Theatre's 75 years
Article in the Mendip Times, detailing Backwell Playhouse's 75th anniversary and its recent production of Fletcher's Waterbed Dreams. From Volume 22, Issue 1
Nat Schaefer
Content writer and editor from Bristol, UK. I graduated from Gloucestershire University in 2020 with a BA in Journalism and have since worked at GlobalData and Nisbets.
Only Connect
There’s a great moment in the latest series of Nobody Wants This, the Netflix show about the unlikely love story of up-and-coming rabbi Noah (Adam Brody) and agnostic, irreverent podcast host Joanne (Kristen Bell). In the episode, Noah arrives at the synagogue where he has just accepted a job and is met by two of his new coworkers, who alarm him with their laid-back approach to the Jewish faith. One of them tells Noah “I think rigidity doesn’t bring you closer to God”; the other then piggybacks...
The perfect vs. the good
This time of unemployment has raised big questions for me about what kind of work I’ll end up doing next, and how I’d feel about doing it. Most of the jobs I’ve applied for since October have been broadly in line with my background – journalism, PR, communications, marketing – and most of them have either ghosted or rejected me. This has all been a shock to the system, both because of the vast number of no’s I’ve received and because of the way they’ve had me re-evaluating my earlier career plan...
Square One
Gosh, it feels good to be writing something other than a cover letter.Sorry. Let me introduce myself. I’m Nat, 28 years old and living near Bristol, UK. And as of October 2025, I’m unemployed.I realise that’s not uncommon at the moment – according to a recent survey, 4.9% of us Brits over 16 are out of work – but it’s not a position I ever really thought I’d be in. It’s been one of the most chaotic experiences I can remember having, and has brought almost as much to my life as it’s taken away. A...
Book Review: ‘The Gathering Place’ by Mary Colwell
When you cast your mind back to the Covid-19 pandemic, how do you remember
spending those strange days in and out of lockdown? Baking vast quantities of
banana bread? Endless rewatches of favourite series on Netflix? For author and
environmental campaigner Mary Colwell, the winter of 2020 was spent hiking the
Camino Francés in Spain, one of the world’s best-known and most popular
pilgrimage routes.
Revis - Killing Time (album review ) | Sputnikmusic
“Are we too old to start again?” asks Justin Holman at the start of Revis’ long-awaited second album, Killing Time. It’s a question that rock fans of a certain age have been asking for years since the band’s acclaimed 2003 debut, Places for Breathing, with legal and interpersonal issues limiting their subsequent output to a handful of singles and a 2024 EP. Yet the more Killing Time goes on, the more that question begins to feel like the wrong one; on this album, Revis don’t so much ’start again’ as spruce up their existing sound, exploring new ground here and there while staying close to the same basic framework that made “Caught in the Rain” and “Seven” such instant classics upon release.
The O’Pears’ Stay Warm is the best Christmas album you’ve never heard
There aren’t many things more divisive in this world than Christmas music. For every person who can’t wait to get down to Michael Bublé and Mariah Carey each winter, there’s someone else who cringes at those songs and thinks that a reindeer gets shot in the head every time a shop decides to play them in November. But whatever wholesome memories we might have attached to the classic Yuletide bops, there’s something equally exciting about an artist taking the Christmas season and using it as the inspiration for something brand new.
Microparticle analysis: methods and uses in the pharmaceutical industry - Pharmaceutical Technology
Particle analysis on a micro-scale is a significant topic in several fields of application. Microparticles can be present as a contamination of products such as pharmaceuticals and electronics, or as an air pollutant. Alternatively, they can come as a product component of formulations such as cleaning agents and polymers.
Within the pharmaceutical industry, it is critical to measure particle size as it influences surface area and porosity, impacting a drug’s bioavailability, effectiveness, an...
Quality by design with a focus on biosimilars - Pharmaceutical Technology
Quality by design (QbD) is a concept introduced into the pharmaceutical regulatory lexicon in 2005. It aims to ensure the quality of medicines by employing statistical, analytical, and risk-management methodology in the design, development, and manufacturing processes of medicines. Part of this is ensuring that all sources of variability affecting a process are identified, explained and managed by appropriate measures so that the finished medicine consistently meets its predefined characteristic...
Advancement through adversity: how Covid-driven innovations are becoming best practices for pharmacovigilance - Pharmaceutical Technology
Pharmacovigilance refers to the practice of collecting, detecting, assessing, monitoring and preventing adverse effects (AEs) caused by new drug substances. AEs can be caused by using medicinal products within or outside the terms of their marketing authorisations (such as off-label therapeutic use, overdose, misuse, abuse or medication errors), as well as from occupational exposure. They are recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) alongside a number of other issues that pharmacovigila...
