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Human medicines European public assessment report (EPAR): Nuvaxovid, COVID-19 Vaccine (recombinant, adjuvanted), Date of authorisation: 20/12/2021, Revision: 11, Status: Authorised

Human medicines European public assessment report (EPAR): Spikevax (previously COVID-19 Vaccine Moderna), COVID-19 mRNA vaccine,elasomeran,elasomeran / imelasomeran,elasomeran / davesomeran,andusomeran, Date of authorisation: 06/01/2021, Revision: 41, Status: Authorised

• The People’s Climate Vote, a UN survey of public opinion on climate change, highlights that citizens around the world recognise climate change as a global emergency and agree that we should do everything necessary in response.
• Read more:
  Eco-anxiety: climate change affects our mental health – here's how to cope

  So if you’re looking to make your life greener in 2024, here are some manageable and affordable changes you can make.

1. Eating

• But there are simple changes you can make to eat more sustainably (and often at less expense too).
• These include eating locally and seasonally, or eating less meat and more plants, especially beans and greens.
• Eating processed “mock meats” can be a stepping stone towards a more plant-based lifestyle, although they are relatively expensive.

2. Travelling

• Choosing active travel – walking, wheeling and cycling – is the greenest option, keeping us and our children fitter and healthier while producing no carbon emissions.
• In urban areas, where you’re travelling shorter distances, active transport is often faster and cheaper than car travel.
• For longer journeys, travelling by train or bus is more environmentally friendly than by car and plane.

3. Energy use

• The energy we use at home is becoming increasingly expensive and is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions.
• Making small changes to our daily energy use can make a big difference, both to our bills and household emissions.
• Using the data recorded by a smart meter (if you have one) to monitor your energy use can help you make these changes.

4. Clothing

• You can even make your clothing more personal using repair methods such as Sashiko stitching, making the repair a visible feature of your clothing.
• You could also swap clothing you no longer want with friends and family or at swap shops.
• Alternatively, you could buy less, but higher quality clothing.

5. Waste management

• We generate more than 2 billion metric tons of solid municipal waste worldwide each year.
• There are many small changes we can make to reduce the amount we put in our bins.
• Reducing waste saves valuable resources as well as reducing pollution and your weekly spend.

Ian Williams receives funding from EU Horizon 2020 and EPSRC. Ian Williams is a member of the International Solid Waste Association, the Chartered Institution of Wastes Management and the Royal Society of Chemistry. Alice Brock does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

• Then they garbled on about the philosophical nature of time, still resisting payment.
• It was during that wistful, skyward narrative that I saw the timepiece slip from their hand and hit the marble floor.
• Time was important enough to our ancestors that they went to the effort of building an extraordinary prehistoric monument, Stonehenge.

It’s in the timing

• The Sumerians (4100-1750BC) based around Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) calculated that the day was approximately 24 hours and that each hour was 60 minutes long.
• Water clocks used the gradual flow of water from one container to another to measure time.

• But the length of these “hours” varied depending on the time of year – longer in summertime than winter.
• These measures of time were based on the Sun, with 12 parts during daylight, and another 12 parts through the night.
• The time period between these canonical prayers became equal in length because of the rigidity of prayer times.

Prayer time

While we can’t be certain from historical records if it was monks who made the first mechanical clocks, we do know that they first appeared in the 14th century. Their first mention is in the Italian physician, astronomer and mechanical engineer Giovanni de Dondi’s treatise Tractatus Astrarii, or Planetarium. De Dondi states that early clocks used gravity as their power source and were driven by weights.

• These early clocks started popping up in city centres but, since they did not have a face, they used bells to signal the hours.
• These signals began to organise the market times and administrative needs of each city.
• Coiled springs as a method of releasing energy for clocks began to appear in Europe in the 15th century.

Time tracking in other parts of the world

• And long before that, the Ancient Greek Antikythera mechanism, regarded as the world’s first computer, is dated at around 100BC (having been discovered in AD1901).
• Meanwhile in China, there was Su Song’s astronomical clock – dated to AD1088 – which was powered by water.
• Today, wherever we are in the world, time is a unified construct – and the search for ever-more precise measurements continues.

Jaq Prendergast does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.