Seven Days

A glance at the week that was

Hype trails

Pentagon officials have debunked reports of a missile launchoff the coast of California. A CBS News helicopter filmed a large vapour trail about 50km offshore on Monday, leading many to believe it was a missile plume. Initially, a spokesman for the US department of defence said that no one could explain the event. By Wednesday, however, Pentagon and Nasa experts concluded that it was an aircraft contrail distorted by the camera angle, wind and sunlight.

Stop txting

Teenagers who text more than 120 times a day are more likely to smoke, drink, fight and have sexual relationships than those who send less messages, according to a new study in the US.

In a survey of about 4,000 students, Dr Scott Frank, a public-health expert at Case Western Reserve University school of medicine, in Cleveland, Ohio, concluded that students identified as "hypertexters"tended to be more susceptible to peer pressure and were more likely to have parents who were either permissive or absent.

We now know

After a series of delays, the Big Banghas finally been simulated in miniature by Cern's Large Hadron Collider.

People who stay up lateat night tend to have higher IQs than early risers, according to the latest research from the London School of Economics.

Whalessuffer from sunburn, according to a study of more than 150 of the creatures in the Gulf of California.

The numbers

100

The number of tigerskilled in Asia each year for skin and parts

200,000

The number of "likes" the queen of England's Facebook pagegot within two days of its launch

62

The official retirement agein France after President Sarkozy successfully forced the change on Wednesday