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“There is a common perception that the U.S. offers the most advanced cancer care in the world,” said lead author Ryan Chow, an M.D./Ph.D. student at Yale. “Our system is touted for developing new treatments and getting them to patients more quickly than other countries. We were curious whether the substantial U.S. investment on cancer care is indeed associated with better cancer outcomes.”

The United States had the highest expenditure rate among the 22 high-income nations examined.

“The U.S. is spending over $200 billion per year on cancer care — roughly $600 per person, in comparison to the average of $300 per person across other high-income countries,” said senior author Cary Gross, professor of medicine and director of the National Clinician Scholars Program at Yale. “This raises the key question: Are we getting our money’s worth?”

The researchers found that national cancer care spending showed no relationship to population-level cancer mortality rates. “In other words, countries that spend more on cancer care do not necessarily have better cancer outcomes,” said Chow.

In fact, compared to the United States, six nations — Australia, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Korea, and Switzerland — had lower cancer mortality and lower expenditure on the condition.

Smoking is the leading cause of cancer death, and smoking rates in the United States have generally been lower than in other nations. When the researchers controlled for international differences in smoking rates, the researchers found that the United States’ cancer mortality rates were no different than those of the average high-income country, with nine countries — Australia, Finland, Iceland, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, and Switzerland — having lower smoking-adjusted cancer mortality than the United States.

“Adjusting for smoking shows the United States in an even less favorable light because the low smoking rates in the U.S. had been protective against cancer mortality,” said Chow.

Reference: “Comparison of Cancer-Related Spending and Mortality Rates in the US vs 21 High-Income Countries” by Ryan D. Chow, Ph.D., Elizabeth H. Bradley, Ph.D. and Cary P. Gross, MD, 27 May 2022, JAMA Health Forum.
DOI: 10.1001/jamahealthforum.2022.1229

Original Submission

hubie writes:

If simply breathing can spread the SARS-CoV-2 virus to others nearby, what about blowing into a tuba?

It was 2020, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, like so many cultural institutions, had suspended performances due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Through P.J. Brennan, chief medical officer of the University of Pennsylvania Health System, the Orchestra sought expertise to help understand whether its musicians could return to playing in a safe physical arrangement that would minimize the chances of exposing one another, or their audiences, to SARS-CoV-2.

"The Orchestra director didn't want the musicians to be far apart; they needed to be close together to produce the best sound," says Arratia, of the School of Engineering and Applied Science. "And yet, if they needed to be separated with plexiglass, that also posed a problem." The musicians reported problems hearing one another and poor sightlines with plexiglass dividers. "The challenge was, how can we get away from this to the point where they can play unobstructed but still safely," Arratia says.

Now, in a publication in Physics of Fluids, Arratia, Jerolmack, and colleagues report on their findings, which suggest the aerosols musicians produce dissipate within about six feet. The results not only informed the arrangement of the Philadelphia Orchestra as they resumed performances in the summer of 2020 but also laid the groundwork for how other musical groups might think about safely gathering and playing.

[...] Based on their observations, the aerosols produced by these "mini-concerts" dissipated, settling into the flow of the background air draft, within about 2 meters, or 6 feet—reassuringly similar, the researchers say, to what has been measured for ordinary speaking or breathing. Only flute and trombone-generated aerosols traveled beyond that distance, for the flute perhaps because the air travels over the instrument instead of the instrument acting like a mask to prevent the spread of aerosols.

[...] "Now you have something to work with for potential future concerns, maybe an outbreak of influenza or something like that," says Arratia. "You can use our findings about flow, plug in your numbers about infectiousness and viral loads, and adapt it to understand risk.

Journal Reference:
Quentin Brosseau, Ranjiangshang Ran, Ian Graham, et al., Flow and aerosol dispersion from wind musical instruments [open], Physics of Fluids, 2022. DOI: 10.1063/5.0098273

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Mars Spaghetti: NASA's Perseverance Rover Spots a Strange Tangle:

Every now and then, NASA's rovers spot things that don't seem to fit with the usual Martian landscape: Just a few months ago, Curiosity imaged what appeared to be a doorway. A new image from the Perseverance rover is grabbing similar attention for capturing what appears to be a tangle of string.

On July 12, Perseverance's front-facing hazard avoidance camera imaged a Martian tumbleweed — er, a piece of trash. A NASA spokesperson said in an email that the object must be some debris from the mission, though it's not yet clear exactly what it is.

