.

Researchers across Europe are joining forces to analyze the truthfulness of statements that appear on social media in “real time” and hope their system will prevent scurrilous rumors and false statements from taking hold, the Times reported.

The creators believe that the system would have proved useful to the police and authorities during the London Riots of 2011. Tweeters spread false reports that animals had been released from London Zoo and landmarks such as the London Eye and Selfridges had been set on fire, which caused panic and led to police being diverted.

Kalina Bontcheva, from the University of Sheffield’s engineering department, said that the system would be able to test information quickly and trace its origins. This would enable governments, emergency services, health agencies, journalists and companies to respond to falsehoods.

“People do believe things they hear on the internet,” she said. “In critical situations, you can instead show reliable information or alert the authorities before things get out of hand.”

Pheme will classify online rumours into four types: speculation, such as whether interest rates might rise; controversy — such as the heated debate over the MMR vaccine; misinformation, where something untrue is spread unwittingly; and disinformation, where false statements are published with sinister motives.

The system works by assessing the quality of information and sources, giving more weight to established news outlets and experts, and looking out for “bots” (computer programs designed to send spam). It will also look for a history and background of users, so that it can spot where Twitter accounts have been created purely to spread false information.

Pheme will then search for sources that can back up or dismiss the information, as well plot how the conversations on social networks evolve, using all of this information to assess whether it is true or false. The results will be displayed to the user on screen, telling people if an untruth is taking hold among the public.

Dr Bontcheva said the final version of the system could be completed within 18 months, but believed that working prototypes may be available sooner. The costs of the project are being met mostly through a European Union grant.

The makers said that the program, estimated to cost about £3.5 million, could have warned Twitter users, such as Sally Bercow, the wife of the Commons Speaker, and the comedian Alan Davies, who were among those who spread untrue rumours that linked Lord McAlpine to child sex abuse. Both were among a number of prominent people who agreed financial settlements with the late peer as a result of the incorrect claims.

The program is a collaboration between five universities — Sheffield, Warwick, King’s College London, Saarland in Germany and MODUL University Vienna — and four companies: ATOS in Spain, iHub in Kenya, Ontotext in Bulgaria and swissinfo.ch.

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When Sony launched the PS4 it shouted loudly that this was the console ‘for the players’ - it was, the company claimed, the machine that was equipped to produce the most powerful graphics and would have the best titles for hardcore gamers.

Today Andrew House, Sony’s Chief Executive of Computer Entertainment, said he was “thrilled” by sales figures that confirmed 5.3m PS4s have been sold globally compared to 3.9m Xbox Ones. His console outstripped forecasts of 5m sales and looks to be on track to sell its 10 millionth unit by the end of the year.

All of this shows that the video games industry - already bigger than Hollywood - is still more than going strong. Millions may be playing more games on their mobile phones, but titles from Call of Duty to The Last of Us and more are constantly reinventing the arena.

Nonetheless, Sony will know that there is more to the game it is playing than meets the eye - Microsoft lost a PR battle before either console had even launched by suggesting its Xbox One needed to be connected to the web all the time, dithering about second-hand games and - worst of all - it focused not on gamers but on the living room. Sony swooped in, declared its console was much more what the traditional audience wanted, and has garnered massive benefits.

But if Microsoft sticks to its guns, it may yet find that this is a battle it has lost in a war it could well win. Consoles such as the One and the PS4 will be around for five years, both companies have suggested, and Sony’s approach focuses on gamers while Microsoft’s bets on the fact that everybody who watches the living room TV will increasingly want a comprehensive, internet-connected entertainment experience. That means, they hope, Xbox’s combination of movies on demand, apps, TV, Skype and more will combine with the games that millions adore to create the experience that Sky, Virgin or any TV manufacturer cannot offer alone. The aim is for an updated version of the kind of full family appeal that Nintendo briefly achieved with the Wii.

It is a tall order - gaming remains a massive market, and Samsung is just one of the many multi-billion pound corporations that are backing the idea of the connected home. They have more to gain from a domestic environment where the TV, the microwave, the lightbulbs and the vacuum cleaner are all online. But Microsoft is at least on the same page and that appears to be the direction of travel.

There’s a caveat to all of this, of course: most of the perceived differences come down not to serious substance but to marketing: the PS4 is an excellent device that offers serious connections to apps and to conventional TV as well. But in not emphasizing that, it has allowed the Xbox One, with its friendlier look and feel, to own a space that is not, for now, the most popular choice.

Sony will no doubt think they’ve done well but as time goes on, at the very least, nobody should be surprised to see that both Microsoft and its Japanese rival move to emphasize that there is plenty for all the family in both these consoles. Millions of people may be gamers, but the real prize is producing the gadget that connects to every family’s TV set and that accolade is still very much to be decided.

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I moved to New York in 1994, aged 24, looking for a job in PR or journalism. It wasn’t working and I was getting very frustrated, so my mum suggested I call my uncle, who knew all about finance. I had no idea about Wall Street but he arranged a few interviews for me. The first one was at Lehman Brothers. There was something about the grandness of the trading floor I was instantly attracted to. I knew I wanted the money and the lifestyle; I knew I wanted in.

I didn't get the Lehman Brothers role, but I did get a job working for Morgan Stanley as a sales assistant, which is like a glorified secretary. But a few years later I moved onto the ‘buy side’, investing and managing other people's money for hedge fund firm Galleon Group. We would have this huge pot of commission from private investors or institutions, and the rest of Wall Street was fighting for part of that pot. Everyone wanted my business and they would do anything to get it. I had access to every single restaurant, club and sporting event.

Soon I was making as much as $2m a year and being taken all over the country by people who wanted me to work with them. The benchmark for parties was the Super Bowl trip, which usually involved a private jet and every expense paid. One of the wildest was in 2002, in Ohio. I got invited to this super-underground party with about 40 guys and the same number of women. When I got there - I don’t know whether it was the cologne I was wearing or what - literally every single woman in the place wanted me. I was on fire. Everything I said was funny. It was only later I found out that all of them were hired escorts.

The first time I was offered cocaine was during the same period as the Ohio trip. I went to the bathroom with it but I didn’t take any - just pretended I had and handed it back. There was this ‘80s basketball player called Len Bias who took it for the first time and died when I was a teenager, so I’d always thought 'you take cocaine, you die'. But six months and a couple of promotions later, I was hanging around with a faster crowd and it didn’t look so menacing. The first time I really took cocaine, it was the most amazing thing ever. It was so good I knew it was going to be a problem.

By 2006 I was spending between $600-$700 a week on cocaine - that didn’t include the large amount I was being given or the booze I was drinking with it. I had a girlfriend and a baby daughter by that time but these were dark days. I was taking it five or six nights a week; if I took it easy I wouldn’t be shaking, sweating or bleeding the next day - but I still wouldn’t be able to go into work.

