💬 10 facts I learned last week
Hey folks!
This newsletter started almost four years ago, as the first project I launched after moving to the UK. Since then, it has sometimes had to compete with other pursuits, especially long-distance walking. Apparently, coming up with another issue after 10+ miles on foot is harder than it sounds.
So thank you for sticking with it all these years. From September, there will also be occasional insights from my Goldsmiths master’s journey, alongside the usual facts of the week and features on important scientific papers. Stick around, and invite friends to subscribe!
And now to this week’s discoveries: why people may be talking less and what monkeys know about geometry.
People are talking less. A study of thousands of people in the US, Mexico, Australia and Europe found that the average number of words spoken each day fell from 16,632 in 2005 to 11,900 in 2019, a decline of 28%.
Monkeys appear to share some of our basic intuition for geometry. In experiments, baboons and macaques recognise shapes even when they are resized or rotated, using some of the same mental strategies as humans. Their performance even overlaps with that of preschool children.
Burnout is not a modern invention. The word dates to at least 1937, while “burnt out” was already being used more than 200 years ago to describe the effects of excessive work.
England throws away 3,400 tonnes of partly used medicines a year, enough to fill 75 swimming pools. The waste costs the NHS at least £480 million annually.
Food fraud, from ingredient substitution and false labelling to fake documents, costs the UK economy between £400 million and £2 billion a year.
A study of 1,284 people found that illness, financial loss, trauma and violence can make people more likely to believe in conspiracies, partly by making the world feel less fair.
Political moderates can be seen as disloyal by both liberals and conservatives when the other side feels threatening, research suggests.
Having normal blood pressure, no type 2 diabetes and not smoking between 45 and 65 is associated with almost 13 extra years without dementia, a recent study found. Women live longer without dementia than men regardless of their risk factors, while white people have more dementia-free years than black people.
When local newspapers disappear, companies are more likely to cut back on corporate social responsibility if no national media, analysts or rating agencies are watching them.
In 1820, it was cheaper to ship a barrel of whale oil from Sydney to London than 100 miles inland. Australia’s coastal mountains and lack of navigable rivers made overland transport so difficult that railways became essential to developing the interior.
And that’s it for today! Thanks for reading! If you enjoy the newsletter, share it with a friend or ten. And if you really enjoyed it, consider upgrading to a paid subscription: it helps support my work and means a lot.
Elia Kabanov is a science writer covering the past, present and future of technology (@metkere).
Cover art: Elia Kabanov feat. DALL-E.