George Clooney This article is more than 9 years oldGeorge Clooney 'to make appearance in Downton Abbey'This article is more than 9 years oldSources suggest Hollywood star will play American guest in a one-off sketch to raise money in a charity fundraiserGeorge Clooney is to star in the UK television series Downton Abbey, it has been reported. The actor will play an American character who is a guest at a wedding in the country estate.

‘A perfect Venn diagram overlap of zesty citrus, cooling peppermint and fruity pineapple’: Peruvian black mint (Tagetes minuta). Photograph: Forest & Kim Starr‘A perfect Venn diagram overlap of zesty citrus, cooling peppermint and fruity pineapple’: Peruvian black mint (Tagetes minuta). Photograph: Forest & Kim StarrJames Wong on gardensGardening adviceThere’s hope for those who intensely dislike coriander: Peruvian black mint is the new herb on the block… I might as well come clean now: I hate coriander.

Photograph: Phillip Reed/Peerless Rockville Historic Preservation Ltd/Getty/Guardian DesignForty years ago, Dr Ray Osheroff sued a US hospital for failing to give him antidepressants. The case would change the course of medical history – even if it couldn’t help the patient himself by Rachel AvivBefore entering Chestnut Lodge, one of the most elite psychiatric hospitals in the US, Ray Osheroff was the kind of charismatic, overworked physician we have come to associate with the American dream.

CitiesWhat if a city allowed a huge regeneration project to be led, not by the wealthiest property developer, but by the club owners who put on the best parties in town? With the opening of Holzmarkt, Berlin is about to find out For the first decade of the 21st century, the industrial wasteland between Berlin’s Ostbahnhof station and the river Spree was earmarked for a huge urban regeneration project – one that would show that the German capital could keep up with London and New York.

Top 10sHealth, mind and body booksIn time for new year resolutions, a cultural historian chooses some of the best guides to making a better life, dating back to some of our earliest literature It is easy to dismiss self-help books and those who read them. But not only do we need serious self-help, we must also take self-help more seriously. Valued at $11bn (£8bn) worldwide, self-help is a major global industry.

Science This article is more than 15 years oldVertical stripes don't flatter – they make you look fatterThis article is more than 15 years oldThe fashion gurus have got it all wrong, claims an expert in visual perception. Far from making you look thinner, wearing clothes with vertical stripes will accentuate your girthWomen of a certain age will be replacing their wardrobes and Geordie football fans will be crying into their Newcastle Brown Ale.

The ObserverGlobal developmentOn the margins of the sex industry, an ugly market in virginity has emerged in Cambodia in which rich and powerful men coerce desperate mothers into selling their daughters' innocenceVannith Uy is the owner of what translates from Khmer as a "mobile nail salon", although the word salon is a stretch. It's a bicycle with a plastic crate on the back filled with hand lotions and nail polishes. Uy, 42, rides it around her Phnom Penh neighbourhood – a tangle of alleys near the river where the residents' domestic lives spill out of their open front doors – until a customer flags her down.

Tom Nash believes he experienced what is known as post-traumatic growth, a positive psychological change experienced after highly stressful life circumstances. Photograph: Jessica Hromas/The GuardianAfter contracting meningococcal at 19, Tom Nash spent 18 painful months in hospital having his limbs amputated. Two decades later, ‘DJ Hookie’ explains why his experience left him better off by Katie CunninghamThere’s one question strangers always ask Tom Nash: “What happened to you?” Some days he’ll say it was a shark attack that separated him from his limbs, or maybe a disastrous trapeze incident.

BIRDS AND THE BEESI saw carved on a tree trunk an inscription dated 1920. It was very high up on the trunk. How do trees grow - from the top, the bottom, or both? Flo, London Trees, like all plants, grow from groups of dividing cells called meristems. In trees these are usually at the tips of shoots, and at the tips of the roots. Meristems not at the tips produce branches.

‘Remember your purpose transcends desirability. You are here to live a full life.’ Illustration: Mel Lou/The Guardian‘Remember your purpose transcends desirability. You are here to live a full life.’ Illustration: Mel Lou/The GuardianGuardian Weekend: gal-dem takeoverWomenSociety tells us only women with small boobs should go braless, says Chidera Eggerue, but it’s how you feel about it that matters I’m in my early 20s and don’t have a lot of body confidence, something that began at puberty.