There was one point when I’d been up for about three days on cocaine and alcohol. I’d called in sick so many times that year that I knew I'd be fired if I did it again; I also knew I'd be fired if I showed up in the state I was in. I remember circling the block around my office, wondering what to do. I told myself (I obviously wasn’t having rational thoughts) that if I’d been mugged they wouldn’t expect me to work. I ran a few blocks and threw myself into a puddle repeatedly until my trousers were ripped and my hands and knees were all bloody. I got into the office limping and soaking wet, barely able to speak, and told them I’d been attacked.

Needless to say, 72 hours later I had left my job and was on a plane to my first rehab.

I was clean for a year before I relapsed and had to go back to rehab. After that I had the option of going back to Wall Street for a seven-figure paycheck, but it just didn’t feel right. I sabotaged the interview and walked away.

I don’t know if I have any regrets from that whole period. I do wish that maybe I hadn’t hurt some people, especially my family, but I don’t think I could be the person I am today without everything I went through.

Now I’m a writer - I turned my time on Wall Street into a book called The Buy Side and have just submitted a paranormal thriller - and I live on Long Island, two miles away from my daughter, who’s eight, so I can see her everyday. When I was writing the first book I made sure there were no cliches in the language, but I realized my character had become the biggest cliche there is - the stereotypical Wall Street douche-bag. Nothing’s left of the $10m I earned there; I made some bad investments and the rest went along the way.

But here’s another cliche: money’s not going to bring you happiness and none of the things I had made me feel better on the inside.

The Buy Side by Turney Duff is published in paperback by Constable and Robinson and available for £12.99

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Most couples will testify that their sex life plummets on the birth of a new baby, with new mothers often worrying that they are no longer seen as attractive in the eyes of their partner.

But a new study suggests that parenthood not only affects the biology of mothers but also of fathers.

During the first year new fathers experience a drop of testosterone of around one third, with those who help out with childcare for three or more hours a day seeing a further drop of 20 per cent.

The new fathers who took part in the research also reported having less sex.

Researchers believe that "the sensitising effect" is driven by the psychological and cultural impulse to protect a newborn and would have the same impact on adoptive fathers.

Men with less testosterone are likely to be less aggressive and more caring. Previous research has also shown that men with high testosterone levels feel less sympathy or need to respond to the cries of a baby.

It means that new mothers should not worry about their partners straying after the birth, or feel anxious if they do not want to have sex. They are biologically programmed to concentrate on looking after their children at the expense of their sex drive.

Dr Lee Gettler, of Notre Dame, carried out the largest study of its kind looking at how the biology of new fathers changes after the birth of their children.

"It's not just mothers who go through pregnancy and birth and it's not just mothers who biologically respond to parenthood. Fathers can biologically respond to the needs of children too," he said.

"We found that men who became new fathers had a decline of testosterone of between 33-34 per cent. Men who were most involved in the day to day hands on childcare had the lowest testosterone levels.

"If you think about fathers in other mammalian species they don't really help taking care of the children.

"So it seems that natural selection has stepped up men's hormone system to respond to the needs of their offspring.

"Our species has evolved paternal instincts which are somewhat unique to our species compared with our closest relatives."

Dr Gettler studied more than 400 men in the Philippines. He tested their level of testosterone when they were single aged 21 and then retested them at 26 when many had become new fathers.

Previously, small studies have suggested that testosterone may drop in fatherhood but this is the first large study that has quantified the impact as well as recording that levels of sex also fall.

The researchers say they are unclear why fatherhood would cause couples to have less sex having controlled for factors which could impact on intimacy, such as having a young child sleeping in the same room, the parents being more tired or having less time because of childcare.

They also do not believe that the fall in testosterone is linked to a fall in libido although it may be possible that women find their new partner less attractive because of the hormonal change, the researchers suggest.

It man also improve the stability of the relationship as previous studies have shown that men with higher testosterone are more likely to have marital problems and to be divorced.

"We found that newly married new fathers who experience greater declines in testosterone also reported less frequent sexual intercourse with their partners at follow-up," said Dr Gettler.

"We don't know what the mechanism is but we know new fathers are having less sex with their partners and there isn't a strong relationship between testosterone and libido."

Those we reported having sex with the partner less than once a week had the lowest testosterone levels.

During the first year, levels of prolactin, a hormone which helps new mothers to produce milk, are also raised.

The researchers also found that new fathers produced far more antibodies in their saliva which protects against cold and flu.

This could be linked to the fall in testosterone, which is known to suppress the immune system.

Dr Gettler said men should not be concerned that becoming a father will affect their masculinity.

He said: "There is a very strong cultural association between testosterone and masculinity but I think if you ask most men they would say that being a great father is being a great man.

"Evolution has shaped male biology and neurobiology to help him that role."

Dr Gettler's findings were presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) annual meeting in Chicago.

SEE ALSO: Why Life's Biggest Breakthroughs Come In Your Late Thirties

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As Kiev burns, Western policymakers are eating ashes. Our efforts to help Ukraine towards Europe, democracy and the rule of the law have failed spectacularly. Meanwhile, Vladimir Putin is celebrating not just sporting triumph in Sochi, but geopolitical victory in the affairs of his most important neighbor.

It is easy to over-complicate the Ukraine story with historical, ethnic and geographical details. The country is often said to be split between east and west, between Russian- and Ukrainian-speakers, between those nostalgic for Soviet certainties and those who want a Western-style future.

Ukraine’s business elite is divided too, between the cronies of president Viktor Yanukovych and those who resent his predatory ways. The opposition is a motley lot: imagine Nigel Farage, Ed Balls, football fans and the Women’s Institute huddling under a common banner.

But the real picture is much simpler. Most Ukrainians want their country to be part of Europe. Russia, the former imperial master, forbids this. It wants Ukraine to be part of its new Eurasian Economic Union – a counterweight to the European Union, albeit one run by crooks and spooks in Moscow, rather than eurocrats in Brussels.

Without Vladimir Putin, Ukraine would be at peace today. It was Russia which forced Ukraine to shun the economic agreement offered by the EU in October, launching a crippling trade war against Ukrainian exports. It was Russia which offered cheap gas and soft loans as the Ukrainian economy tottered.

It was Russia which installed hundreds of “advisers” in key Ukrainian public bodies and ministries, including the SBU secret police, to ensure that they toe the Moscow line. Without Russia’s silent putsch, Ukrainians would have not have needed to build barricades in the streets in protest at the regime’s misrule. Even then, without the continued and escalating Russian pressure on Mr Yanukovych, the conflict could have been defused.

