You may or may not remember the famous L'Oreal shampoo advert, in which Jennifer Aniston delivered the words: 'here comes the science bit - concentrate'.

Then followed some graphics in which the 'molecules attached themselves to the cuticles' blah blah etc... trust me, it's part of UK advertising folklore!

As we enter 2021 - coming off the back of a year in which there was not much to celebrate - it's massively worth celebrating science and technology.

The vaccines which have been developed - at break-neck speed - would not have been possible without software: namely, machine learning and artificial intelligence. 

This - on it's own - would have been futile without equivalent steps in areas such as genome sequencing, bio-chemistry etc.

In addition, the manufacturing processes and hardware to enable mass production of these vaccines - and the means to administer them - would not be possible without similar advances in material science and production engineering.

'Technology' is not all about 'zero's and ones', you see... here's another small example:

Those wheels on your suitcase - in the past - were made with metal brackets and screws... meaning they typically failed within a year-or-so of rigorous use. It's only advances in plastics/polymers and manufacturing which made them a mass-adoption, viable product today.

I hope we all get to use our suitcases again soon - and this pandemic inspires the next generation to study science, in all it's disciplines. So come on kids, as Jennifer said: 'concentrate'! ;-)