Daniel Lemire's blog

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Science and Technology links (October 3rd 2020)

  1. The mortality rate for kids under five have fallen by 60% since 1990.
  2. Samsung new storage drives are both affordable and really fast (up to 7GB/s).
  3. Alzheimer’s disease may be driven by overactivation of cerebral fructose metabolism. The researchers write: we propose that Alzheimer’s disease is a modern disease driven by changes in dietary lifestyle in which fructose can disrupt cerebral metabolism and neuronal function.
  4. Belly fat increases your mortality risk: A nearly J shaped association was found between waist circumference and waist-to-height ratio and the risk of all cause mortality in men and women. It does not appear that being fat in other ways is harmful: larger hip circumference and thigh circumference were associated with a lower risk. So instead of weighting yourself, you ought to watch your waist circumference.
  5. Elderly people in Finland are living longer while being also fitter and healthier.
  6. Investing in innovation pays: innovation efforts produce social benefits that are many multiples of the investment costs.
  7. Gender difference in occupational preferences is largely independent of individual, parental, and regional controls:

We document that female apprentices tend to choose occupations that are oriented towards working with people, while male apprentices tend to favor occupations that involve working with things. In fact, our analysis suggests that this variable is by any statistical measure among the most important proximate predictors of occupational gender segregation.