[...] Mars may have once been habitable billions of years ago, but the dry planet is very likely devoid of life today. But that doesn't stop speculation about aliens from running wild every time something appears slightly off in a Martian postcard. Perfect ordinary natural phenomenon (or at least, as "ordinary" as anything on Mars can be to our human eyes) can create optical illusions when translated into grainy 2D images. Past examples of supposed oddities on Mars include a hiding squirrel, a spoon, an artificial light, and a human face.

Although the single-serving Martian pasta dish appears to be harmless, it does raise concern over the various missions to Mars littering the planet with debris. NASA and other space agencies decontaminate spacecraft before sending them off on missions to avoid spreading Earthly microbes in space. But landing on another planet is bound to leave pieces of wreckage behind, and there's really no way for the robot to pick up after itself.

Original Submission

upstart writes:

This is why the pistol shrimp is immune to its own powerful shock waves:

The tiny-but-mighty pistol shrimp can snap its claws with sufficient force to produce a shock wave to stun its prey. So how come the shrimp appears immune to its sonic weapon? Scientists have concluded that the shrimp is protected by a tiny clear helmet that protects the creature from any significant neural damage by damping the shock waves, according to a recent paper published in the journal Current Biology.

The snapping shrimp, aka the pistol shrimp, is one of the loudest creatures in the ocean, along with the sperm whale and beluga whale. When enough of these shrimp snap at once, the noise can dominate the coastal ocean soundscape, sometimes confusing sonar instruments. The source of that snap: an impressive set of asymmetrically sized claws; the larger of the two produces the snap.

[...] What makes the orbital hoods such effective dampeners? The hoods have an opening at the anterior end, and there's a layer of water between the surface of the hoods' interior and the shrimp eyes. "We propose that when a shock wave strikes an orbital hood, the rapid changes in pressure cause the water underneath it to be expelled through the anterior opening, away from the head of the shrimp," the authors wrote. "Through the expulsion of water, some of the kinetic energy of the shock wave may be redirected and released."

Journal Reference:
Alexandra C.N. Kingston, Sarah A. Woodin, David S. Wethey, and Daniel I. Speiser, Snapping shrimp have helmets that protect their brains by dampening shock waves, Curr Biology, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.06.042

Original Submission

hubie writes:

How early awards and recognition can decrease inventors' creativity:

Post-it Notes, Spanx, the iPhone, two-day Prime shipping. From unique gadgets to revolutionary business ideas, the most successful inventions have one thing in common: creativity. But sustaining creativity can be difficult.

New research from Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, published in the Journal of Applied Psychology, has identified one reason why some first-time producers struggle to repeat their initial creative productions while others go on to continually produce creative works.

[...] "In our study, we found that people who develop novel ideas and receive rewards for them start to see themselves primarily as a 'creative person,'" Baer said.

"This newfound identity, which is special and rare, is then in need of protection. Essentially, once a person is in the creative limelight, stepping out of it — by producing a novel idea that disappoints or pales in comparison to earlier work — is threatening and to be avoided. One way to do so is to stop producing altogether. You cannot compromise your identity and reputation when you do not produce anything new."

[...] "Harper Lee is a perfect example of this phenomenon," Baer said. "Her first book, 'To Kill a Mockingbird,' is one of the bestselling and most acclaimed American novels of all time. Yet she didn't publish again until 55 years later. And her second book, 'Go Set a Watchman,' written in the mid-1950s, is considered to be a first draft of her legendary one hit wonder."

[...] Previous research has focused on the benefits of awards, but Baer and Deichmann found that winning an award can, paradoxically, temper the creativity of producers because it introduces an extra layer of stress to the creative environment.

Journal Reference:
Dirk Deichmann and Markus Baer, A recipe for success? Sustaining creativity among first-time creative producers, J Appl Psychol, 2022. DOI: 10.1037/apl0001019

Original Submission

upstart writes:

Space Bubbles to Deflect Solar Radiation:

A raft of thin-film silicon bubbles deployed from Earth into outer space and stretching to the size of Brazil could potentially block the Sun's solar radiation from further warming Earth, possibly helping to not only stave off climate change, but potentially reverse it.

[...] The MIT group believes that if the raft of bubbles can deflect 1.8 percent of incident solar radiation before it hits Earth, they can fully reverse today's global warming. Even if they can't establish a 1.8 percent shading, they trust a smaller percentage provides enough benefit to help mitigate global warming.

