India resumes vaccine exports, Autumn equinox, Guiness record of oldest twins

Full Episode description

If you lived in India, you would have known that there was a mad scramble for vaccine shots in April and May this year. A lot of people feared that there would not be enough vaccines going around. So, the government decided to stop exporting or sharing it with other nations. But now, as factories in the country are able to produce a lot more, India has decided to begin exporting again. India is the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines. So, when large manufacturers like India – restart exports, it can make quite a bit of difference in the speed at which places in Africa or even Asia can vaccinate their populations. India expects to manufacture nearly 1 billion vaccines in the next 3 months. 

Today, or yesterday in some parts of the world is the autumnal equinox.  A day when the daylight hours of both the northern and southern hemispheres are equal. For those living in the northern hemisphere, the hours in your day will shorten from now on. It marks the beginning of fall. Those in the southern hemisphere, days will get longer and it marks the beginning of spring.  All planets have equinoxes since all of them are tilted on an axis. Saturn has a very beautiful equinox, when its rings become unusually dark.

In the Guiness world record space  – identical twin sisters in Japan – Sumiyama and Kodama – are the world’s oldest identical twins – at 107 years and 300 days! The Japanese have the longest life expectancy, as in the number of years a person in a country is expected to live. About 75 years for the Japanese. They do eat lesser red meat and they eat more fish, seafood, vegetables and and rice. They do drink lots of green tea as well. Maybe their diet has something to do with their long lives.

If you have any thoughts or queries, please email us at hello@wsnt.in