The Covid 19 pandemic has certainly overwhelmed the lives of each of us, and we are only now beginning to see a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. If we think back to the two years just passed, we cannot fail to notice how our daily life has changed, between prohibitions and limitations, and how our health, both physical and mental, has been affected. However, not all evil comes to harm. This difficult situation has had a decisive role to bringing about a real medical revolution: mRna vaccines.

Since the american pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna developed their own vaccines against Covid-19 using mRna technology, the criticisms and doubts didn’t wait to come. Among the many, one of the most relevant concerns is about the speed of development. How is it possible that these vaccines are safe and reliable if the technology behind them has never been tested before? The answer is simple: mRna vaccines are not a last-minute discovery, but the result of the combination of numerous studies, three in particular, which began as early as 1960’. In these 60 years, the path that has led to today's triumph has been anything but roses and flowers.

But let's go in order. First of all, what is mRna? Messenger RNA is the molecule, discovered in 1960, which acts as an intermediary between DNA, the string of instructions for producing proteins in the heart of the cell, and the factories of the actual proteins, cellular structures called ribosomes. The messenger molecule, mRNA, carries copies of transcribed DNA segments to the ribosomes, where these instructions are translated.

All very interesting. But why and how can mRna be crucial in the production of vaccines? Up to now, commercial vaccines have used modified viruses or fragments of them to train the immune system to attack invading pathogens. An mRna vaccine, on the other hand, would carry instructions to teach the body to produce its own viral proteins, an approach that mimics the infection more precisely and therefore should generate a better immune response.

On paper, the idea is simple and amazing. However, the reasons that over the years have led to a lack of interest in messenger RNA lie in the practical difficulties. Indeed, isolating mRNA from cells is impossible without it completely degrading. A first breakthrough came in 1984, when Harvard biologist Doug Melton discovered how to reproduce mRNA in the laboratory, but the problem was anyway its delicacy.

Furthermore, the attempt to produce synthetic mRna useful in the fight against certain diseases collides with the strong and efficient machine that our body is. Perceived as foreign, synthetic mRna stimulates inflammatory reactions and is rejected, unable to reach the cells. We have to wait until 2005 for the solution to this thorny problem. The Hungarian biologist Katlin Karikò and the colleague of the University of Pennsylvania Drew Weissmann discover that modifying a "letter" of the mRNA inhibits the problematic immune reaction. The mRNA manages to escape the control mechanisms and reach the cells. We are at a turning point.

Even though mRNA is now protected from cell rejection, it needs to be able to deliver it intact to the cells themselves. In the 1990s, a team of biochemists from Inex, a Vancouver company founded by Pieter Cullis, pursued this goal by working with lipid membranes the size of one-hundredth of a cell. It's not easy: human cells have a defense system that prevents anything other than their food from gaining access. Furthermore, some lipids have electrical charges that destroy the cell membrane immediately after contact. However, Cullis and colleagues discover how to manipulate the electrical charge of these lipid envelopes so that their toxicity vanishes once they enter the blood.

At this point the recipe is almost ready. The last missing ingredient is the precise code to be provided to the cells to start producing the protein capable of triggering the necessary immune response. In the case of Covid-19, as for other coronaviruses, the one you want to produce is the spike protein, which is the hook-shaped atomic structure that the virus uses to invade cells. Thanks to the studies by researchers McLellan and Graham on other coronaviruses, such as MERS, it is now possible to trace exactly the section of code inherent to the spike protein, inserting the appropriate modifications in order to stabilize the mutations.

When at dawn on December 31, 2019, a mysterious pneumonia from Wuhan knocks on the door, every piece is in its place, ready to be exploited. In less than one year, Pfizer and Moderna deliver two extremely effective vaccines against Covid-19, both using the mRna technology. The mRna vaccines are born from the combination of studies and efforts that have lasted for 60 years. It is too early to predict the effects that this technology has brought with it, but what is certain is that we are facing a new era of medicine.

