Alcohol and tobacco don’t have the prerogative to generate diseases readily associated with drinking and smoking. At the same time, disgusting graphics employed in antismoking campaigns often backfire, as they ignite the rebellious traits in youngsters. But we know smoking is really harmful, both at the personal level and the social level.
The total picture is much more complicated. Concerns should be expanded. Due to several reasons (idiosyncratic, ritualistic, or symbolic) millions of people are caught in a lifestyle immersed in bubbles and smoke. Nearly 1,000,000,000 people light up cigarettes every day on Earth, according to Live Science. And a theme of death and celebration runs through drinkers’ lives as they fill their glasses.
A research-based website meant for drinkers and smokers (www.tobalco.com) says: “There is something tragically romantic but threateningly fatalistic about it. But the reality is that we need to be with the victims to make things comfortable for them — the same way we make things comfortable for Alzheimer’s patients, for instance.”
SNEAK PEEK
1. Dodo story: One
When the island of Mauritius was discovered, the dodos there had no fear of humans and so they literally became easy meat for sailors. This made the dodos “dumb” and extinct. Who claimed “dodos might have been quite intelligent”, as revealed by X-ray scans?
1. Eugenia Gold (Richard Gilder Graduate School)
2. Dodo story: Two
The Oxford Dodo, held at Oxford University Museum of Natural History, was thought to be the remains of a bird actually kept alive in a townhouse in 17th-century London. Who gathered evidence that this dodo was shot in the neck and back of the head with a shotgun?
2. Mark Williams (WMG, University of Warwick)
3. Which came first?
Depression or loneliness often can result in addiction to the smartphone. So, are we pre-adapted to use the device? In fact, your reliance on smartphone predicts greater loneliness and depressive symptoms, as opposed to the other way around. Who noted this?
3. Matthew Lapierre (University of Arizona)
4. A time lag issue
Species take time to respond to our conservation acts — ‘ecological time lag’. We are paying back the extinction ‘debt’ from past destruction and waiting for the ‘credit’ to accrue from conservation. We try to avoid “going bankrupt by intervening too late”. Who said that?
4. Dr Kevin Watts (Forest Research, UK)
5. Just like Pac-Man
In an eponymous arcade game, Pac-Man is an open-mouthed face gobbling up everything in its path. Protists are a collection of one-celled organisms. Who discovered that soil protists move through the soil matrix and gobble up bacteria exactly like Pack-Man?
5. Angela Oliverio (Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute)
6. Snail saves coffee
Tiny trails of the Asian tramp snail were found on the undersurface of coffee leaves afflicted with coffee leaf rust in a Puerto Rico region. Who deduced that the snail, normally a plant-eater, must have shifted its diet to eat the fungal pathogen that causes coffee leaf rust.
6. Zachary Hajian-Forooshani (University of Michigan)
7. Star of Bethlehem
Of the billions of stars out there, which one was the Star of Bethlehem associated with the birth of Jesus? It may not have been a star at all. Who proposed that it was an extremely rare planetary alignment that had occurred in 6 BC, and it may never be seen again?
7. Astrophysicist Grant Mathews (University of Notre Dame)
8. Dark matter model
The standard model for dark matter is that it is ‘cold’. This model holds at very large scales. Turns out, lighter and warmer and more rapidly-moving dark matter particles will not form structures. “Below a certain size, they would just get smeared out.” Who said that?
8. UC Davis physicist Chris Fassnacht
9. High and low sugar
Bumblebees love the sugar in nectar. Nectar gets more thick and sticky as the sugar content rises, also more difficult for bees to drink and regurgitate — a matter of time and energy. Who noted that bees must strike a balance between low and high levels of sugar?
9. Zoologist Dr Jonathan Pattrick
QUIZ No. 940
1. Who evinced that a person’s dance movements are as distinctive as a fingerprint?
– Dr Emily Carlson
– Dame Ninette de Valois
– Olga Preobrajenska
1. Dr Emily Carlson
2. Who likened certain hairlike structures of bacteria to “Batman’s grappling hooks”?
– Gerard C. L. Wong
– Julius Wagner-Jauregg
– Marjory Stephenson
2. Gerard C. L. Wong
3. Even 8-week-old wolves can go for a ball and return it to a stranger. Who found it?
– Benjamin D. Wood
– Christina Hansen Wheat
– Patricia McConnell
3. Christina Hansen Wheat
4. Who documented the transition of media from ‘manuscript culture’ to ‘print culture’?
– Elizabeth Eisenstein
– Robert Dudley Edwards
– Steven Runciman
4. Elizabeth Eisenstein
5. Who was the first known person to attempt to assassinate a sitting US President?
– Griselio T. Roura
– Francisco Martin Duran
– Richard Lawrence
5. Richard Lawrence