According to a Cornell University study, around 40 percent of deaths worldwide are caused by water, air and soil pollution. That should be about 7 deaths caused by pollution every ten seconds, if I’m not mistaken.

However, perhaps an even more alarming fact presented by the study is that around “57 percent [of the world's population] is malnourished, compared with 20 percent … in 1950″. Even if one considers the fact that the world population has in that time climbed from 2.5 billion to 6.5 billion, and that most of the population growth has happened in the so-called “developing countries”, it still sounds quite sad.

According to a University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign study, traditional Chinese exercises Taiji and Qigong “cay increase the antibody response to influenza vaccine in older adults”.

For a few years now I have thought about trying Taiji, but have never quite got around to actually doing it. Maybe I should now, so that I’m ready to boost my immune system once I become an “older adult”.

According to an Alpha Galileo press release, Indians (those living in India, not those living in the Americas) may have discovered the infinite series sometime around 1350, a discovery commonly attributed to that 17th/18th century alchemist and magician, Sir Isaac Newton.

While one may do well to be somewhat cautious of claims like these, I for one would not be terribly surprised if the claims put forward by Dr George Gheverghese Joseph from The University of Manchester would actually turn out to be true. He also suggests that the Indian Kerala School, where the mathematical discovery was allegedly made before Newton, also knew about some other important mathematical concepts, begging to ask the question whether the birth of modern mathematics really happened in Europe after all.

As I said, I wouldn’t be all that surprised if it didn’t.

A recent study suggests that green tea a day boosts your enzyme production, in turn making it easier to fight cancer.

The study mentions that this result was found by using green tea concentrate equal to 8-16 cups of green tea. This makes me wonder whether it may cause some side effects, considering this earlier study that showed how amounts of over 10 cups of green tea a day can cause kidney and liver damage.

A study reported in Science Daily has discovered the following facts about olive oils:

1. Virgin and extra-virgin olive oils are healthier than refined brands.

2. You should not purchase olive oil that was pressed more than a year earlier.

3. Olive oils last for about one to two years when stored in a cool, dark place.

The new Indiana Jones film may now have a tentative title. Or, at least according to /Film, Lucasfilm has registered six different titles for the movie:

- Indiana Jones and the City of Gods
- Indiana Jones and the Destroyer of Worlds
- Indiana Jones and the Fourth Corner of the Earth
- Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
- Indiana Jones and the Lost City of Gold
- Indiana Jones and the Quest for the Covenant

There is, of course, no guarantee that any of these will be the actual final title.