Fully integrated gas chromatography with PerkinElmer's GC 2400 - Pharmaceutical Technology
Analytical laboratories are constantly faced with the challenge of balancing high productivity with operational efficiency. And with hybrid work models growing in popularity since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, gas chromatography (GC) operators are increasingly seeking remote access to their GC – both from different parts of the lab and from completely different locations.
The GC 2400 Platform from PerkinElmer helps you make faster decisions from anywhere, whether in or out of the lab. T...
Protecting against component obsolescence in battery development
Component obsolescence is an issue faced by most suppliers of electronic components at some point in their operations. It is typically caused when existing components are superseded in popularity by newer parts for one of a number of reasons, including short consumer product lifecycles, rapid developments in technologies and changes in levels of customer demand. If not addressed correctly and in good time, obsolescence can increase downtime and costs for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs),...
Lab monitoring as a service for the pharmaceutical industry
Monitoring laboratory environments is crucial to ensuring the safety of pharmaceutical products, especially medicines at greater risk of drug-induced toxicity. Several elements of the laboratory, including heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, air quality controls, air compressors, purified water systems, leak and flood alerts, gas manifolds, building access and security systems, and power generation and consumption, must be monitored in turn to ensure they are functioning as...
Developing customised battery packs and charging solutions for medical devices
When looking to engage with battery suppliers, there are several factors that medical device companies should consider. Although different applications will have different individual requirements, there are certain qualities that are essential for all devices.
For example, suppliers should meet the ISO 13485 certification for good process alignment and have demonstrable experience in producing ‘mission-critical’ batteries of exceptional quality. Design and manufacturing experience across a ra...
Ion-coated glass vials for storing highly sensitive drugs - Pharmaceutical Technology
The pharmaceutical industry is increasingly shifting towards the development of highly sensitive drugs. Biologics, for instance, are typically derived from living organisms, including therapeutic proteins, DNA vaccines, monoclonal antibodies, fusion proteins, and gene and stem cell therapies. To ensure that highly sensitive drugs can function as intended, their formulations need to be properly configured to preserve molecule integrity and protect functional groups from degradation.
In additio...
Eight pharma trends for 2022: towards a more holistic understanding of value - Pharmaceutical Technology
The outlook for significant pharmaceutical trends for 2022 comes in the context of tightening Covid-19 restrictions across the globe. Although the pharma industry has played a crucial role in preventing and treating Covid-19, it has also had to balance its freedom to research, invest and profit from investments with its responsibilities to health systems, regulators, budget-holders and patients. These include fair or discretionary pricing, cost sensitivity, drug and patient safety, marketing and...
Factors to consider when selecting a medical EMS provider
Choosing an electronics manufacturing services (EMS) provider is one of the first and most fundamental steps in any medical device development project. EMS services keep both the consumer and commercial medical device industries going, reporting aggregate sales of $384bn in 2020, and can range from the manufacturing of individual components to full-scale production of entire devices.
There are several things to consider when deciding on the right EMS provider for your project, but principal a...
Crafting a hybrid strategy for remote audit protocols
Pharmaceutical companies and regulatory bodies have increasingly had to carry out remote audits during the Covid-19 pandemic. Although remote audits are often viewed as a ‘second choice’ behind in-person assessments, they carry a number of benefits that make them likely to remain popular with suppliers once the pandemic has been brought under more control. Many international healthcare regulatory agencies have advocated remote audits either as a complement to in-person audits or as a replacement...
How the right digital tools can make your product launches more agile - Pharmaceutical Technology
In order to boost productivity, creativity, speed and efficiency at all stages of the drug development process, the pharmaceutical industry is having to embrace agile ways of thinking and working. This involves ensuring swift product launches that have as few hitches as possible.
The need for agile pharma project management reflects growing competition in the industry and an increasingly broad, diverse, digitally-enabled and demanding customer base. Today’s customers are used to the accessibilit...
Making the most of the digital transformation of the pharma industry - Pharmaceutical Technology
Over the last 18 months, pharmaceutical companies worldwide have had to engage rapidly with new ways of working – some of which had already been growing in uptake for years. Companies have had to embed digital transformation at every level of their operations, from market access and tendering to commercial product launches.
If used correctly, digital tools can make launches more organised and effective, assist with market access planning and execution, and track tendering process variations acro...
Load More Articles
