Ugly Pottery by Lucky Stradley.
Plastic eaters
New research scanned has found 30,000 enzymes that could degrade 10 types of plastic. Writing to the Guardian, Margaret Squires ponders if it all might go awry: "Wonderful to know that microbes are evolving to eat plastics. I just hope they don't get too good at
it. Looking round this room, I would lose the keyboard I am typing this on, the phone, the file boxes, half the vacuum, plugs, the front-doorbell receptor, probably one handbag and all the CDs and DVDs. It would be terrifying to come in one morning and find that they had all jellified."
Definition of middle-aged
When does middle age start? Depends who you ask. It's a nebulous term really - the Cambridge Dictionary defines it as "the period of your life, usually considered to be from about 45 to 60, when you are no longer young, but are not yet old." Middle age describes the third quarter of life – the period after young adulthood and before old age. As life expectancy has increased, each life phase has changed. In 1950 people moved into midlife at about 35 and claimed a government pension at 60, which signalled the start of older age. In the 21st century midlife started at about 45 and superannuation was claimed at 65 – typically signifying the end of the midlife period. Hal Dunkelman tells the Guardian: "Rather than being a chronological process "middle age is when the soul collapses with secretly accumulating disgust", a definition I heard on the radio late one night many years ago. I'm happy to say that, at 82, my soul is still buoyant."
Vehicle recovery is heavy work
