September 2021

Big News:
Goodbye CO2. One of the biggest stories, in the U.K at least, has been the carbon dioxide (CO2) shortage. This problem has been on the horizon for a while, since gas prices started to rise at the beginning of the year – caused by increased gas demand following a harsh winter at the end of 2020 and the re-opening of industries as COVID-19 vaccinations increased. This situation came to a head when two CO2 production sites in the U.K ceased production after it become too expensive to continue production. The implications of the current shortage are still unfolding but predictions are not promising for a range of sectors, including food and drink, scientific research and, crucially, healthcare.  
A very COVID Winter. In even less optimistic news (it’s been a rough month) the U.K laid out its plans for dealing with COVID-19 during the coming winter. As usual the British government were as vague as possible, and personally I’m no clearer what there strategy is. If you want to learn more about what we should be doing, I suggest this article from an actual medical expert – as opposed to a politician.

Little News:
Fighting hurricanes with bubbles! To prevent this month’s Newsletter being all negative, here is some more fun science – Norwegian company OceanTherm plan to use bubbles to prevent the formation of hurricanes.  Hurricanes occur when hot and cold air meet over warm ocean water, to prevent this the company want to use pipes to distribute compressed air into ocean water. The bubbles would then draw cooler water up to the surface, reducing the water temperature, and reducing the risk of hurricanes forming. If you’ve ever been given a drink with a straw in and blown bubbles, it’s the same principle - -just on a much larger scale.

My reading suggestions for this month:
Article: For anyone who doesn’t follow me on social media (find me here) I’m a big fan of ancient philosophy, especially Stoic philosophy. I’ve found that some of the practices have drastically improved my mental health, especially over the last year. If you’re interested in getting started I highly recommend this article about being a stoic for a week.
Books: I’ve been reading a lot of none-fiction over the last few months, but this month I decided to take a break and go back to my favourite genre – Fantasy. I’m a sucker for anything Fantasy, maybe it’s the D&D nerd in me. This month I’ve been working my way through the Farseer Trilogy, which follows an illegitimate son of a Prince as he is trained to be an assassin and survive a Kingdom wide war.