Aspartame, Glyphosate, AI/The Law, and Other Complexities - Interesting Things, Week 2
Another week of science and health
This is your weekly Interesting Things newsletter, where I try to sum up an entire week of stuff that I’ve seen that you might find interesting in one post. For those who have recently subscribed (technically all of you, this is only week 2) - welcome! This is where I tell you about the stuff that you’ll probably find interesting from the last seven days.
Also, for paid subscribers, some good news - your generous money has allowed me to make my first $500 donation to charity as part of my Substack subscriber effort. This week my donation was to Women’s Community Shelters Australia, who as the name suggests primarily run community shelters for women in Australia. If you have any spare money, please do give some cash to the organization, they do fantastic work:
https://www.womenscommunityshelters.org.au/
So, on to the Interesting Things:
Aspartame and Cancer
The big news this week was that the IARC has decided to reclassify aspartame, a very commonly-used sweetener which is in Diet Coke and other foods/drinks, as a ‘possible’ human carcinogen. I wrote about why this is not only unlikely to be an issue, but also largely meaningless to your life.
Whooping Cough Deaths - Get Vaccinated
There have recently been a spate of whooping cough (pertussis) deaths in the US and Israel due to low vaccination rates in some communities. This is a disease that almost exclusively kills infants, and is entirely preventable through immunization. Make sure you and your family are protected, especially if you’re going to be welcoming a tiny human soon like me!
AI and The Law
My brother wrote a fascinating post about trying to use ChatGPT to come up with useful legal advice. While the piece is long and interesting, the main message is that it’s currently a terrible idea because ChatGPT lies constantly!
Glyphosate
Glyphosate is a common weedkiller used in farms and elsewhere, and there are many theories that it causes cancer. If you needed any more incentive to become a paid subscriber, here it is - my first paid-only piece looked into this question, and discusses why you probably don’t need to worry about carcinogens in your tomatoes.
Massive News In The Diabetes/Obesity World
Another interesting thing from this week was the announcement of the results of a phase 2 clinical trial that may have HUGE implications for the diabetes/obesity space. A new drug has been announced which appears to cause people to lose on average a whopping 24% of their bodyweight. If this pans out in bigger clinical trials, this could change the face of obesity treatments across the world.
Windfarms Are Safe
The final piece of news is that windfarms are safe for human health. We’ve known this for ages, but yet another study is out proving that windfarms don’t cause any health impacts.
I also wrote about diets this week, and why the best diet is probably the one that works for you:
And…that’s it! I hope you enjoy these weekly updates, and please tell me what you’d like to see in them!