Kremlin meddling in Ukraine is not new. It has systematically breached an agreement made in Budapest in 1994 under which Ukraine gave up its Soviet nuclear weapons in return for a promise that Russia would never submit it to economic coercion or other aggression. It has repeatedly cut gas supplies to Ukraine, and fostered a culture of murky energy-trading intermediaries whose money poisons Ukrainian politics.

Russia maintains a naval base, complete with spooks and special forces, in Sevastopol in Crimea. That region is home to a resentful population of ethnic Russians who wonder why this balmy peninsular was handed over to Ukraine in Soviet days. They are in constant friction with the Crimean Tartars, deported en masse from their ancestral homeland in 1944 in an exceptional act of Stalinist savagery.

But Russia’s interference in Ukraine has intensified in recent months, just as Western efforts have floundered. European policymakers still cling to the notion that talks with Russia can bring a mutually beneficial solution to Ukraine’s agony. That is a false hope. The Kremlin does not like win-win solutions.

It likes outcomes in which it wins, and its detestable Western rivals lose, preferably humiliatingly – this, for Mr Putin, is a matter of personal prestige. In short, though the EU finds the whole notion of geopolitics old-fashioned and unappealing, geopolitics is happening on its doorstep. And it is losing.

America is out of the game, too. The Obama administration has neglected its European allies since the day it took office. Its senior official dealing with Ukraine, Toria Nuland, is admirably energetic – and blunt (she recently declared “F--- the EU” in a phone call to her ambassador in Kiev, bugged and then leaked by Russian intelligence). But she lacks the clout to make the wheels of policy turn in Washington. Without Moscow’s interference, the EU and United States could marshal their modest resources to make a difference.

Faced with Russia in all its implacable fury, both are outgunned. The fallout from Edward Snowden’s leaks of secret material from the National Security Agency has corroded and weakened the transatlantic alliance: fury with American snooping in countries such as Germany has paralyzed what should be vital discussions on security.

Now all the likely outcomes are bad. Perhaps the authorities will decide that they cannot crush the protesters and will draw back, meaning months of tension, jitters and uncertainty. Even then, Ukraine’s territorial integrity has been shattered, perhaps fatally. In the west, government buildings have been set ablaze. The region – the old Austro-Hungarian Galicia – was the site of a decade-long insurrection post-war against Soviet rule.

If pro-Moscow authorities in Kiev try to crack down there, civil war looms. That involves not just human suffering (and quite possibly large numbers of refugees) but also economic dislocation and grave risks of outsiders being drawn in. What happens if someone – a real or invented band of nationalist guerrillas, say – attacks one of the east-west oil or gas pipelines?

Equally worrying is Crimea, which could now be the flash-point for another conflict with Russia, with far more devastating effects. The region is on the verge of declaring independence from Kiev (a move likely to prompt Russian intervention to protect the separatist statelet).

If the crackdown continues, and succeeds, we will see a dreadful roll-back of the gains of the past 10 years. The newly passed repressive laws will be used in full, not just against public protest but against independent media, civil society, and other institutions. We may see the reintroduction of a visa regime for visitors from Western countries. All kinds of foreign-related and foreign-sponsored activity will be impeded or banned. Ukraine will become another Belarus.

Once the country is at the Kremlin’s mercy, Mr Putin can extort a heavy price. He is known to disparage the very notion of Ukraine’s statehood, in public and in private. He could demand that it join a Russian-led security alliance. Russia’s military integration with Belarus is already proving a headache for Nato, which is struggling to work out how it can defend Europe’s north-eastern flank with its slender remaining resources.

If the regime in Kiev proceeds with military and security integration with Russia, Central Europe will experience what the Baltic states have felt for several years: the icy sensation of a hard security threat.

Last time Europe faced a security problem of this magnitude was in the Yugoslav wars in the Nineties. For years the West failed to grasp the problem. It is in a far worse state now. The countries that have tried hardest to help Ukraine, such as Poland and Sweden, feel frustrated and exhausted. In the rest of Europe, the appetite for confrontation with the Kremlin, the real instigator of the crackdown, has never been lower.

The danger now is that, in despair, the West seeks to broker a solution to the Ukrainian problem through a deal with Russia. That will infuriate and disillusion the protesters, stoking extremism and violence. It is hard to imagine a more dangerous message to send to the Kremlin: create chaos in your former empire and the West will then let you dictate the terms of settlement.

Instead, the West should be flexing its muscles. Two policies stand out. One is to bolster the countries that may be next in the Kremlin’s firing line. Georgia and Moldova are both worried that their move towards Europe will incur the same pressure and interference now being experienced by Ukraine. We should support them, and the most exposed countries that are already in Western clubs, such as the small Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Second, the Achilles’ heel of both the Yanukovych regime and his Kremlin backers is money. However much they steal, they cannot dispose of it at home. They need our banks, our real-estate market, our stock exchanges and our secretive company law to hide and launder their assets. They use our law firms and auditors to make it look legal. This happens in Vienna, New York – and London.

It is to our lasting shame that we have been accomplices in this. We should unleash our money-laundering and anti-bribery laws. We should freeze assets and impose visa bans on those involved in looting and repression on our doorstep.

Ukrainians are fighting and dying for the right to be European. Theirs is not a naive belief in the EU’s virtues, but a profound belief that liberty, legality and decency are better than crony capitalism and the neo-Soviet bombast of the Putin Kremlin. They believe in our values more than we do ourselves. Why are we letting them down?

Edward Lucas is author of 'The Snowden Operation: Inside the West’s Greatest Intelligence Disaster’, available from Amazon as a Kindle Single for 99p

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This year’s European Car of the Year (Coty) award contenders are a very mixed bunch, consisting of three C-segment family cars, two battery electric vehicles, a massive limousine and an MPV.

I don’t quite understand why Hyundai’s new i10, an affordable and attractive supermini-sized hatchback, didn’t make the shortlist, but not enough of my fellow 58 judges across 22 European countries agreed with me and that’s democracy for you.

The usual voting rules apply; each judge has 25 points to award across the seven shortlisted cars. They must award points to at least five contenders, with a maximum of 10 points and no equal first places. Voting takes place in a couple of weeks and the winner will be announced on the eve of the Geneva motor show on March 3.

I’m not allowed to tell you how many points I have awarded each contender, but after a comprehensive drive, thanks to Silverstone and the British Racing Drivers’ Club, here are my thoughts and choices for the 2014 Car of the Year.

Mercedes-Benz S-class 1st

With 100 electric motors, 360-degree vision, 20 driver assistance systems and an aluminium-clad steel monocoque body that is lighter and stronger than ever, Merc’s standard-bearer limo is a technical tour de force.

A lot of that force, however, is shared across the rest of the company’s range in the form of safety innovations. As a result, a bit of the wow factor has gone from this top-model Merc, which will also appear in the form of a coupé, an ultra-long-wheelbase model, a six-door Pullman and a mystery model, possibly based on the four-door convertible Ocean Drive concept.

