Hopelessly happy

Researchers have found that giving patients with serious illnesses hope for a cure can make them more depressed. Peter Ubel, director of the University of Michigan Centre for Behavioural and Decision Sciences in Medicine, spoke about "the dark side of hope". "Sometimes, if hope makes people put off getting on with their life, it can get in the way of happiness," he explained. "We think they were happier because they got on with their lives. They realised the cards they were dealt and recognised that they had no choice. This sopped their need to recover, and they could focus on the better aspects of life" Ubel looked at a group of adults who had their colons removed.

Crash-test baby

A 6-month-old baby had a miracle escape after his pram rolled onto the tracks and into the path of an oncoming train at a railway station in Melbourne. Security video footage released on Friday shows the baby's mother looking away for a moment as the pram suddenly rolls off the edge of a station platform and onto the tracks at Ashburton station. The mother looks back and panics as she watches the oncoming train hit the pram, dragging it about 130 feet along the track as the desperate driver tried to stop the train. Miraculously, the baby boy survived with only minor injuries, including a bump to his head.