In our current tech, fast-paced world, our minds have been so focused on social media and the internet that hardly anyone considers reading books. But do we get anything from reading books? Is it just a matter of pleasure, or are there benefits beyond enjoyment? Research has answered this question with a big and resounding “yes”.
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Reading books benefits both our physical and mental health, and those benefits can last a lifetime. They begin in early childhood and continue through the senior years.
 
But what are these benefits?
 
First, reading stimulates our brain, helping in preventing age-related cognitive decline. Reading every day stimulates our mental activity. Studies have not conclusively proven that reading books can prevent diseases such as dementia or Alzheimer’s disease however, they show that those who read and solve math problems daily maintain and improve their cognitive functioning.
 
It reduces stress. According to a 2009 research, 30 minutes of reading worked just as effectively as humour and yoga in lowering heart rate, blood pressure, and psychological discomfort.
 
It expands our vocabulary. Researchers have discovered that pupils who start reading books regularly from an early age, develop a large vocabulary over time.
 
It improves our memory. One of the most significant advantages of frequent reading is that it exercises our brain. Our brain is capable of retaining a large quantity of information, and with each new memory, our brain produces new brain pathways or synapses. Furthermore, it improves our present memory, aids in the recall of short-term memory, and stabilises our mood.
 
It empowers us to empathise with others. According to studies, persons who read literary fiction have a better understanding of others’ thoughts and ideas. Long-term fiction readers have a more developed set of skills for forming, sustaining, and managing social connections.
 
Besides these advantages, reading also offers others, like enhancing our analytical thinking skills, improving our focus and concentration, or even refining our writing skills. Because the effects of reading are cumulative, it is especially vital for children to read as much as possible. It is, nevertheless, never too late to begin reaping the many physical and psychological benefits that may be found within the pages of a good book.

As everyone knows, Mother earth is getting destroyed, air pollution and global warming are killing our planet. We are killing our planet. But not everyone, some people protect it. For example, the indigenous community sacred Mother earth and if you dare acting against her, you would not be considered as a member of the community anymore.

But who are they? The indigenous people share the belief that nature is sacred beside their distinct rituals and traditions. They keep their own traditions, their own language and cultural belief which are different from the modern society. It is estimated that there are more than 370 million indigenous peoples spread across 70 countries worldwide. Moreover, indigenous territories are home to 80% of the world’s biodiversity.

However, no one take them into consideration since they are different from most people. Their home, their culture, their traditions are slowly disappearing. Indeed, the governments decide to cut the forests for agricultural fields, for urbanisation, construction… with one idea in mind: make money.  Except that indigenous people are the ones who take care of our biodiversity, of our wildlife and of our beautiful planet. They live in peace, in harmony with mother earth but are threatened because of powerful people who always want more than what they already have.
Why not take the indigenous people as an example, for mother earth. 

Today is an important day. We celebrate our mother, our home, the place where we create our future, our life in summary, the Earth ! Without this place we can’t live, breathe, exist… So it’s very important to take care of her.
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We are seven billion, but the Earth is not well, because we don’t protect her. Climate change, and global warming is here and if we don’t change our habits, things will get worse, there will be no water, no forests, animals are going to be extinct.

But I think we can change things if everybody makes a part of it, even a small action. We can have an impact.

Did you know ?

• The temperature is 40 degrees above the average recorded in Antarctica.
• It takes 3 years to invert the greenhouse gas curve.
• The temperature has increased by 1.1°C since 1850 and the sea level by 9 cm (1993-2019).
• The energy industry accounts for 37% of CO2 emissions in Europe.
• Transport is responsible for 28% of CO2 emissions.
• Manufacturing and construction is also responsible for 16% of CO2 emissions.

 
What can we do ?
Change your habits.

• Buy directly from producers (looking at the origin).
• Make a garden or go to a collective garden. And create a compost in your garden.
• Think before you throw away: give, repair, resell. Try to go to a second hand shop.
•  Save energy: turn off lights, water…
• Stop using cars for every deplacement but use Carpool, cycle, public transport (bus/metro/train) or walk...
•  Stop the fires, go to the waste disposal. Choose a good label for products like paper, cardboard…

 
So now with all of this information, don't be apart, take a part ! 

