Science and Technology (October 12th 2019)

  1. In many countries, like Canada, there is relatively little private (business) research. Meanwhile, other research indicates that private research is precisely the kind of research that leads directly to productivity growths. Private research seems concentrated in hubs like the Silicon Valley. To entice businesses in doing research, the Canadian government has pursued an agressive tax credit strategy: roughly speaking, research becomes a tax avoidance strategy. It does not work well.
  2. Artificial ovaries work in mice, and we think that they may work in women too.
  3. Alzheimer’s research has failed us despite massive investments. It might be time for a reset.
  4. Drinking alcohol triggers an hormone (FGF21) that makes you more likely to drinking water.
  5. Dog owners are less likely to die.
  6. The greatest inequality might be in dating and sex. The bottom 80% of men (in terms of attractiveness) are competing for the bottom 22% of women and the top 78% of women are competing for the top 20% of men. In other words, a small number of men have their pick of all of the women and most guys are unattractive to most women.
  7. The U.S. Navy looked at skin cancer rates among its staff. They found the highest rate of skin cancer in people working essentially indoor.
  8. Fruit flies exposed to a combo of three different drugs lived 48% longer, even though the individual effect of each drug is relatively small.
  9. Moderate alcohol consumption is associated with reduced inflammation and improved responses to vaccination.
  10. Choline might protect against Alzheimer’s. Choline is found in meat among other places.
  11. You may have read that we find symmetric faces more attractive. A new study challenges this claim.
  12. Iron might be an aging factor.
  13. Climate models routinely predicts higher temperatures than what is actually observed. Where do the heat goes? A paper in Nature claimed that the heat in question went into the ocean. Nature withdrew the paper in question as it contained too many data processing mistakes.
  14. Alpha-ketoglutarate can significantly extend lifespan and healthspan in mice. You can get it in the form of cheap supplements.

Published by

Daniel Lemire

A computer science professor at the University of Quebec (TELUQ).

2 thoughts on “Science and Technology (October 12th 2019)”

  1. Bonjour Daniel,

    First of all, thanks for those interesting links and keeping this blog.

    The study on the tax avoidance dates back to 1985 if I’m not missing anything. Do you believe this still applies to current information technology companies ? As an academic doing research, do you have insights on how those trends are affected by IT ?

    It would interesting to find more recent links to support this claim. Especially since there’s an election happening next week !

    Merci encore !

    Karl

    Reply

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