Every time a new variant of COVID emerged, it raised an immediate anxiety as to whether the current vaccines would be able to deal with it. Some did, but not as effectively, because the mutations in the new variant meant that the pathogen was not recognised by the vaccine. Would we have to develop a new vaccine specific to each new variety?A better way to go would be to develop a universal COVID-19 vaccine.

ZG: 4

Since the development of this is a long way down the track it is not the subject of much general discussion at the moment.

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This is a warehouse which is fully automated so no one needs to be there. Once it is all set up you turn out the lights as you exit because the various machines and robots that are now running the show do not need light.

ZG: 4

This is the way of the future but very few of us are aware of it. It is part of a management jargon at the moment.

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We now have a cross between the Delta variant and the Omicron variant of COVID-19. This crossing is called a recombination and occurs when a new variant (Omicron) increases in prevalence to match or surpass the previous variant (Delta).

ZG: 8

Se can expect to hear more about Deltacron. Very little is known at the moment so it is impossible to say what significance this recombination will have for us all.

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Soft launch and hard launch are marketing terms now being applied to the release of information on social media about one’s relationship status. The soft launch is careful, subtle, sometimes teasing.

ZG: 5

Popular in the magazine word where the social media of celebrities is scrutinised for evidence of romantic entanglements.

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This is a jokey name for the glass of wine or whatever alcoholic drink it is that Mummy has at the end of a long day of childminding, playing on the idea that, just as the children have their juice, Mummy has special Mummy juice. It is akin to the office worker’s wine o’clock.

ZG: 8

This is quite a popular joke among mothers and families and friends who sympathise with the lot of the childcarer.

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Some scientists in America have come up with a patent-free vaccine called Corbevax. It was produced at the Texas Children’s Hospital Centre for Vaccine Development by Drs Maria Elena Bottazi and Peter Hotez (pictured above). It is a traditional vaccine which introduces a spike protein from the virus into the person to produce an immune response.

ZG: 4

It is early days yet but if this vaccine is eventually widely used we will all become familiar with it.

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This is another name for what we have called a cloud band which Macquarie defines as ‘a cloud formation which is a nearly continuous band of cloud stretching for up to hundreds of kilometres’. The difference between an atmospheric river and an ordinary cloud band is that they are extremely narrow.

ZG: 6

This is a term to which we have been introduced by the media in the coverage of recent flooding events.

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A car battery for an EV has been designed, until recently, just to send power to the car, but the newer models are now designed not only to deliver to the car but also to the house. The battery can also take power to the grid.

ZG: 6

Not everyone has one at the moment but in a few years we will.

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The use of adult as a verb meaning ‘to behave in an adult fashion, in particular by shouldering responsibilities even when they are unpleasant,’ is a bit of a running joke. There are T-shirts saying ‘Not going to adult today’ which are evidence of the popularity of the idea.

ZG: 7

There is increasing evidence of the use of adult in this way.

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If you find yourself romantically or sexually involved with someone so that they are more than a friend but not quite an official partner then you are in a situationship.

ZG: 5

This is a fashionable term with high frequency in a particular age group.

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This is a trojan asteroid which shares an orbit around the Sun with the Earth. The story begins, however, with Jupiter which was discovered to have a large number of these asteroids in its orbit.

ZG: 5

A term from astronomy which arouses a frisson of alarm as we contemplate the fact that we are sharing an orbit with a large lump of rock.

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This is the name for the new industry which is about to deliver us our beef steaks and fish fillets as cell-based products. That is to say, instead of grazing cattle so that they can be killed and cut up into steaks, we just produce steaks in the laboratory from cells obtained from the cattle.

ZG: 6

This one will matter a great deal more to us in the future.

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What the world is now calling the Son of Omicron, the WHO is calling an Omicron subvariant. It is not yet considered to be a variant of interest, let alone of concern, but we are all so sensitive to the idea that another variant will come and we will go back to square one that it has attracted at least media attention.

ZG: 7

This one has caused a minor ripple but since mostly we don’t know whether we have Omicron or Son or Omicron it has ceased to matter.

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Unwanted negative thoughts haunt us all but now there is a new technique for stopping them. The thing to do is to use a device such as saying ‘Stop!’ out loud, or snapping your fingers or pulling on an elastic band around your wrist to interrupt the bad thought.

ZG: 6

A well-known example of this is the Seinfeld episode which plays with the idea of expressed and repressed emotions, in which George’s father, Frank Costanza, uses the phrase Serenity Now! as his thought stopper to prevent him going into a rage.

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This baby is special because the mother has previously experienced a miscarriage, stillbirth or neonatal death. The baby that follows these sad events is like the rainbow after the storm and considered, even more than most babies, to be a symbol of hope.

ZG: 5

This is the jargon of a small subset of the community, important to them no doubt but without much wider currency.

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We should all have one. Who knew? An oximeter can measure the level of oxygenation in the blood. A pulse oximiter takes your heart rate at the same time. It looks a bit like a clothes peg which you put on your finger.

ZG: 6

In this period of home treatments and anxiety about COVID we may all be obtaining one.

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This natty is short for natural and relates to the natural bodybuilding movement which eschews all performance-enhancing drugs, such as anabolic steroids, insulin and human growth hormones. Rather a natural bodybuilder will rely on diet and training to produce natural anabolic hormones that increase strength and promote recovery.

ZG: 3

A bit of bodybuilding jargon, important because it relates to the argument about the use of drugs in sport, but not much known to people outside that world.

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HEPA is an acronym standing for High-Efficiency Particulate Air (or Absorbance) (or Arrestance) and pronounced [hep-pa]. A filter designated as HEPA has increased efficiency in removing particles produced by dust, pollen, moisture, bacteria and viruses from the air you breathe.

ZG: 3

A bit of technical term this one and likely to be forgotten as we relax all restrictions and cease to be concerned about the air we breathe.

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A COVID chaser is a person who decides that, if we are all going to catch the virus anyway, they might as well have it at a time that is convenient to them. So they actively seek to contract the virus in that period of time by going out to big parties or events, visiting people who have it, and so on.

ZG: 6

In the absence of leadership from the government, people are working out their own strategies for how to handle the Omicron outbreak.

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