Lung cancer kills over two million people a year, and its deaths followed the rise and fall of smoking

the gist

Lung cancer kills more than two million people every year, making it the most fatal cancer in the world. Its death toll closely tracks cigarette smoking: as smoking spread through the 20th century, lung cancer deaths rose, typically a few decades later, and where smoking has declined, lung cancer deaths have fallen. Tobacco smoke contains many carcinogens that damage DNA in the cells lining the airways. The lag between exposure and disease is why the effects of smoking took so long to show up in statistics.

how it works

Carcinogens in tobacco smoke, such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, bind to DNA and cause mutations when cells repair or copy it. Damage accumulates in airway cells over years, so tumours typically appear decades after people start smoking.

so what

Lung cancer is one of the clearest examples of how public health measures can change death rates, from anti-smoking campaigns to tobacco taxes. It also shows why long latency makes cause-and-effect hard to see until decades later.

the bigger pattern

Mid-20th-century studies, including British doctors' long-term follow-up of their own smoking habits, linked smoking to lung cancer, and tobacco control followed in a similar lagged pattern across many countries.

Hampi was once one of the world's largest cities, until its Vijayanagara capital was destroyed in 1565

the gist

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.

how it works

The city was built around a fortified core with temples, markets and water structures along the river, supplied by an extensive network of roads and waterworks. When the empire fell, the city was not rebuilt, so its stone monuments were left standing.

so what

Hampi shows how quickly a great city can vanish after a military defeat, and how a ruined capital can remain sacred. Its ruins give historians a view of medieval South Asia that few other sites can match.

fun fact

The name Hampi comes from Pampa, an old name for the Tungabhadra River.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia · text CC BY-SA 4.0

Image: Wikimedia Commons

source: Wikipedia ↗

2 min

politicsshortCNA2:01

False allegations about Singapore’s hand in Indonesia’s markets and a made-up meeting

from CNA

CNA Verify has found close to 400 posts pushing falsehoods tying Singapore to Indonesia’s stock market rout and to a secret meeting that never took place. Together, they drew nearly 12 million views, and some were circulated by accounts that appeared to be working in concert, across multiple social media platforms.

Here’s how the disinformation campaign targeting Singapore was uncovered.

on YouTube: CNA ↗