Engines include four, six, eight and 12 cylinders, with petrol and electric hybrids, which are more economical than they have a right to be.

On Northamptonshire lanes, it feels big and a little unwieldy, but this is a car that is more used to appearing outside the UN or major banks. The air suspension and magical body control cope with everything except extreme rebound (flying, in other words), but in the main it’s a brilliant drive.

In short: still one of the best cars in the world and my car of the year.

BMW i3 2nd=

Undoubtedly clever carbon and aluminium all-battery or range-extender car. After a winter of power cuts, however, the idea of an electric-only car seems fanciful and the range extender doesn’t have all the answers either. It will struggle with a wet, cold journey after dark with an exhausted battery.

Dynamically the i3 is not bad, but rear-wheel drive doesn’t add a huge amount and the high-mounted body and weight means the ride is borderline harsh.

The apps and control/charge systems downloadable to a smartphone are clever and the design is distinctive but polarizing. If we’re all going to use battery electric cars, this is a marker, from its lightweight construction to its underfloor cells, but are we?

In short: it’s terrific but no more a single family car than a jet ski.

Mazda3 2nd =

Always the bridesmaid, Mazda should be cleaning up in the C-segment family hatchback sector, but has never managed to sell decent numbers in the UK.

The third-generation 3 has a lot going for it, including a grown-up appearance and Mazda’s high compression ratio, naturally aspirated petrol engines, which deliver decent real-world fuel consumption and high torque levels. The turbodiesel isn’t bad, either.

Paring weight out of cars is a virtuous direction and Mazda has done a lot of flab-fighting here. The result is great chassis balance, beguiling handling and a terrific ride. The cabin plastics are lackluster, however, and the driving position isn’t to all tastes.

In short: an excellent chassis but the interior needs more love and attention.

Tesla Model S 4th

Zero to 60mph in 4.2sec is quicker than an Aston Martin Rapide. Specced up to the max, the Tesla S seats six and does 130mph – it’s fast, and how. So this toast of Silicon Valley funded with PayPal profits is the answer, right? Erm, up to a point.

The Model S is the subject of a full English Test soon, but for the moment let’s just say there is so much right about this 416bhp battery-electric coupé that it’s hard not to join its band of acolytes. The brilliant packaging, the flat floor and the wonderful control screen show all other car makers how to do it.

But while the suspension hardware is perfectly acceptable, the ride and handling isn’t. Tesla doesn’t get as close to its intended purpose as the BMW i3 because the ride is choppy, the steering darty, the damping control is unsophisticated and it just doesn’t drive like a cross-continental express should.

In short: great in so many ways, but needs a more work on the chassis.

Citroën C4 Picasso 5th

Built on PSA’s adaptable new chassis/floorpan, this is a rather nice vehicle, partly because it does exactly what it says on the tin. So don’t expect the Picasso MPV to be cornering on the door handles, or outdragging BMWs, but if you want to transport a family across the country or continent in comfort, practically and with a bit of panache, then this is it.

The engine and transmission choices are economical and powerful, the ride is excellent and the handling is a lot better than it has any right to be.

In short: the new Cadillac of MPVs.

Peugeot 308 6th

Gilles Vidal’s understated-with-panache 308 is certainly different for the shout-out-loud C-segment, the coachwork making even the Mercedes-Benz A-class and BMW 1-series look positively gaudy.

The chassis and driveline are unexceptional, but nicely refined and in keeping with the aim of the car. I like the small steering wheel, but not the way it obscures the instrument binnacle for taller drivers.

Nor has PSA been as successful as Tesla in moving buttons off the dashboard, but it’s a laudable attempt. The cabin is lovely, though, and very comfortable.

In short: a refined slow burner.

Skoda Octavia 7th

There’s not much wrong with the new Octavia, but part of its charm has been lost in this third-generation model. Adding 4.25in to the wheelbase has improved the ride, but the handling feels lethargic.

The cabin has a pleasing simplicity and workmanlike ethos, although you can spec up a new Octavia to BMW money.

The 1.6-liter diesel is economical, but you need to wring its neck to make progress. In all the new Octavia is a pretty underwhelming drive and while rewarding motoring isn’t what most Octavia owners are looking for, this is no longer a cheap car.

In short: utilitarian but underwhelming.

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The Equal Opportunities Commission, which is based in Hong Kong, carried out a study in which 27 per cent of those who took part said they had been harassed on duty in the past year.

About 47 per cent said they had either witnessed or heard about their colleagues being sexually harassed during a flight.

Most of the cases cited concerned physical contact such as “patting, touching, kissing or pinching”, while others included “non-verbal sex cues” such as “staring in a sexual way”.

Further incidents that were reported involved “sexual jokes and requests for sexual favours” and showing “obscene or pornographic materials”.

According to those who responded, passengers were more likely to harass cabin crew than fellow staff, with 59 per cent of incidents involving airline customers and 41 per cent involving other crew members.

Complaints were only lodged for half of the incidents reported.

The survey was sent out to 9,000 flight attendants through the Hong Kong Flight Attendants Alliance (HKFAA), which includes members from unions representing the staff of Cathay Pacific Airways, Dragonair, British Airways and United Airlines. Of those, 392 questionnaires were completed, 86 per cent of which were from female respondents.

Mariana Law of the Equal Opportunities Commission explained the low response rate to CNN . "Most HKFAA flight attendants are not based in Hong Kong, so it may be difficult for them to respond," she said. "Another reason is that some people may consider sexual harassment an embarrassing or difficult subject and they may not feel comfortable disclosing this information to others."

Last year, a survey suggested that the job of flight attendant was the worst job in travel, coming in a lowly 191st place out of 200 careers surveyed.

• You can read the full press release here

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SEE ALSO: We Joined A Bangladeshi Airline For The Bittersweet Final Flight Of The Classic DC-10

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I've got a place to do the London Ride 100 in the summer. I've never cycled 100 miles before, and I'm not in great shape. How much training do you think I need to do before the day? Any tips for cycling long distances? Daryl

Hi Daryl,

Firstly good work on getting a place. I did the ride last year and it’s a huge luxury not only to be able to ride with thousands of other people but to do so on closed roads for a 100 miles. One of the real pleasures was to be able to slipstream other riders when I needed a breather - it's not something you experience often cycling around cities. In fact, my first bit of advice would be to cycle in a group where you take it in turns to lead and slipstream. At 20mph, 80pc of your energy is spent overcoming wind resistance, so getting a ‘tow’ will make the miles tick by that bit faster.

Aside from tagging onto a group here are my tips for riding long distances:

1. Get a bike that is the right size, and get it set up in an ergonomic and comfortable position. This will ensure you can stay on it for longer and your riding is more efficient i.e. every bit of power you put down propels you forward.

