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Science and Technology links (February 12 2023)
- Kenny finds that the returns due to education are declining. Rich countries are spending more on education, with comparatively weaker test results. It costs more than ever to train a PhD student, but it takes ever longer for them to complete their studies. There 25 times more crop researchers today than in the 1970s, but rate of progress remains constant. Researchers are better at producing patents, but the quality of these patents may be decreasing.Furthermore, there aren’t more people to educate: 2012 was “peak child”. It is the year in history when we had the most births. We are now in decline. Fertility levels are below replacement levels in much of the high-income countries.
- Exercise prevents muscle aging at the gene-expression level.
- 28% of people in Japan are 65 years old or older.
- People who undergo colonoscopies reduce their risk of death by 0.01% in absolute terms.
- Jupiter has 92 Moons while Saturn has 83 Moons, however the number increases over time. Most Moons are tiny objects.
- Homo erectus beings could still be found 100,000 years ago in Indonesia. They may have mated with Denisovans who themselves cohabited with modern human beings.
- Living in the country is not necessarily cheaper than living in a city.
- Though it is often believed that the second world war lead to increased industrial output in the USA, the opposite is true.
- The city of Venice has been ‘sinking’ underwater for centuries. However, in the last few years, the trend has been reversed: Venice is gaining land.
- Both left-wing and right-wing individual can hold authoritarian preferences. Left-wing authoritarianism is associated with the belief in a COVID disease threat, in an ecological threat or in a Trump threat.