I am delighted to announce that our publisher, EIROforum, has agreed to fund Science in School for a further two years, with enough money to cover the online production. We are also making every effort to continue printing your favourite science-teaching journal, for you to read on the train, refer to again and again, or share with colleagues, students and friends – but we need your help.

Life in space – scientists and lay people alike are intrigued by this possibility. Recently, astronomers have found a planet orbiting a star that entered the Milky Way from another galaxy. Does that whet your appetite for space travel? Why not discuss what we would need to live on another planetary body and get your students to design a space habitat?

Do men and women share the same sense of humour? Perhaps, but their brains react differently to it, as Allan Reiss explains in this issue’s feature article. Of course, people differ not only in their humour but also in many other ways, including skin colour, hair thickness and the ability to digest starch or lactose. What is the genetic basis of such differences, and could they have been evolutionary adaptations to a changing environment? Jarek Bryk tells us how scientists investigate these questions.

Have you ever wondered who is behind Science in School? We would like to present our publisher, EIROforum: a collaboration between seven European inter-governmental scientific research organisations.