In the next selection of interesting science news of the week: According to popular wisdom, there should be many good people, clearly implying that prominent individuals are kinder and more generous. However, as researcher Pavlo Blavatsky of the University of Montpellier in France found out, this formula does not apply to politicians. On the contrary, the more prominent an official is, the more likely he or she is to be corrupt (or, more likely, corrupted by illegally acquired wealth). Of course, corruption cannot be accurately measured, and the officials and politicians themselves carefully hide their machinations. But still, some things cannot be hidden. For example – another double chin or a huge waist.
According to Blavatsky, the average body weight serves as a “convenient variable” in the formula of political corruption in the countries of the former USSR. The study’s authors admit they did not have access to medical records, but they used computer modeling to determine the approximate body weight of 299 ministers from 15 former Soviet republics who served in 2017, based on photographs. He then compared the data with five commonly accepted indicators of corruption, including those from Transparency International and the World Bank. “It turned out that the body mass index of our ministers was closely related to five indicators of corruption, which means that hidden massive corruption literally seeps through the photographs of top officials,” Blavatsky claims. We explain quickly, simply, and understandably what happened, why it matters, and what will happen next. The number of episodes should remain the same.
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In the traditionally least corrupt countries of the former USSR – Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia – and in Georgia, the body mass index of ministers was the lowest. The most massive officials were found in Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. However, Blavatsky herself admits that there are still exceptions: this is Ukraine, where there are many very large (in size) ministers, but the level of corruption at the top, according to international experts, is relatively low. Another claim could be made against Blavatsky’s theory: did she take into account the national phenotype? In other words, could it be that in a country where the population tends to be overweight, the politicians also suffer from obesity? As the author of the study points out, “countries with relatively fat ministers tend to have richer populations. Conversely, in the Baltic countries, ministers are thin, unlike their compatriots who have avoided public service. “Large-scale political corruption can have a positive effect, the author of the work jokes. The heavier politicians are, the more fit and healthy the voters are. In my opinion, however, this is a very small consolation.
Page from the medical book “Balda As deadly bacteria become increasingly resistant to antibiotics, scientists struggling to create new generations of effective medicines have desperately turned to ancient shamanic books. And they found the necessary formula in the so-called Healing Book of the Millennium, written a thousand years ago. Not all of the recipes in the medieval English manuscript have stood the test of time. While the ointment for nightly visits from goblins is no longer in demand, the Bald’s Eye Ointment has proven to be very effective. Scientists have already established that this drug kills Staphylococcus aureus, but in a new study published in Scientific Reports, Jessica Furner-Pardoe of the University of Warwick not only confirmed these results, but also showed that the ointment is able to destroy even the biofilm formed by the most drug-resistant staphylococci. The experiment involved brewing 75 servings of Bald’s ointment, which contains garlic, onions (or leeks, the recipe is not entirely clear, so scientists made two versions of the remedy just in case), cow’s bile, and wine. And each time, the ointment has fought the biofilm, which doctors typically treat with antibiotics at concentrations hundreds of times higher than normal. It has also proven effective against other dangerous bacteria whose infections are difficult to treat and often result in amputation. It should be noted that the ingredients of the “Balda” ointment only work together. When researchers tried to isolate or purify individual components of the ointment, the effectiveness of the ointment decreased significantly. The fact is that modern pharmacy tries to break down the drug into its components and purify them to the maximum, while medieval healers, on the contrary, followed the path of combining the natural properties of different substances, which, in turn, complemented and increased each other’s cumulative effect. For example, wine, onions, or bile extracted from medicine itself showed weak antimicrobial properties during the experiment and were unable to cope not only with the biofilm but even with free-floating bacteria. Scientists still need to determine exactly whether the “Balda” eye ointment works under clinical conditions, but we can already assume that it does not cause any harm, which means that pharmacists should take a closer look at it.
Household chemicals have long reached the farthest reaches of the globe, including the waters of the Arctic, where researchers continue to discover so-called “persistent chemicals” that do not break down for centuries. These include per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which are found in many household products. They are now found in food and drinking water. While the presence of 29 types of PFAS (whose harm to humans and the environment is still poorly understood) in the Arctic itself is alarming, an even more disturbing discovery, described in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, was the discovery of HFPO-DA – hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid – in the same area for the first time. The problem is that HFPO-DA was specifically designed to be a more environmentally friendly alternative to PFAS, but apparently the plan didn’t work out, and the new “forever chemical” will now join the old one. Experts estimate that there are more than five thousand types of PFAS, some of which have already been identified as carcinogens. As a result, they are being phased out and replaced with HFPO-DA. However, even taking into account that the most toxic PFASs have already been banned, a significant amount of these substances have already accumulated in the environment and will take hundreds of years, if not longer, to degrade. This is why studying the distribution of these “forever chemicals” in the environment is so important.
I do not know if anyone remembers cargo trolleybuses today, but they existed in Moscow and other large cities of the USSR. They were also present in Europe and America, but they were quickly replaced by trucks with internal combustion engines – these trucks were not only cheaper, but also easier to operate and did not require special electric lines. But today, with the focus on saving the environment from exhaust fumes, electric transportation has become popular again, so much so that a group of scientists has even proposed that trucks be given a special lane on the highway and converted into trolley buses with electric arcs, similar to trams. Such electrified trucks, unlike the many electric cars on the road, would not need to be constantly recharged and would not require heavy batteries that take up space that could be used for useful cargo. In fact, the Center for Ecological Automobile Transportation has calculated that such a project would cost 20 billion euros: that’s how much it would take to create a network of electrified roads that could efficiently handle freight transport. However, as scientists rightly point out, when we consider how much we spend on various green or near-green projects, this amount no longer seems excessive. In addition, if the calculations are correct, this money could be used to build about 7,000 kilometers of electrified roads by 2030, with a payback period of 15 years. And the transport companies, which would also have to invest in retrofitting their trucks, could see a return on investment in fuel savings alone after just one and a half years. There is no need to invent new technologies either: the first generation of trolleybuses from Siemens and Scania already work perfectly with the power grid, and for point-to-point delivery where no wires have yet been installed, they can reach their destination with their own small battery, just as the old freight trolleybuses did half a century ago.