2. Don’t do all your training at the pace you'll aim for on the day. Mix up long rides with interval training and hill work, and try to cycle/train with friends. The variety will make the training easier and will mean that you’ll enjoy the 100 miles that bit more.

3. Get a turbo trainer, set of rollers or static bike so you can fit training in easily around work and life.

4. Test and develop a nutritional strategy that works for you. The rough rule of thumb to ensure a steady delivery of energy to the muscles throughout the 100 miles is to eat 1g of carbohydrate a minute.

5. Don't skimp on bib shorts and chamois cream. Your undercarriage is just as important as the muscles that power your pedal strokes!

Finally, no matter how bad it gets on your way round, remember that there's a genuine treat awaiting you at the 95 mile mark. Cycling into London and passing by its famous landmarks along The Embankment when it’s closed to all other vehicles is genuinely an awesome experience.

The more you train the more you’ll enjoy it - good luck.

James

Have a question for James? Email askcracknell@telegraph.co.uk and we'll put it to him next week

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HTC has announced plans to harness the unused processing power in Android smartphones to create a supercomputer capable of supporting vital fields of research including medicine, science and ecology.

Currently, the fight against cancer, AIDS and Alzheimer’s, the drive to ensure every child has clean water to drink, and the search for extra-terrestrial life are all being tackled by volunteer computing platforms. HTC's Power To Give initiative will support this effort with the processing capabilities of a global network of smartphones.

Collectively, one million HTC One smartphones could provide similar processing power to that of one of the world’s 30 supercomputers (one PetaFLOP). This could drastically shorten the research cycles for organisations that would otherwise have to spend years analyzing the same volume of data, potentially bringing forward important discoveries in vital subjects by weeks, months, years or even decades, according to HTC.

"The impact that this project will have on the world over the years to come is huge. This changes everything,” said Dr. David Anderson, Inventor of the Shared Computing Initiative BOINC at the University of California, Berkeley, who helped to develop the initiative.

HTC smartphone owners can download the Power To Give app from the Google Play store, and then select the research programme to which they will divert a proportion of their phone’s processing power. The app will then run in the background while the phone is charging and connected to a WiFi network.

One of the programs available at launch is IBM's World Community Grid, which gives anyone an opportunity to advance science by donating their computer, smartphone or tablet's unused computing power to humanitarian research. To date, the World Community Grid volunteers have contributed almost 900,000 years' worth of processing time.

“We’ve been discussing the impact that just one million HTC Power To Give-enabled smartphones could make, however analysts estimate that over 780 million Android phones were shipped in 2013 alone," said Cher Wang, chairwoman of HTC.

"Imagine the difference we could make to our children’s future if just a fraction of these Android users were able to divert some of their unused processing power to help find answers to the questions that concern us all.”

The beta version of HTC Power To Give will initially be compatible with the HTC One family, HTC Butterfly and HTC Butterfly S. HTC plans to make the app more widely available to other Android smartphone owners in the coming six months as the beta trial progresses.

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Computers operated by the power of thought, wearable technology and advanced cancer treatments are among the top ten emerging technologies which will reshape the future, a new report claims.

The World Economic Forum has compiled a list of the most potentially influential technologies currently being developed which also includes mining metals from the desalination of sea water and super-light cars made using carbon-fibre elements.

Each innovation was selected for its capacity to have a real and positive impact on the world, according to the WEC’s Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies which made its selections with the help of leading figures from industry and academia.

Topping the list is “brain-computer interfaces” which would build on the already available technology which allows people to type by monitoring their electrical activity in their brain.

The technology could make it possible for people with disabilities to operate wheelchairs and other equipment using their thoughts, according to the council.

In its report the council stated: “Technology has become perhaps the greatest agent of change in the modern world. While never without risk, positive technological breakthroughs promise innovative solutions to the most pressing global challenges of our time, from resource scarcity to global environmental change.

“However, due to a lack of appropriate investment, outdated regulatory frameworks and gaps in public understanding, many promising technologies are constrained from achieving their potential.”

According to the report there is hope for arid countries which see very little rainfall as the mining of metals from waste water or brine is making large-scale desalination financially viable for the first time, while the drive to cut carbon emissions could be boosted by cars built with carbon-fibre reinforced parts making them up to 40 per cent lighter and stronger than older models, offering huge energy savings.

Cleaner energy will benefit from advances in grid-scale electricity storage which would allow surplus energy from fluctuating renewable sources such as sun and wind to be stored until it is needed while new batteries based on silicon could hold up to three times more power than existing products.

New wearable electronics, which are already available in the form of the Google Glass and Fitbit wristband, could offer health benefits by tracking heart rates and stress levels while new cancer treatments are being by harnessing the power of microbes which occur naturally in the human body.

Other medical research is focusing on drugs based on proteins which regulate human genes which could be used to fight cancer and infectious diseases.

Noubar Afeyan, chair of the Global Agenda Council on Emerging Technologies and CEO of Flagship Ventures, said: “These breakthroughs show the boundless potential for technology to have a positive impact on society, from finding cleaner energy to new cures for disease.

“For these gains to be realized, we need the right regulatory frameworks, strategic alliances among innovators and market leaders, investment capital, as well as greater public awareness.”

The council wants to see governments working with researchers and businesses to promote the emerging technologies which could bring great improvements to many people’s lives.

Martina Larkin, senior director and head of the Network of Global Agenda Councils, said: “2014 will be a crucial year for these technologies. Close cooperation between governments, industry and academia is essential to harness their potential.”

The full list of the top ten emerging technologies:

Brain-computer interfaces: It is already possible to type just by monitoring the electrical activity of your brain, but as the technology advances, it could be possible for people with disabilities to operate wheelchairs using only their thoughts.

Mining metals from desalination brine: Large-scale desalination is becoming economically feasible for the first time because of new chemical processes that enable the mining of metals from waste water, or brine.

Nanostructured carbon composites: Cars made from carbon-fibre reinforced composites are as much as 40% lighter than older models, stronger, and more easy to recycle, offering the prospect for huge energy savings.

Grid-scale electricity storage: A fundamental breakthrough is close that would allow the saving of surplus energy from fluctuating renewable sources such as sun and wind within the electricity grid.

Body-adapted wearable electronics: Whether worn on the body, embedded in clothes or even under the skin, these devices can track information, such as heart rate and stress levels, giving people real-time feedback about their health.

Nanowire lithium-ion batteries: New batteries based on silicon – using tiny silicon nanowires – could have a longer life, charge more quickly and hold up to three times the power of existing batteries.

Screenless display: A 3D image projected into space – a “screenless display” – can convey information that a 2D image presented on a screen cannot, and is close to becoming a practical reality.