To make it happen, the group proposes deploying small, inflatable bubbles into outer space that they could then manufacture into a space raft the size of Brazil and suspend near the L1 Lagrangian Point, the location between the Earth and Sun where the gravitational influence of both bodies cancel out. The team does suggest having some sort of system to ensure the raft stays in place and that may provide the ability to move the bubbles closer to the Sun for optimal impact.

Very slick marketing web page for the idea.

Original Submission

Research Shows Unique Tactic of Zombie Fly Fungus to Survive Longer

upstart writes:

Research Shows Unique Tactic of Zombie Fly Fungus To Survive Longer:

A common pathogenic fungus called Entomophthora muscae lives by infecting common houseflies with lethal spores.

Research now revealed that the fungus has a special strategy to secure its life.

When exposed to the fungal-infected carcasses of dead females, the fungus "bewitches" male houseflies and induces necrophilia in them.

Zombie Fly Fungus Lures Healthy Male Flies to Mate With Female Corpses

upstart writes:

Zombie fly fungus lures healthy male flies to mate with female corpses:

Entomophthora muscae is a widespread, pathogenic fungus that survives by infecting common houseflies with deadly spores. Now, research shows that the fungus has a unique tactic to ensure for its survival. The fungus 'bewitches' male houseflies and drives them to necrophilia with the fungal-infected corpses of dead females.

After having infected a female fly with its spores, the fungus spreads until its host has slowly been consumed alive from within. After roughly six days, the fungus takes over the behavior of the female fly and forces it to the highest point, whether upon vegetation or a wall, where the fly then dies. When the fungus has killed the zombie female, it begins to release chemical signals known as sesquiterpenes.

Journal Reference:
Naundrup, Andreas, Bohman, Björn, Kwadha, Charles A., et al. Pathogenic fungus uses volatiles to entice male flies into fatal matings with infected female cadavers, The ISME Journal (DOI: 10.1038/s41396-022-01284-x)

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

upstart writes:

A Chinese Wikipedia editor spent years writing fake Russian medieval history:

Chinese Wikipedia had a robust collection of detailed and authoritative articles on medieval Russia, thanks to a user called Zhemao who claimed to be the daughter of a diplomat assigned in the country. Zhemao wrote 206 articles for the website since 2019 [...] The articles she contributed were so well-written and well-regarded, until it was revealed that she'd pulled off one of the largest hoaxes ever seen on the platform.

[...] A group of volunteer editors combed through her work as a response and found that her citations didn't add up or that she fabricated information from legitimate sources that were too obscure to be fact-checked by casual users. As a crowd—sourced online encyclopedia, Wikipedia trusts its contributors to self-regulate. In an article about its reliability, Wikipedia said it maintains an inclusion threshold of "verifiability, not truth."

A volunteer editor who's been helping clean up articles Zhemao contributed to told Vice News that they only typically check articles for blatant plagiarism and to ensure that they're properly cited. That is why vandalism is a common occurrence on the website and why its reputation as a legitimate source of knowledge is frequently challenged.

Zhemao, in a post on her profile, has admitted to making up her whole identity and to fabricating information. She came clean that she's not based in Russia and that her husband is not Russian but Chinese. She also doesn't have a doctoral degree in world history from the Moscow State University like she claimed, but is instead a housewife with a high school diploma.

Original Submission

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Despite an extremely low unemployment rate in first half of 2022, job seekers are bracing for conditions to worsen in light of growing concerns about inflation, gas prices, and a potential recession, according to a new survey by job search platform Joblist.

The survey showed 80% of those seeking jobs expect the US to enter a recession in the next year and 49% anticipate that the job market will get worse over the next six months. As a result, 60% of job seekers feel more urgency to find a job now before market conditions change.

Notably, one in four (26%) who quit their previous job during the Great Resignation now say they regret the decision, and 42% say their new job has not lived up to their expectations.

As regret sets in, 17% of respondents indicated they would go back to their old job and another 24% said they’re at least open to returning. And 23% indicated their former employer has reached out to them about coming back, according the Q2 US Job Market Report from Joblist. (The company conducted five surveys in April, May, and June involving 15,158 US respondents.)

Chemists Just Rearranged Atomic Bonds in a Single Molecule for the First Time

upstart writes:

Chemists Just Rearranged Atomic Bonds in a Single Molecule for the First Time:

Chemical engineering has taken a step forward, with researchers from the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, the University of Regensburg in Germany, and IBM Research Europe forcing a single molecule to undergo a series of transformations with a tiny nudge of voltage.

