For as long as humans have existed, the thought of death has been feared by all. Some people have dreamed of escaping it. Ancient myths told of fountains of youth and certain rituals one can do to keep them in good health; today, there are hundreds of thousands of billion dollar companies producing products like ‘anti aging drugs’, and ‘organ regeneration’. The idea of living forever feels like the ultimate prize – but what would it really cost us?

Plato’s Symposium offers one of the most sophisticated explorations of love in Western thought. Rather than reducing desire to romance or physical attraction, Plato presents it as a force that shapes character, action, and the mind. Across the dialogue, Phaedrus, Pausanias, Aristophanes, Agathon, Socrates (through Diotima), and Alcibiades offer different perspectives, creating a complex portrait of love that is ethical, philosophical, and intensely human. These speeches reveal how love can inspire courage, cultivate virtue, elevate the soul, and, at times, overwhelm reason. The Republic complements this picture, showing how desire and love intersect with the rational and appetitive elements of the soul, guiding humans toward the good.

Last week we discussed the unspoken truth of editing human genes, and while as we think we are moving forwards in terms of changing organisms and our way of life, the unfortunate reality is the mistaken opposite. Reducing the gene pool and natural evolution are changing our survival traits and certain characteristics that we have adapted over centuries to survive. So really, artificially changing them isn’t as good as we thought…

Autoimmune diseases affect around 1 in 10 people in the UK. However, women are over 85% more likely to be diagnosed with an autoimmune disease than men. An autoimmune disease occurs when the body’s immune system attacks healthy cells, tissues, and organs. Common examples include rheumatoid arthritis, coeliac disease, psoriasis, and type 1 diabetes. The general symptoms of all autoimmune diseases include fatigue, inflammation and/or nerve damage, skin rashes, aching, swollen joints. The non-specific nature and commonality of these symptoms often result in misdiagnosis or dismissal.

With exciting new evidence of organic imprints, astrobiologists are hopeful that these could prove the existence of life on Mars billions of years ago. With NASA’s Perseverance rover, astrobiologists were able to analyse a rock called Chayana Falls, finding that it contains unusual materials associated with a biological origin – these life-giving minerals include carbon and could be the excretion left over from ancient organisms.