Human microbiome therapeutics: Drawing on knowledge gained from the Human Microbiome Project in 2012 and other research, human microbiome technology is increasingly seen as an important source of treatment for serious diseases as well as for improving health.

RNA-based therapeutics: RNA, like DNA, plays a part in protein synthesis and, to a lesser extent, the transmission of genetic information. Scientific advances are combining to enable a new generation of targeted, RNA-based drugs that could help find new treatments for cancer and infectious diseases

Quantified self (predictive analytics): RNA, like DNA, plays a part in protein synthesis and, to a lesser extent, the transmission of genetic information. Scientific advances are combining to enable a new generation of targeted, RNA-based drugs that could help find new treatments for cancer and infectious diseases

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A ‘Death Test’ which predicts the chance of a healthy person dying from any medical condition in the next five years has been developed by scientists.

Researchers said they were ‘astonished’ to discover that a simple blood test could predict if a person was likely to die – even if they were not ill.

They found that the levels of four ‘biomarkers’ in the body, when taken together, indicated a general level of ‘frailty’.

People whose biomarkers were out of kilter were five times more likely to die with five years of the blood test.

“What is especially interesting is that these biomarkers reflect the risk for dying from very different types of diseases such as heart disease or cancer. They seem to be signs of a general frailty in the body,” said Dr. Johannes Kettunen of the Institute for Molecular Medicine in Finland.

“We believe that in the future these measures can be used to identify people who appear healthy but in fact have serious underlying illnesses and guide them to proper treatment.”

A biomarker is a biological molecule found in blood, body fluids, or tissues that may signal an abnormal process, a condition, or a disease.

The level of a particular biomarker may indicate a patient’s risk of disease, or likely response to a treatment. For example, cholesterol levels are measured to assess the risk of heart disease.

Most current biomarkers are used to test an individual’s risk of developing a specific condition. There are none that accurately assess whether a person is at risk of ill health generally, or likely to die soon from a disease.

Blood samples from over 17,000 generally healthy people were screened for more than a hundred different biomarkers and those people monitored over five years

In that time 684 people died of a range of illnesses and diseases, including cancer and cardiovascular disease. Scientists discovered that those people all had similar levels of four biomarkers.

Those were albumin, alpha-1-acid glycoprotein, citrate and the size of very-low-density lipoprotein particles which are linked to liver and kidney function, inflammation and infection, energy metabolism and vascular health.

One in five participants with the highest biomarker scores died within the first year of the study.

Estonian researchers made the initial link in a cohort of 9,842 people but were so sceptical about the results that they asked Finnish scientists to repeat the experiment on a further 7,503.

Research professor Markus Perola of the Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland said they were not expecting to be able to replicate the findings and were amazed when they were identical.

Prof Perola said: “It was a pretty amazing result. First of all we didn’t really believe it. It was astonishing that these biomarkers appeared to actually predict mortality independent of disease.

“These were all apparently healthy people but to our surprise it appears these biomarkers show an undetected frailty which people did not know they had.”

Researchers claim that in the future a test could flag up high-risk individuals in need of medical intervention who show no symptoms of any disease.

“If the findings are replicated then this test is surely something we will see becoming widespread,” added Prof Perola.

“But at moment there is ethical question. Would someone want to know their risk of dying if there is nothing we can do about it?”

Dr Kettunen added: “Next we aim to study whether some kind of connecting factor between these biomarkers can be identified.

The study was published in PLOS Medicine.

SEE ALSO: Doctors Are Blurring The Line Between Life And Death

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Extreme athlete Joby Ogwyn will leap off the top of Mount Everest in a wingsuit live on television in May

For most adventurers reaching the summit of Mount Everest is the ultimate achievement, but for Joby Ogwyn it will be just the starting point.

After scaling the world's tallest mountain he intends to jump off it and fly to the ground wearing a nylon wing-suit.

The death-defying stunt will be broadcast live across the globe on television in May, when viewers will see Ogwyn say a quick prayer, take a few sucks from an oxygen mask, and throw himself into the void.

"I wish I had a nickel for every time I've heard I'm crazy," Ogwyn told The Telegraph moments after streaking across the California sky like Superman in a test flight of his wingsuit, a special nylon jumpsuit with webbing between the legs and arms.

"But there's a lot more to this than a crazy person jumping. It will be very well executed, it's like a shuttle mission in some ways. This is something I dreamed about as a little kid. Everything I've done for the last 20 years has been practice for this and now the technology has made flight possible.

"I believe it will be one of the most exciting adventures in the world and I want people to see it. Sure, I'm very scared. Jumping from a mountain is really, really scary, much more so than jumping from a plane. But I'm not afraid to die."

He added: "Everest is the ultimate, it's the pinnacle, the biggest stage in the world. I can't think of anywhere better to make the ultimate mega-jump of all time. I've done most of the things I wanted to do and this is the blasting cap at the end."

Within the rarified worlds of both mountain climbing and extreme skydiving Ogwyn, 39, is already a legend. If anyone can jump safely off a mountain he can.

In 2008 he climbed Everest in just nine and a half hours when it usually takes a least three days. He has practiced by flying his wingsuit around the Matterhorn, and jumped off the Eiger three times in one day. Fine tuning of the suit is happening at Perris airfield in California before he sets out for the Himalayas.

His jump will be broadcast live to more than 200 countries by the Discovery Channel, which previously aired Felix Baumgartner's freefall from the edge of space in 2012, and Nik Wallenda's tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon in 2013.

A 40-strong back-up team will accompany Ogwyn to base camp at 17,800ft, and four high altitude cameramen will join him on the three day trek to the summit. at 29,035 ft.

Once there the daredevil will, very quickly because of the intense cold, change out of his heavy climbing gear and put on the wingsuit.

"I will visualise the jump in my mind a thousand times before I do it" he said. "The last thing I will say is probably 'A little help God, that'd be great.' Five to 10 steps and then I'll be out of there. It will be a running jump.

"The biggest challenge will be launching off. Altitude and cold could affect the wingsuit and I have to be a little lucky with certain wind conditions."

Ogwyn, who is from the famously low altitude US state of Louisiana, could be blown back into the side of the mountain, or he could be swept into China.

"I'm prepared for landing in China," he said. "I will definitely have some cash and my passport in my wingsuit."

Travelling at up to 150mph on the descent he will use his body to steer the wingsuit and propel himself away from jagged cliff faces as he falls for 10 minutes before reaching base camp.

There he will slow himself down dramatically by arching his body in a motion called "the cobra."

He will not be wearing a traditional parachute and the landing will involve a so-far secret new piece of equipment designed specifically for such a high altitude jump.

