Insignis

Show Notes:I’ve been stuck in social isolation, and I imagine that many of you have as well. So here’s a little nugget about the virus that has us all worked up right now so that we all know a little bit more about what we’re dealing with.Reference:‌ Van Doremalen N, Bushmaker T, Morris D, Holbrook M, Gamble A, Williamson B et al. Aerosol and Surface Stability of SARS-CoV-2 as Compared with SARS-CoV-1. New England Journal of Medicine. 2020;.Host: Nick Zelt

Show Notes:There are only three things in the world that you can control, those are your thoughts, feeling, and opinions. So imagine if these things could actually improve your life, or at least your health. Today’s gives evidence that you may be able to do just that, having a more positive outlook and being an optimist may be protective against heart disease and all-cause mortality. Optimism could save lives, so even if you can’t bring yourself to be an optimist maybe you can at least help out those arounds you.Reference:Rozanski, Alan et al. "Association Of Optimism With Cardiovascular Events And All-Cause Mortality". JAMA Network Open, vol 2, no. 9, 2019, p. e1912200. American Medical Association (AMA), doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.12200.Host: Nick Zelt

Bet you’d thought we already knew about all of the body’s organs. I might actually be inclined to agree, yet this paper would better characterize a previously known space within the human body so that we may just have to start calling it an organ as well. The space between cells, the interstitium, might be more than just an incidental space between poorly fitting cells. Researchers are finally seeing what’s been right in front of them all along.Reference:Benias, Petros C. et al. "Structure And Distribution Of An Unrecognized Interstitium In Human Tissues". Scientific Reports, vol 8, no. 1, 2018. Springer Science And Business Media LLC, doi:10.1038/s41598-018-23062-6.Host: Nick Zelt

What else is there to do but get things done? Apparently far too much, so how do we do a bit better at getting some work done. I give a few personal types from my own experiences of trying to concentrate, and then we review a part comparing popular office space layouts to put one more voice into the open workspace debate. Reference:Bernstein, Ethan S., and Stephen Turban. "The Impact Of The ‘Open’ Workspace On Human Collaboration". Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, vol 373, no. 1753, 2018, p. 20170239. The Royal Society, doi:10.1098/rstb.2017.0239.Host and Producer: Nick Zelt

What if we just put it all in a pile, then how much of it would there be? And what if we took one thing away, how much would be left? That’s probably how most of us think of statistics, and that’s pretty much exactly what today’s paper did! Put all the living stuff on earth together to see just how much there is. Plus a quick digression to start off the episode about that might have been in the pile if almost everything on earth hadn’t died since then. . .Reference:Bar-On, Yinon M. et al. "The Biomass Distribution On Earth". Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences, vol 115, no. 25, 2018, pp. 6506-6511. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences, doi:10.1073/pnas.1711842115.Host: Nick Zelt

Yet again we are reminded that temperatures are rising. Nothing on our dear planet will be spared, and that include the strange little organisms we call coral. Today’s episode talks about the effects that rising ocean temperatures have on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia.Spoiler: It doesn’t help anything.Reference:Hughes, Terry P. et al. "Global Warming Transforms Coral Reef Assemblages". Nature, vol 556, no. 7702, 2018, pp. 492-496. Springer Nature, doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0041-2.Host: Nick Zelt

When you’re sick, wouldn’t you just like to get better? The best way to do so may not be clear to everyone, but here’s one more reason to listen to you doctor.Today’s Paper:Johnson, Skyler B. et al. "Complementary Medicine, Refusal Of Conventional Cancer Therapy, And Survival Among Patients With Curable Cancers". JAMA Oncology, vol 4, no. 10, 2018, p. 1375. American Medical Association (AMA), doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2018.2487. Accessed 14 June 2019.Other references:1. Bennett, Gary J. "Does The Word “Placebo” Evoke A Placebo Response?". PAIN, vol 159, no. 10, 2018, pp. 1928-1931. Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health), doi:10.1097/j.pain.0000000000001269. Accessed 14 June 2019.2. Finniss, Damien G. "Placebo Effects: Historical And Modern Evaluation". International Review Of Neurobiology, 2018, pp. 1-27. Elsevier, doi:10.1016/bs.irn.2018.07.010. Accessed 14 June 2019.Host: Nick Zelt

What a load of garbage, quite literally. That’s what’s floating around in our oceans, loads and loads of plastic garbage. The first step to solving a problem is know what it is though, and so researchers have set out to quantify how much floating plastics we have and what kinds of plastics it is.Reference:Lebreton, L. et al. "Evidence That The Great Pacific Garbage Patch Is Rapidly Accumulating Plastic". Scientific Reports, vol 8, no. 1, 2018. Springer Nature, doi:10.1038/s41598-018-22939-w.Host: Nick Zelt

Hey there Sugar, maybe we shouldn’t see each other as much anymore, I’m looking for something a little more fatty.Cutting back on carbs and replacing them with plant fats and proteins is consistently shown to decrease mortality. Optimal energy intake from carbs in your diet is around 50-55%, so load up on the veggies.Reference:Seidelmann, Sara B et al. "Dietary Carbohydrate Intake And Mortality: A Prospective Cohort Study And Meta-Analysis". The Lancet Public Health, vol 3, no. 9, 2018, pp. e419-e428. Elsevier BV, doi:10.1016/s2468-2667(18)30135-x.Host: Nick Zelt

Exercise isn’t just for beach-bodies, it’s also good for your mental health as well. Get out there and flex for your wellness, might help more than you think.Reference:Chekroud, Sammi R et al. "Association Between Physical Exercise And Mental Health In 1·2 Million Individuals In The USA Between 2011 And 2015: A Cross-Sectional Study". The Lancet Psychiatry, vol 5, no. 9, 2018, pp. 739-746. Elsevier BV, doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(18)30227-x.Host: Nick Zelt

Closer to the cusp than one might think, but not to late the save the world. Scientists have made projects of the climate change thresholds we must not cross.Reference:Steffen, W., Rockström, J., Richardson, K., Lenton, T., Folke, C., & Liverman, D. et al. (2018). Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene. Proceedings Of The National Academy Of Sciences, 115(33), 8252-8259. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1810141115Host: Nick Zelt

The third most remarked about articles of 2018! A quick talk about the burden of alcohol and drugs on a global scale.Reference:Degenhardt, Louisa et al. "The Global Burden Of Disease Attributable To Alcohol And Drug Use In 195 Countries And Territories, 1990–2016: A Systematic Analysis For The Global Burden Of Disease Study 2016". The Lancet Psychiatry, vol 5, no. 12, 2018, pp. 987-1012. Elsevier BV, doi:10.1016/s2215-0366(18)30337-7. Accessed 3 Mar 2019.Host: Nick Zelt

The spread of truth and lies on twitter, the flow of information in the cosmos of the internet. A quick review of the second most remarked paper of 2018.Reference:Vosoughi, Soroush et al. "The Spread Of True And False News Online". Science, vol 359, no. 6380, 2018, pp. 1146-1151. American Association For The Advancement Of Science (AAAS), doi:10.1126/science.aap9559. Accessed 6 Mar 2019.Host: Nick Zelt

Academic science bringing change after disaster strikes. Correcting mistakes made by the government for the benefit of Puerto Rico in order to get the aid due to them following hurricane Maria.Reference:Kishore, Nishant et al. "Mortality In Puerto Rico After Hurricane Maria". New England Journal Of Medicine, vol 379, no. 2, 2018, pp. 162-170. New England Journal Of Medicine (NEJM/MMS), doi:10.1056/nejmsa1803972. Accessed 6 Mar 2019.Host: Nick Zelt