Arvind's Newsletter

1.Its has been referred to the “Real Dangal” as Vinesh Phogat, Double World Championship medallist, takes the fight against wrestling federation chief Brij Bhushan Saran Singh for alleged sexual harassment. It is Indian wrestling’s #MeToo moment

Round One of this battle seemed to have gone the players’ way. India’s top grapplers called off their stir against the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) on Friday following an hours-long meeting with sports minister Anurag Thakur, which ended with the government asking Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, the federation’s beleaguered chief, to step aside pending inquiry. On Saturday, the Director General of Sports Authority of India (SAI) also suspended WFI’s assistant secretary Vinod Tomar because of “reports about the functioning of WFI”.

2. Ants have such an acute sense of smell that scientists are now trying to train them to sniff out cancer—and a study published this week shows ants can be trained relatively quickly to do just that

Ants don’t have a nose, but that doesn’t stop them from sniffing out cancer. Thanks to an abundance of olfactory receptors on their antennae, the insects have an incredible sense of smell—and they can use it to detect tumours. Cancerous tumours release distinctive versions of chemicals called volatile organic compounds that often show up in bodily fluids such as sweat and urine and in breath vapour. Ants can sniff out those compounds in urine, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The insects could be used one day as a less expensive, noninvasive detection method for cancer, the study authors say.

3.Saliva is more than just a way to keep your mouth comfortably lubricated. Its cocktail of substances, scientists are discovering, are the x factor behind the flavours we taste.

Scientists have long understood some of saliva's functions: it protects the teeth, makes speech easier and establishes a welcoming environment for foods to enter the mouth. But researchers are now finding that saliva is also a mediator and a translator, influencing how food moves through the mouth and how it sparks our senses. Emerging evidence suggests that interactions between saliva and food may even help to shape which foods we like to eat.

4. New study finds 6 ways to slow memory decline and lower dementia risk. A combination of healthy lifestyle choices such as eating well, regularly exercising, playing cards and socialising at least twice a week may help slow the rate of memory decline and reduce the risk of dementia, a decade-long study suggests.

Memory is a fundamental function of daily life that continuously declines as people age, impairing quality of life and productivity, and increasing the risk of dementia.

Evidence from previous research has been insufficient to evaluate the effect of healthy lifestyle on memory trajectory, but now a study suggests that combining multiple healthy lifestyle choices – the more the better – is linked with softening the speed of memory decline.

“A combination of positive healthy behaviours is associated with a slower rate of memory decline in cognitively normal older adults,” researchers from the National Center for Neurological Disorders in Beijing, China, wrote in the BMJ.

5.The Economist opines that the soaring number of grandpas and grandmas in the world is a good thing

Demographic change, like continental drift, is too gradual to be visible day by day but eventually it shakes the world. People live two decades longer than they did in 1960, and women have half as many children. One of the many ways in which this has transformed family dynamics concerns grandparents. There are a lot more of them, and they each have fewer grandchildren to dote on.

Surprisingly little is known about this trend, so The Economist commissioned some research. This found that the number of grandparents in the world has roughly trebled since 1960, to 1.5bn, and the ratio of grandparents to children under 15 has jumped from 0.46 in 1960 to 0.8 today. This matters because grandparents pass on knowledge and traditions and maintain a family’s links with the past. More vitally, they help bring up children, and free mothers to work outside the home.

Many parents are happier entrusting their children to their grandma than to anyone else. (Grandpas do much less child care, though more than in the past.) Grandparents love the kids, do not need paying and are often available at short notice. In Mexico grandmothers help look after nearly 40% of children under six. During an average week in America, 50% of very young children and 35% of primary-schoolers see a grandparent.

Numerous studies find that mothers with granny-nannies earn more than they otherwise would. One way to measure this is to observe what happens when a grandmother dies. In Mexico working mothers who relied on a grandmother but lost her saw their earnings fall by half. This effect even applies, to a lesser extent, in societies such as India, where grandparents often enforce old-fashioned sexist norms. After the death of rural Indian grandmothers, the daughters-in-law who live them are less likely to work outside the home. In this area, at least, the help mothers-in-law give with child care and other chores seems to outweigh their demands that daughters-in-law stay home and press their husbands’ shirts.

Grandparents’ care is good for grandchildren, too. In parts of Africa the presence of a grandmother makes it more likely that a child will survive. In the rich world it is unclear whether the presence of grandparents boosts academic scores or social skills, but it certainly doesn’t hurt them. Granted, children raised solely by a grandmother do badly, but that is because their parents are presumably dead, in prison or absent for some other reason. Living with her is better than living with a stranger, or in an orphanage.

Care from grandparents does have some disadvantages. Families that rely on it are less likely to move to another city for a better job. So they often end up earning less than they could have. Also, grandmothers often retire early, or work less hours, to make time for their grandchildren. If this is what they choose, fine. But it means that the gains to society from helping mothers into the labour force are partly offset by grandmothers leaving it.

Raising children is hard work. Whoever does it, the state should help. Some governments provide subsidised nurseries. A simpler approach, which does not penalise stay-at-home parents, would be to give cash to parents with young children. They can spend it on the child-care arrangements that suit them. Or it could help one parent work part-time or not at all. Grandparents who are primary carers should get this money, too. And money spent on child care should be tax-deductible, so the system does not favour informal care over the formal sort. Meanwhile, families with living grandparents should rejoice in their good fortune—and be glad that more and more children are sharing it.

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