The human immune system. Many of us who take or took Biology have a somewhat good understanding of what it is for: protecting the body from infections. It is often referred to as one of biology’s greatest defence mechanisms – attacking viruses, bacteria, pathogens before they can cause harm (kind of sounds like superheroes if you ask me). It is precise, complex, and effectively efficient. Yet in autoimmune diseases, this system makes an immense mistake: the body begins attacking itself.

A runny nose in winter. Itchy eyes during spring. A sudden reaction to food that was harmless just moments before. Allergies are often treated as minor inconveniences – seasonal, manageable, even predictable. Yet behind these everyday reactions lies a complex biological system that, while designed to protect the body, can quietly come at a cost. 

Caffeine is everywhere. Whether that be your morning coffee from Served, an evening tea, or energy drinks before exams – it has become embedded into a normal part of our daily lives, especially for students balancing busy schedules. It promises alertness, focus, and a quick boost of energy. But while caffeine is often seen as harmless, and in fact very helpful, consuming too much of it comes with hidden costs that are very easy to overlook.

It always seems to happen at the worst times. You are sitting in a school assembly, a very serious topic being presented by the headmistress on a detailed PowerPoint slide, and everyone is completely silent. Then, all of a sudden, you get hiccups; their unexpected arrival catches you off guard, coming too quickly for you to suppress the unmistakable sound. It’s a perfect example of an intensely embarrassing moment. Yet, on a more humorous note, most of us have also experienced the exact opposite: laughing so hard that we trigger hiccups, only to end up laughing even more.

If you, like me, are an avid (or just regular) listener of The Rest is Politics, you would have heard Alistair Campbell’s remark on the latest episode of the podcast released on the 25 of March, where he stated that ‘5 million tonnes of CO2 have been released into the atmosphere’ so far as a result of the miliary activity in Iran and across the Middle East since the launch of US and Israeli Missiles on Iran on the 28 of February 2026. This statement drew my attention to the ecological consequences of war that are often ignored or unexamined. War is explored as predominantly a threat to the natural social and political orders. Wars are also enacted mostly to bring about social or political change, yet this does not prevent them from having a lasting environmental legacy.