April 2022

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Big News
Natural History GCSE. This month the UK government announced that it would be launching a GCSE in natural history, to teach pupils about plants, animals and how to protect the planet. The secondary school qualification won’t start until September 2025, and the specifics of the course have yet to be announced, but once running it aims to provide students with the knowledge and tools needed to live sustainably alongside nature. I’ve seen some criticism online about the announcement, claiming that it doesn’t go far enough, especially given the existential threat that climate change has become. As someone who loves the outdoors, I would have loved the opportunity to take this GCSE, and while we need to take more action to teach the next and current generations about sustainability, this is at least a step in the right direction.

Elon buying twitter. In tech news this month, billionaire crypto-bro Elon Musk secured $46.5bn (£35.6bn) to fund a possible takeover of Twitter. Thus far the Twitter board of directors haven’t given any signals that they would support the proposal, in fact they actually took moves to limit Musk’s control if he were to takeover. I have little opinion on this news because as far as I can tell it’s a mad billionaire doing what mad billionaires do – needlessly spending ludicrous sums of money for a laugh.

Little News:
Ingenuity celebrates 1 year on Mars. This month is the one year anniversary of the Mars helicopter, Ingenuity, taking flight in the Martian atmosphere. The Ingenuity was attached to the belly of NASA’s Perseverance rover and after landing and setup it took off on what was originally a 30-day demonstration to determine if a helicopter could fly in the thin atmosphere. This little helicopter has exceeded expectations and the short test flight changed into a fully-fledged operation. Ingenuity now supports the Perseverance rover by scouting out terrain. Who knows how long Ingenuity will keep going, but I look forward to seeing what it, and the Perseverance, can accomplish over the next few years of Martian exploration.

What I’ve been enjoying this month
Second hand bookshops are the best. I was recently gifted a copy of The Diary of a Bookseller which, as the title suggests, chronicles the life of a bookseller. It’s a real life account of the daily comings and goings of Shaun Bythell who owns The Bookshop, Wigtown - Scotland's largest second-hand bookshop. Since reading it I have made more of an effort to hunt out and visit second hand bookshops (it turns out they are sadly a dying breed). When I went to one in Nottingham city centre I picked up a beautiful set of illustrated hardback Charles Dickens novels for £20 – what a bargain! So if you get the chance I recommend finding your nearest second hand bookshop and go exploring; it’s amazing what you can find.