Interesting links 4

Warmups protect tendons. Soldiers underwent a 14 week physical training program. Half did some light warmups before each workout; half did not. After 14 weeks, the authors did imaging on their Achilles and patellar tendons. Those who’d warmed their tissues up had improved tendon health and structure. Those who hadn’t had worse tendon structure. The warmups weren’t extensive: 5 minutes of “somatosensory” exercises. Balancing, lunging and reaching, that kind of thing. Nothing too intense.

When it comes to IQ, genes matter more than environment. This is true for a lot of things, but doesn’t mean you’re destined to be something. It does mean you do have a genetic window. My take on these studies is that the modern environment is so overwhelming and pervasive that most people never truly extricate themselves from it. It means that if you want environment to have any effect, you need changes so drastic that they are never captured by these studies.

Genetic adaptation happens fast. New study finds genetic adaptations to cold water diving in female Korean mollusk divers.

Intergenerational epigenetic transference may be real. At least in worms. Worms who learn to avoid a specific bacterium because it was pathogenic transferred this lesson to future generations. Paper discusses why previous attempts may have missed this.

New kind of dog hunt. Human runners try to escape bloodhounds who’ve been clued in to their scent. All fun, no teeth. I’d try it.

All that glitters is not gold. Interesting study in nursing home residents. They found that despite private rooms being highly prized by most residents, actually living in one was linked to worse health outcomes and survival than living in a shared room. Especially as we age, having people around us is far more important for our health than we might realize.

Extinction rates dropping. Interesting line: “Somewhat unexpectedly, the researchers found that in the last 200 years, there was no evidence for increasing extinction from climate change.”

Microplastics: overblown? Maybe.

New paper on the role of grain, agriculture, taxation, and writing in state formation. “Bayesian phylogenetic analyses indicate that intensive agriculture was as likely the result of state formation as its cause. By contrast, grain cultivation most likely preceded state formation. Grain cultivation also predicted the subsequent emergence of taxation. Writing, although not lost once states were formed, more likely emerged in tax-raising societies, consistent with the proposal that it was adopted to record those taxes.”

Watching videos is good for kids’ math skills but bad for other skills—risk of depression, harms to interpersonal social skills. What was most interesting is that this happened no matter how much they watched (a lot or a little), but it didn’t increase with dose.

Interesting regarding whale language. Are sperm whales using vowels?

Pro football is changing. Teams are making more super-long field goals than ever, scoring is way up, and teams have figured out that going for the fourth down is worth it. The game is being optimized. But is it better to watch?

Optimists live longer. The authors did their best to control for many variables known to affect longevity, like socioeconomic status, health behaviors, and existing health conditions, and the effect remained strong. I suspect “forcing” yourself to be (or, more accurately, act) more optimistic won’t have as strong an effect as one hopes because there’s something else beyond simple healthy behaviors and a clean bill of health linking optimism to longevity.

Stronger relationships, slower aging. Researchers tracked adults over a number of years and found those with a higher cumulative social score had better aging markers and even appeared more youthful. Most notably, having a higher score predicted lower interleukin-6 levels, one of the main inflammatory cytokines linked to all sorts of poor health conditions. Here’s what they were tracking to determine the social score: “warmth and support you received from your parents growing up, how connected you feel to your community and neighborhood, your involvement in religious or faith-based communities, and the ongoing emotional support from friends and family.” Pretty profound, although it’s impossible to determine cause and effect here. One note was that there’s no connection between stress hormones like cortisol or adrenaline and the social score. This leads me to believe that it’s yet another instance of stress tolerance being key. You can’t escape stress, so you better be able to deal with it.

The fitter you are, the more effective your natural killer cells. Athletes had better killer cell activity and responsiveness than untrained people. It’s important to note that acute exercise, however, can temporarily lower your immune defenses.