More than likely, everyone has heard of this famous Elon Musk man who changed the world with his technological innovations.

Who Is Elon Musk? Elon Musk is a South African-born American entrepreneur and businessman who founded X.com in 1999 which later became PayPal, SpaceX in 2002 and Tesla Motors in 2003. Musk became a multimillionaire in his late 20s when he sold his start-up company, Zip2, to a division of Compaq Computers. Musk, 50, has a fortune of $ 273 billion, estimated by Forbes, making him the richest person in the world, $ 92.3 billion more than Amazon's Jeff Bezos.
 
Elon Musk may just be the 21st century’s Thomas Edison.
The prolific inventor’s inventions have won him multiple entrepreneur and innovator-of-the-year awards - and are a regular topic of discussion among both business leaders and consumers.

While some of the companies Musk has founded are more famous than others, he has been actively inventing things since before he was a teenager. Early efforts in software and software companies have since evolved into consumer products and mass-transportation visions. And although some of those visions may seem impossible at first glance, Musk’s track record has muted many doubters. His breakthrough thinking has helped him amass a net worth around $ 13.5 billion.
 
But there’s more to Musk than just the companies you’ve heard of. Here’s a look at his wide range of revolutionary ideas, patents, products and companies.
While many initially expected Tesla to fail - which it almost did during the 2008-2009 and 2017-2018 financial crises, when it went through what Musk called a "production hell" at the launch of its sedan. high volume Model 3 -, the company began to record quarterly profits in 2020.
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Musk’s latest idea might be his most ambitious. Hyperloop - This transportation system, introduced in 2013 and still in the formulative stages, aims to allow commuters to travel between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 35 minutes or less faster than a commercial flight. The rail system would work in a tube with extremely low air pressure, which would theoretically reduce drag and enable higher speeds at up to 800 miles per hour with lower power consumption.

When you think about health, you first think of diseases, sport, eating “healthy” like fruits, vegetables, quinoa…. But health is not only being healthy physically, it is also being healthy mentally. 

In 2021, almost a third of full-time employees in Europe said that they feel burned out very often or always. That means that 28% of full-time employees were suffering of chronic stress at work and couldn’t handle it. People living a burn out are exhausted physically, mentally. It can affect people’s social relationships. Burn out also affects the work organisation, increase in absenteeism, cost increase, and decrease in productivity and creativity. 
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Nevertheless, in some countries, the government already focus more on the well-being of their people than on the economy. In fact, happy and healthy people are more productive. For example, New Zealand has a well-being budget which uses human health safety and flourishing to assess the success of its policies while Finland have adopted a health in all-policies approach, growing the well-being of their people. Another example is the government of Iceland who implemented, between 2015 and 2019, a trial which involved 1 percent of the nation’s working population who started to work 35 hours a week instead of 40 hours, without a reduction pay.

If these countries can prioritize the well-being of their people, are other countries not able to do the same? New Zealand, Finland and Iceland are among the best economic system with the happiest people in the world.  

​Why not, following their path? 

The 6th of April marked the 8th year celebrating the International Day Of Sport For Development And Peace, a day that exists in an attempt to push for the use of sports as a platform for the spreading of peace and to help development all over the world. At first glance these three things may seem totally disconnected but there's one event that proves us wrong, the Olympics.
Original from ancient Greece, the Olympic Games were always connected to peace, mainly through the Olympic truce that was held during the games were all wars were stopped for the event to happen. This truce is still upheld to this day although not to the same degree.

The Olympic Games are the only sport event watched popularly by the whole world, and it has in the past served as a channel to shine a light on many different peace issues, from the Olympic refugee team to the famous Jesse Owens story in Berlin. At the same time, the Olympics are also an event that pushes countries to a constant development in many different assets. Starting with sport/technological development that leads all the way to the development of the society.

The Olympics are therefore the most important sporting event in the world and it's relevance in a fight for a better world should never be underestimated.