Ordinarily, chemists gain precision over reactions by tweaking parameters such as the pH, adding or removing available proton donors to manage the way molecules might share or swap electrons to form their bonds.

"By these means, however, the reaction conditions are altered to such a degree that the basic mechanisms governing selectivity often remain elusive," the researchers note in their report, published in the journal Science.

In other words, the complexity of forces at work pushing and pulling across a large organic molecule can make it hard to get a precise measure on what's occurring at each and every bond.

The team started with a substance called 5,6,11,12-tetrachlorotetracene (with the formula C18H8Cl4) – a carbon-based molecule that looks like a row of four honeycomb cells flanked by four chlorine atoms hovering around like hungry bees.

Sticking a thin layer of the material to a cold, salt-crusted piece of copper, the researchers drove the chlorine-bees away, leaving a handful of excitable carbon atoms holding onto unpaired electrons in a range of related structures.

Two of those electrons in some of the structures happily reconnected with each other, reconfiguring the molecule's general honeycomb shape. The second pair were also keen to pair up not just with each other, but with any other available electron that might buzz their way.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

Air pollution remains a silent killer in Massachusetts, responsible for an estimated 2,780 deaths a year and for measurable cognitive loss in Bay State children exposed to fine particulate pollutants in the air they breathe, according to a new study by researchers at Boston College's Global Observatory on Planetary Health.

The study was supported by the Barr Foundation and is the first to examine far-reaching public health consequences of air pollution in the state on a town-by-town basis. The study found air-pollution-related disease, death and IQ loss occur in every city and town regardless of demographics or income level. Highest rates were in the most economically disadvantaged and socially underserved cities and towns.

The Boston College team estimates the cumulative impact on childhood cognitive development in Massachusetts in 2019 was a loss of almost 2 million Performance IQ points, or more than 2 IQ points for the average child, according to the report, published today in the journal Environmental Health. IQ loss impairs children's school performance and reduces graduation rates, the team noted.

"We are talking about the impacts of air pollution at a very local level in Massachusetts—not just statewide," said lead author Boston College Professor of Biology Philip J. Landrigan, MD, director of the Observatory. "This report gives the people in every city and town the opportunity to see for themselves the quality of the air they and their families are breathing and the dangerous health implications for both adults and children as a consequence of air pollution."

Thanks c0lo! Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

The pressure is rising at ESA’s mission control. A European Space Agency (ESA) satellite dodges out of the way of a mystery piece of space junk that was spotted just hours before a potential collision.

This means a vital step in the spacecraft’s ongoing journey to safer skies now has to be quickly rescheduled, as violent solar activity related to the ramping up of the solar cycle warps Earth’s atmosphere and threatens to drag the satellite down out of orbit…

[...] Swarm is actually ESA’s mission to unravel the mysteries of Earth’s magnetic field. It’s comprised of three satellites, A, B, and C – affectionately known as Alpha, Bravo, and Charlie.

A small piece of human-made junk circling our planet – known as space debris – was detected hurtling towards Alpha at 16:00 CEST (10:00 a.m. EDT), on June 30. From the trajectory, a potential collision was predicted just eight hours later, shortly after midnight. The chance of impact was great enough that Alpha needed to get out of the way – fast.

Swarm constellation. Swarm is ESA’s first Earth observation constellation of satellites. Its mission is to unravel one of the most mysterious aspects of our planet: the magnetic field.

[...] Each one of ESA’s satellites has to perform on average two evasive maneuvers every year – and that’s not including all the alerts they get that don’t end up needing evasive action.

[...] Carrying out evasive action – known as a ‘collision avoidance maneuver’ – requires a lot of planning. You have to check that you’re not moving the satellite into a new orbit that puts it at risk of other collisions and you have to calculate how to get back to your original orbit using as little fuel and losing as little science data as possible.

Original Submission #1  Original Submission #2 

upstart writes:

It was thought that spongy bone in woodpeckers' heads cushioned their brains from hard knocks, but in fact their skulls are stiff like a hammer:

Woodpeckers' skulls aren't built to absorb shock, but rather to deliver a harder and more efficient hit into wood.

Woodpeckers hammer their beaks onto tree trunks to communicate, to look for food or to create a cavity for nesting. Spongy bone between the birds' brains and beaks was once thought to cushion their brains from the repetitive blows. But the tissue actually helps their heads tap swiftly and deeply with minimal energy use, much like a well-designed hammer, says Sam Van Wassenbergh at the University of Antwerp in Belgium.

