UCL demographer’s work debunking ‘Blue Zone’ regions of exceptional lifespans wins Ig Nobel prize
UCL demographer’s work debunking ‘Blue Zone’ regions of exceptional lifespans wins Ig Nobel prize
A study by Dr Saul Justin Newman (Centre for Longitudinal Studies) has won the first-ever Ig Nobel award in Demography at this year’s 34th Ig Nobel Prizes. His work reveals fundamental flaws in the data about the world’s oldest people and patterns of extreme longevity.
Poverty and pressure to commit pension fraud were shown to be excellent indicators of reaching ages 100+ in a way that is the opposite of rational expectations'.
So people tend to “live longer” where there’s poverty, rewards for reaching old age (pensions) and poor record keeping (e.g. birth certificates). Fascinating coincidences!!
I just quit my job, gave away all my money, and burned my birth certificate. Am I doing longevity right?
What would the phrase "infallibly flawed" mean? I can't quite make those two words make sense together. Are they just using infallibly to mean something like "definitely" or "undeniably"?
Maybe it's a typo. I searched the referenced papers and the word infallibly doesn't turn up.