His Italian wife Flaminia, 34, a lawyer, will be watching on television. "She probably worries about me like any good wife," said Ogwyn. "She freaks out every once in a while, but she knows I'm conservative in my approach and I will make the right decisions. My goal is, no matter what, to come back and spend the rest of my life with her."

About two dozen people are known to have died last year flying wingsuits, mostly by "pushing the envelope" and flying too close to mountains. There are only around 10 making a pofessional living from the new and dangerous extreme sport which began in t he late 1990s.

"A lot of people see the videos me and my buddies make and they want do it really bad," said Ogwyn. "It's a very intoxicating feeling but you can try to do it too quickly. I discourage people from getting into this business. It takes a long time to learn how to do it right."

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Extreme athlete Joby Ogwyn will leap off the top of Mount Everest in a wingsuit live on television in May

For most adventurers reaching the summit of Mount Everest is the ultimate achievement, but for Joby Ogwyn it will be just the starting point.

After scaling the world's tallest mountain he intends to jump off it and fly to the ground wearing a nylon wing-suit.

The death-defying stunt will be broadcast live across the globe on television in May, when viewers will see Ogwyn say a quick prayer, take a few sucks from an oxygen mask, and throw himself into the void.

"I wish I had a nickel for every time I've heard I'm crazy," Ogwyn told The Telegraph moments after streaking across the California sky like Superman in a test flight of his wingsuit, a special nylon jumpsuit with webbing between the legs and arms.

"But there's a lot more to this than a crazy person jumping. It will be very well executed, it's like a shuttle mission in some ways. This is something I dreamed about as a little kid. Everything I've done for the last 20 years has been practice for this and now the technology has made flight possible.

"I believe it will be one of the most exciting adventures in the world and I want people to see it. Sure, I'm very scared. Jumping from a mountain is really, really scary, much more so than jumping from a plane. But I'm not afraid to die."

He added: "Everest is the ultimate, it's the pinnacle, the biggest stage in the world. I can't think of anywhere better to make the ultimate mega-jump of all time. I've done most of the things I wanted to do and this is the blasting cap at the end."

Within the rarified worlds of both mountain climbing and extreme skydiving Ogwyn, 39, is already a legend. If anyone can jump safely off a mountain he can.

In 2008 he climbed Everest in just nine and a half hours when it usually takes a least three days. He has practiced by flying his wingsuit around the Matterhorn, and jumped off the Eiger three times in one day. Fine tuning of the suit is happening at Perris airfield in California before he sets out for the Himalayas.

His jump will be broadcast live to more than 200 countries by the Discovery Channel, which previously aired Felix Baumgartner's freefall from the edge of space in 2012, and Nik Wallenda's tightrope walk across the Grand Canyon in 2013.

A 40-strong back-up team will accompany Ogwyn to base camp at 17,800ft, and four high altitude cameramen will join him on the three day trek to the summit. at 29,035 ft.

Once there the daredevil will, very quickly because of the intense cold, change out of his heavy climbing gear and put on the wingsuit.

"I will visualise the jump in my mind a thousand times before I do it" he said. "The last thing I will say is probably 'A little help God, that'd be great.' Five to 10 steps and then I'll be out of there. It will be a running jump.

"The biggest challenge will be launching off. Altitude and cold could affect the wingsuit and I have to be a little lucky with certain wind conditions."

Ogwyn, who is from the famously low altitude US state of Louisiana, could be blown back into the side of the mountain, or he could be swept into China.

"I'm prepared for landing in China," he said. "I will definitely have some cash and my passport in my wingsuit."

Travelling at up to 150mph on the descent he will use his body to steer the wingsuit and propel himself away from jagged cliff faces as he falls for 10 minutes before reaching base camp.

There he will slow himself down dramatically by arching his body in a motion called "the cobra."

He will not be wearing a traditional parachute and the landing will involve a so-far secret new piece of equipment designed specifically for such a high altitude jump.

His Italian wife Flaminia, 34, a lawyer, will be watching on television. "She probably worries about me like any good wife," said Ogwyn. "She freaks out every once in a while, but she knows I'm conservative in my approach and I will make the right decisions. My goal is, no matter what, to come back and spend the rest of my life with her."

About two dozen people are known to have died last year flying wingsuits, mostly by "pushing the envelope" and flying too close to mountains. There are only around 10 making a professional living from the new and dangerous extreme sport which began in t he late 1990s.

"A lot of people see the videos me and my buddies make and they want do it really bad," said Ogwyn. "It's a very intoxicating feeling but you can try to do it too quickly. I discourage people from getting into this business. It takes a long time to learn how to do it right."

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The world’s largest aircraft which can stay airborne for up to three weeks and will be vital in delivering several tonnes of humanitarian aid has been unveiled.

The 300ft (91m) ship is part plane, airship and helicopter, and there are plans to eventually use it to transport 50 tonnes of freight.

It is environmentally friendly and will be used for surveillance and communications as well as delivering aid.

Bruce Dickinson, lead singer of Iron Maiden, compared the ship to Thunderbird 2 and described the craft as a “game changer.”

“It will be able to cross the Atlantic and launch things right where they need to be,” he told Radio 4’s Today programme.

“It can reach about 100mph and stay airborne for about three-and-a-half days.”

The low carbon ship, known as the HAV304, is about 70 per cent more environmentally friendly than a cargo plane and doesn’t need a runway to take off.

It has been displayed at Cardington in Bedfordshire in the only hangar big enough to accommodate it.

It is due to fly in the UK later this year and the project has just received a £2.5 million Government grant to fund research into energy efficient and quieter planes.

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, said: "The growing aerospace sector has the potential to generate thousands of new jobs and billions of pounds to the UK economy in contracts.

"That is why so much effort is being put in by government and industry to ensure we stay ahead of the competition and build on our strong position as second in the world for aerospace."

The ship has been Created by Hybrid Air Vehicles Ltd and first flown in the USA.

It will eventually lead to the development of the Airlander 50, which would be able to transport 50 tonnes of freight.

The company plans to make between 600 and 1,000 of these aircraft in future.

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Great Ethiopian Run

One of the world's great city events, set up by the same organization that started the Great North Run, this event threads through the normally traffic-laden streets of Addis Ababa. Around 37,000 people entered this year's race, a celebration of running in a nation that has produced some of the world's finest long distance athletes, including Haile Gebrselaisse, Kenenisa Bekele, Tirunesh Dibaba, and Abebe Bikila, the man who signaled the emergence of African distance running with his barefoot marathon victory in the 1960 Rome Olympics.

Read Michael Kerr's full report of the race here

November 23; greatrun.org/Ethiopia

City to Surf Sydney

One of the most popular runs in the world, now with about 80,000 participants each year, the 14km (eight mile) route starts in the centre of Sydney, goes through the suburbs and finishes on Bondi Beach. Elite athletes do take part, but most people will be there for the fun of it – expect to see gorilla suits and Spiderman running towards those shoreline breakers. Make sure you brace yourself for Heartbreak Hill in the middle of the race.