"We had a feeling that this didn't make any sense, this shock absorption [theory]," he says. "A hammer with shock absorption built into it is simply a bad hammer."

[...] Despite the lack of shock absorption, the team found that the birds' brains aren't at risk of a concussion because the impact isn't strong enough. Given the size and weight of woodpecker brains, situated inside fluid-filled cases in their skulls, they would only sustain brain damage if they pecked twice as fast as they naturally do, or if they hit surfaces four times harder than their natural wood targets.

"It's just normal that a smaller organism can withstand these higher [forces]," says Van Wassenbergh, drawing a parallel with flies hitting windows at even higher forces: "They just take off and fly again."

The term "spongy bone" doesn't mean that the bone is soft or can compress, he says. Rather, it indicates that the bone is porous and lightweight – which is critical for flying birds. "The bone is just strong enough for the function that it needs to do," he says.

Video abstract

Journal Reference:
Sam Van Wassenbergh, Erica J. Ortlieb, Maja Mielke, et al. Woodpeckers minimize cranial absorption of shocks [open], Current Biology, 2022. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.05.052

Original Submission

hubie writes:

Conditions projected to resemble those in famous growing regions of France and Germany:

Over the last 20 years, climate change has contributed to a growth in UK vineyard area – with more than 800 vineyards now - and award-winning wine production, as well as a transition in wine style towards sparkling wines.

Now a team of researchers from the University of East Anglia (UEA), the London School of Economics, Vinescapes Ltd and Weatherquest Ltd have charted the potential for the sector over the next 20 years. Drawing on the latest detailed climate projections, they have developed cutting-edge capability to model and map the best opportunities for grape growing and winemaking in the UK.

Their findings, published today in the journal OENO One, show how the climate of a larger area of England and Wales is projected to become suitable for reliably growing sparkling wine grape varieties, and how the potential for high quality still wine production is rapidly emerging.

[...] "We found that significant areas within England and Wales are projected to become warmer by 2040 by up to a further 1.4°C during the growing season. This expands the area of suitability for Pinot Noir for sparkling wine production, but also new areas will open up within the growing season temperature suitability range for still Pinot Noir production and for growing varieties such as Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Semillon and more disease-resistant varieties, which are hardly grown in the UK at present.

"Furthermore, anyone thinking of investing in a vineyard in the UK can now benefit from this knowledge through advice on the best locations, both now and under future climate change conditions."

[...] However, the researchers warn significant challenges remain, arguing that the rapidly changing UK climate requires the industry to remain agile and not 'lock-in' to production which cannot adapt to the changing growing conditions.

Journal Reference:
Alistair Nesbitt, Stephen Dorling, Richard Jones, et al., Climate change projections for UK viticulture to 2040: a focus on improving suitability for Pinot noir [open], Oeno One, 56, 3, 2022. DOI: 10.20870/oeno-one.2022.56.3.5398

Original Submission

hubie writes:

New research has found that high levels of physical activity does not counteract the detrimental effects of a poor diet on mortality risk:

The University of Sydney led study found participants who had both high levels of physical activity and a high-quality diet had the lowest risk of death, showing that you cannot "outrun" a poor diet.

[...] High quality diets included at least five portions of fruit and vegetables every day,two portions of fish per week and lower consumption of red meat, particularly processed meat.

The study revealed that for those who had high levels of physical activity and a high-quality diet, their mortality risk was reduced by 17 percent from all causes, 19 percent from cardiovascular disease and 27 percent from selected cancers, as compared with those with the worst diet who were physically inactive.

[...] "Both regular physical activity and a healthy diet play an important role in promoting health and longevity.

"Some people may think they could offset the impacts of a poor diet with high levels of exercise or offset the impacts of low physical activity with a high-quality diet, but the data shows that unfortunately this is not the case."

"Adhering to both a quality diet and sufficient physical activity is important for optimally reducing the risk of death from all causes, cardiovascular disease and cancers," says co-author Joe Van Buskirk, from the School of Public Health, Faculty of Medicine and Health.

Journal Reference:
Ding Ding, Joe Van Buskirk1, Binh Nguyen, et al., Physical activity, diet quality and all-cause cardiovascular disease and cancer mortality: a prospective study of 346 627 UK Biobank participants, Brit J Sport Med, 2022. DOI: 10.1136/bjsports-2021-105195

Original Submission