While most people start running for the physical benefits of the sport, it can also be hugely beneficial for your mental health. A study on 14,000 people undertaken by Asics(opens in new tab) during the pandemic has found that 82% of UK runners say running helps to clear their mind, and 78% feel more sane and in control as a result of running.
Swimming in open water - ponds, lakes, rivers, oceans - is like crossing a boundary into another world. The ancient Celts even believed that submersion could provide a link to the supernatural - Carpe Diem
Entranced many years ago by Roger Deakin's wonderful Waterlog, which I have lent subsequently to others and they've had similarly joyous reactions.
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Growing herbs, seeing them, smelling them, touching them, eating them and I hope, soon sharing them (as plants and incorporated into recipes and remedies), makes me - as it does millions of others, i'm sure - just feel better.
Jekka McVicar is an inspiration - she now grows around 700 different herbs.
In 2018 I was privileged to spend a day in the company of the wonderful Jekka and her family. Jekka, with no fewer than 14 Chelsea Golds, probably knows as much about herbs as anyone in England. Then in 2021, I attended Jekka's first HerbFest, which was filled with expert talks, gardening workshops and cookery demonstrations from Jekka and her team and friends.
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Please see below a range of 2021 outlooks and forecasts, grouped across the following 21 topics.
There is also a bonus list of additional 2021 forecasts in appendix.
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If the world were a village of 100 people, what would it look like? Various answers have circulated around the internet for years, but a set of 20 posters provides a visual perspective on this fascinating hypothetical question.
The death rate of babies under the age of one has fallen steeply in the last few decades. It's now probably at its lowest ever rate in human history. That’s thanks to many modern public health victories: better sanitation, more access to clean drinking water, enhanced nutrition, and the improved education of women.
The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) were eight time-bound goals providing concrete, numerical benchmarks for tackling extreme poverty in its many dimensions.
The MDGs included goals and targets on income poverty, hunger, maternal and child mortality, disease, inadequate shelter, gender inequality, environmental degradation and the Global Partnership for Development.
Adopted by world leaders in the year 2000 with the attention of being achieved by 2015, the MDGs were both global and local, tailored by each country to suit specific development needs.
The eight MDGs below in turn broke down into 21 quantifiable targets that were measured by 60 indicators.
40%: The percentage of patients reported to have responded to one of the most advanced CRISPR cancer therapy studies to be tested in China. China is far ahead of the US in CRISPR cancer studies due to its less stringent approval requirements, but the US and Europe are set to see their first human trials of the gene-editing technique this year. With potentially transformative implications across medicine, agriculture, and even chemical products, CB Insights' 5,200-word CRISPR deep dive unpacks the science behind the technology, its applications, controversies it’s stirred up, and where CRISPR may take us next.
