Why Do Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers?

A new paper in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research suggests that — for reasons that aren’t entirely clear — abstaining from alcohol does tend to increase one’s risk of dying, even when you exclude former problem drinkers. The most shocking part? Abstainers’ mortality rates are higher than those of heavy drinkers.

But why would abstaining from alcohol lead to a shorter life? It’s true that those who abstain from alcohol tend to be from lower socioeconomic classes, since drinking can be expensive. And people of lower socioeconomic status have more life stressors — job and child-care worries that might not only keep them from the bottle but also cause stress-related illnesses over long periods. (They also don’t get the stress-reducing benefits of a drink or two after work.)

But even after controlling for nearly all imaginable variables — socioeconomic status, level of physical activity, number of close friends, quality of social support and so on — the researchers (a six-member team led by psychologist Charles Holahan of the University of Texas at Austin) found that over a 20-year period, mortality rates were highest for those who were not current drinkers, regardless of whether they used to be alcoholics, second highest for heavy drinkers and lowest for moderate drinkers.

well, scientists have taken a look at the trajectory and come up with an equation that actually explains the physics of the trajectory of that shot:

Using tiny plastic balls and a slingshot, the researchers varied the velocity and spin of balls travelling through water to trace different trajectories.

This allowed them to study the aerodynamics of the balls without having to account for gravity and perform their experiments in a small tank instead of a large field.

While the study quickly confirmed the long-known ‘Magnus effect’, which gives a spinning ball a curved trajectory, it also revealed fresh insight for spinning balls that are shot over a distance equivalent to Carlos’ free kick.

The researchers said the friction exerted on a ball by its surrounding atmosphere slows it down enough for the spin to take on a greater role in directing the ball’s trajectory.

Prof Clanet said: ‘If he had not hit it so hard then gravity would have stopped it from taking the path it did. And he would have not have been able to curve it in such a way if he had been nearer the goal. That is why you never see penalty kicks swerve.’

It all comes down to the fact that, when a sphere spins, its trajectory is a spiral. Usually, gravity and the relatively short distance the ball travels cover up this spiral trajectory, but Carlos was a mere 115 feet away and kicked the ball hard enough to reveal its true spiral-like path. As you can see in the diagram above, the ball would have kept spiraling if gravity (and the netting) hadn’t gotten in the way.

sources: 1. Impossible soccer kick leads to new physics equation
2. Greatest free-kick was no fluke: Roberto Carlos’ 1997 ‘freak’ goal explained by scientists

Gene Makes Some Drink More When Other Boozers Are Around

Individuals who inherit a particular gene variant that tweaks the brain’s reward system are especially likely to drink a lot of alcohol in the company of heavy-boozing peers….

Adults carrying at least one copy of a long version of the dopamine D4 receptor gene, dubbed DRD4, imbibed substantially more alcohol around a heavy-drinking peer than did others who lacked that gene variant, Larsen’s group reports in a paper published online July 7 in Psychological Science…

Scientists have yet to decipher the precise brain effects of DRD4’s long form. Larsen hypothesizes that in the presence of heavy drinkers, the gene variant may increase dopamine activity in brain areas that amplify alcohol’s appeal as a rewarding social activity.