August 10; city2surf.com.au

Cape Wrath Challenge

A quirky, friendly series of events, the Cape Wrath Challenge is run in the windswept north-westerly corner of Scotland. It’s not quite as forbidding as the name suggests, although the final race is certainly not for the faint of heart, with organizers warning that it heads through some of Britain’s “most exposed locations”. It also includes – uniquely, perhaps – a ferry journey to the start point and mid-race. There are more gentle options on different days: a half marathon, an off-road race, and a run for charity past the beautiful dunes of Balnakeil Beach.

May 11-17; capewrathchallenge.co.uk

Italy coast to coast

This team relay, from the Adriatic to the Tyrrhenian Sea, wends its way through the vineyards and olive tree groves of Marche, Umbria and Tuscany, keeping as far as possible to back-roads, old railway tracks and walking paths. It stretches over four days, with about 55 miles covered each day (run between four people, but clearly you need to be a keen runner). It is known as a sociable, friendly event, where the emphasis is less on speed than on appreciating the villages and countryside – as well as the post-run meals and refreshment.

May 30 to June 3; ovunquerunning.it

Comrades Marathon

This is a rite of passage for many South African – and international – runners. It is the world’s oldest ultra-marathon, stretching over approximately 56 miles in the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. It alternates from year to year between an uphill and a downhill course. This year, runners will take on the slightly longer, downhill race, starting from Pietermaritzburg.

June 1; comrades.com

Bay to Breakers

This San Francisco event is on a similar theme to Sydney’s City to Surf, with participants starting in the centre and racing down to the Pacific Coast. It was first held in 1912, and is claimed to be the oldest consecutively run race in the world. You’ll need to be happy with large crowds along the seven-and-a-half-mile course: on some years more than 100,000 runners have pounded the route, many of them in fancy dress.

May 18; baytobreakers.com

Marathon of the Midnight Sun

Run at the height of summer in the Norwegian town of Tromsø in the Arctic Circle, this is the most northerly registered marathon in the world. The name is something of a giveaway: you run in the middle of the night, with the sun sitting above the horizon, illuminating the road ahead. At the other seasonal extreme, participants in the Polar Night Half Marathon battle fierce cold and lactic acid during the long Arctic night.

June 21 (Midnight Sun race), January 3, 2015 for the Polar Night Half Marathon; msm.no

Marathon du Médoc

This is well established as the running event for bon viveurs. Starting near Bordeaux, it passes through dozens of vineyards – and participants are actively encouraged to sample some of the regional vintages en route (there is water on offer, too). Some have described the race as “the most fun you can have running a marathon”, (so personal bests are probably unlikely). The number of places is limited to 8,000, and many of those going will be in fancy dress.

September 13; marathondumedoc.com

Safaricom marathon

Runners in this extraordinary event in rural Kenya go through savannah, along river banks and through some spectacular scenery. It takes place within the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy, with rangers and a spotter plane ready to ensure the area’s wildlife does not interfere too much with the race. The event helps to raise money for Tusk, the wildlife conservation organisation supported by the Duke of Cambridge. There is a half-marathon too, and all abilities are encouraged. Entry is strictly limited to 1,000 participants.

June 28; safaricom.co.ke/safaricommarathon

Swiss Alpine races

For sheer, spectacular Alpine scenery, few events can compare with this series, held in the mountains around the resort of Davos. Among them are a highly competitive 78km ultra-marathon – partially run on rough mountain paths – marathons, half-marathons and a much gentler Nordic walk event. Spectators bring out cowbells to cheer you on. There is also a mini event for children.

July 26; swissalpine.ch

Bagan Temple Marathon

The second edition of this event takes place this year, and it may well be one of those races where you’re tempted to slow down to take in the scenery. It takes runners amid the sacred pagodas and beautiful temples that dot the plains of Bagan in central Burma. It’s the latest marathon to be set up by a company that also organizes the Polar Circle Marathon in Greenland, the Great Wall Marathon in China and the Big Five Marathon on the savannah of South Africa.

November 15; adventure-marathon.com

Athens Classic

The Athens Classic Marathon took inspiration from the historic run of a messenger who delivered the good news of Greece's victory in the Battle of Marathon. Legends say he was only able to cry out 'Nenikehamen' ('We have won') before he collapsed and died upon arrival in Athens. Today, the course starts at the Marathon battlefield and ends at the Olympic Stadium in Marathon.

09 November; www.athensclassicmarathon.gr

Athens city break guide

Boston Marathon

This is another one for the running purists and historians. The Boston Marathon is the world's oldest annual city marathon - and one of the most prestigious for runners to compete in. It was inspired by the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896 and is among the few races that requires participants to meet a time standard to ensure only the fastest applicants get a starting place. The next race will be especially poignant after the tragic scenes witnessed in 2013 when two terrorists detonated bombs near the finishing line.

Boston city break guide

New York

The New York City Marathon is the other obvious race to travel to in the US. It is one of the highest profile races in the world. It began in 1970 with just 127 runners who each paid a $1 entry fee to participate. Today, entry is by lottery and draws over 100,000 applicants each year. It is watched by 315 million people around the world on television. The marathon cuts through all five boroughs of the city, ending in Manhattan's Central Park. Application ends March 18.

02 November, 2014; www.nycmarathon.org

Read our New York city break guide

More great city marathons

Antarctic Ice Marathon

If covering 26 miles on plain old tarmac just isn’t enough for you then head south to test your limits at the end of the earth. Battling snow and ice, with a windchill factor of -20C, is not for the faint-hearted. Nor is it for the light of pocket: participation costs more than 10,000 euros. Note that the 2014 trip is already sold out.

November 18, 2014; www.icemarathon.com

Aoraki Mt Cook marathon

This new group of events - running the gamut from marathon to 5KM - boasts that it is "quite possibly one of the world’s most scenic road marathons". It certainly has a good claim to be, based in the Aoraki Mt Cook National Park in the South Island of New Zealand events. Runners and walkers follow the main Mt Cook Road amid lakes, mountain and glacial landscapes.

April 13; www.activeqt.co.nz/events/aoraki-mt-cook

Paris to Versailles

Starting by the Eiffel Tower, this mass participation event goes all the way up the 10-mile route to well-heeled chateau town of Versailles. It starts in waves. It's a great atmosphere, although speedier entrants should make sure they are near the earlier waves to avoid the crowds.

September 28; parisversailles.com

Fancy something longer, or going off road? Try the Ecotrail de Paris, a trail race going in the reverse direction with distances of up to 80km.

March 29-30; traildeparis.com

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