Colon cancer and sugary drinks A truly colossal comet

Researchers have a new theory for why colorectal cancers are rising in younger adults, reports FoxNews.com—sugarsweetened drinks. Rates of these cancers in people under 50 have rocketed: Those born around 1990 have twice the risk for colon cancer and four times the risk for rectal cancer as those born 40 years earlier. To examine whether our increased consumption of sugary drinks may be a factor, researchers looked at data from 94,464 female registered nurses who took part in a health study from 1991 to 2015. They found that the women who consumed less than one weekly 8 oz serving of soft drinks, sports drinks, or sweetened teas had half the relative risk of developing colorectal cancer compared with those who averaged two or more servings. Each additional sugary drink equated to a 16 percent increase in risk. One possible factor is weight gain from the sugary drinks. “Metabolic problems, such as insulin resistance, may play an important role in the development of this cancer in younger adults,” says senior author Yin Cao.

Astronomers have identified what appears to be the largest comet ever seen. Named C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein) after its discoverers—University of Pennsylvania professors Pedro Bernardinelli and Gary Bernstein—the comet is between 62 and 125 miles long. That’s about five times the size of Manhattan, and at least double the size of the previous largest known comet, Hale-Bopp. “[It’s] certainly the largest comet we’ve seen in the modern astronomical era,” Alan Fitzsimmons, of Queen’s University Belfast, tells ScientificAmerican.com. “We’ve had tremendously bright comets over recorded history, but that was before the invention of the telescope.” Currently inside Neptune’s orbit, the rocky, ice-covered object will travel to within a billion miles of the sun in 2031. The comet will shine brighter and brighter in the night sky as its ice melts, to the point where anyone with a telescope should be able to spot it. When the comet fades from view, it won’t be visible for another 3 million years, when it completes another orbit of the sun.