Ayse Saygin, professor at the University of California, San Diego, is using cutting-edge brain science to understand this strange quirk of human nature.

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For many the sacking last week of Ayse Sucu (pictured), the head of the women's centre of Turkey's state-run religious-affairs directorate (Diyanet), amounted to nothing less.

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Volkema might succeed, with 35-year-old Ayse Birsel and her Resolve office system, which redefines open-plan office space at 120-degree angles with a combination of poles, arms and screens.

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