Long favoured by bodybuilders and other athletes, this supplement is breaking out into the mainstream, as study after study suggests a host of benefits for our minds as well as our bodies. Are there any caveats?

Until relatively recently, if you were mixing a scoop of powdered creatine into a glass of water each day, it probably meant you were a bodybuilder or training for an athletic event. Although creatine is a compound that occurs naturally in the body, its role in producing quick bursts of energy meant that, if you took extra, it was assumed to be in order to (legally) enhance your performance – to help you squat a fractionally heavier weight or run a bit faster.

But evidence has been mounting that creatine may play an important role in cognitive function and improving brain health – and could be more beneficial to women than it is to gym bros. So, should we all take it – or at least try to get more of it from food?

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The era that began with the Great Disruptor’s first term is over. Beware the emerging elite

In hindsight, 2016 was the beginning of the beginning. And 2024 is the end of that beginning and the start of something much, much worse.

It began as a tear in the information space, a dawning realisation that the world as we knew it – stable, fixed by facts, balustraded by evidence – was now a rip in the fabric of reality. And the turbulence that Trump is about to unleash – alongside pain and cruelty and hardship – is possible because that’s where we already live: in information chaos.

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I have particularly unpleasant memories of my teens and 20s. And I’m not the only one …

If you’re 34, watch out: Tom Hanks says 35 is the worst age . Why ask Hanks – delightful as he seems – as opposed to, say, the highly qualified global community of happiness psychologists and social scientists? Because he’s got a film out, duh – Here , which required him to be rejuvenated to various ages, including his dread mid-30s. “Your metabolism stops, gravity starts tearing you down, your bones start wearing off [and] you stand differently,” Hanks told Entertainment Tonight . “You no longer are able to spring up off a couch.”

This is such a movie star answer. Hanks’ gripe is physical decline and yes, when your face, body and spring-off-a-couch-ability are how your worth is gauged, feeling that you’re physically degenerating must open up an existential abyss. For civilians, he’s wrong though: it’s 47.2. That’s when the US National Bureau of Economic Research concluded human unhappiness peaks . That finding in 2020 reinforced previous research on the “ U-shaped happiness curve ”: we start happy, wellbeing bottoms out at about 50, then we perk up again. The U-curve has been challenged, but seems robust; a 2021 review found “remarkably strong and consistent evidence across countries” of U-shaped happiness trajectories.

Emma Beddington is a Guardian columnist

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The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

I have lived in many countries where the windows open inwards. Not only are they easy to clean (at any storey level), but also you can also attach insect nets to the outside and still open the windows without any interference. Why is it standard in the UK to have windows that open outwards? Ben, via email

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com .

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Food, fertiliser, fuel … seaweed has been a life force for centuries. On a coastal foraging trip in Pembrokeshire, we discover it’s now behind a new green initiative, too

I am lying in a hot bath filled with seaweed. After a week learning about the stuff, collecting it, drying it, eating it, feeling it slippery beneath my feet, this is the first time I’ve bathed in seaweed and, yes, in the steam and candlelight, I get it – I get what the fish are crazy for. The fish, the crabs and, I’m learning, soon everybody else.

The weather in Pembrokeshire while we’re there is often what coastal forager Craig Evans called, as he cheerfully stomped ahead of me earlier that day across a beach in whipping wind, “liquid sunshine”. We arrived on a Monday, checking into a lodge at the Bluestone resort in the afternoon and taking delivery of a perfect dinner by chef Ben Gobbi , whose menus rely on local produce and a sprinkling of seaweed. Bluestone’s head of corporate responsibility explains that one of the main differences between this place and similar resorts is that they are typically dropped into the middle of a forest, while this one built a forest around itself, planting thousands of trees (using seaweed as fertiliser), and doing things like offering nappy recycling to families, later using the recycled product to build their roads. Another difference is that while other resorts want to lock their guests in, here they encourage everybody to go and explore Pembrokeshire, which is lucky, as I have plans.

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They seem sensitive and caring – but really they just want to manipulate you. So how do you recognise the danger signs?

It isn’t every day that psychologists identify a hot new character archetype. Human design doesn’t usually generate media stories about “the most-talked-about personality trait for autumn/winter”. And yet, something close to this is unfolding with the current fascination with so-called “dark empaths”.

On TikTok, the term has been trending, with more than 2.6m mentions. There’s even a #darkempathtok hashtag , all the better to locate the latest videos with ominous titles such as “When an empath goes dark” and “The most DANGEROUS personality”. A measure of how far the idea has travelled is that, when I mentioned the phrase to my hairdresser, he helpfully explained: “Oh yes, they’re the ones who are like narcissists, only more devious.”

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Women’s Aid Northern Ireland says failure to tackle one of Europe’s highest femicide rates is result of sectarian division

A leading women’s rights charity has called for the establishment of a domestic abuse commissioner in Northern Ireland to tackle one of the highest rates of femicide in Europe.

There is heightened concern that policies tackling domestic violence in Northern Ireland have been held back by decades of sectarian division sucking political resources.

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More than 200 leading restaurant, pub and hotel companies say tax rises will cause ‘unprecedented damage’

Hospitality businesses will be forced to close while others will have to slash jobs and investment as a result of changes to national insurance announced in the budget, according to a letter to the chancellor signed by the bosses of more than 200 of the UK’s largest restaurant, pub and hotel businesses.

The letter – with signatories including the Premier Inn owner Whitbread and pub and restaurant group Mitchells & Butlers – comes as reports suggested Tesco would face an additional £1bn in costs over the course of the current parliament as the result of the increase in employers’ national insurance contributions (NICs).

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• Englishman cards final-round 66 with birdie-birdie finish
• Tyrrell Hatton finishes second, Rory McIlroy ties for third

Paul Waring carded a six-under 66 to win the Abu Dhabi Championship for the biggest victory of his career on Sunday.

The 229th-ranked Englishman was one stroke ahead overnight and finished on 24 under. He even surprised himself at how smoothly the fourth and final round went.

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