Do video games have an influence on the well-being of gamers?

Researchers from the University of Oxford have made a study in the fall of 2020 and came to the conclusion that online gaming has a positive impact on the well-being of players. This time, they updated the experience with an even larger number of participants, more than 38,000 in 8 different countries and in 7 online games, including Animal Crossing, New Horizons, and Gran Turismo Sport. Researcher able to recover the duration of the game session for 6 weeks. They then handed the questionnaires to the participants…. three sets of questions to measure how players feel over time… and from one session to the next… to learn whether those feelings have an impact on time spent playing and vice versa. It turns out that well-being, or illness and playtime have no correlation. Therefore, this is an opportunity to remember that not all scientific studies achieve clear results, but they are all equally interesting, especially on a controversial subject like this.

The authors insist that “hopes and fears surrounding video games are often unfounded” Also this study, although not permanent, shows that everything remains to be proven about the effects of video games on health.

Alexandra Delbot interview Serge Tisseronpsychiatrist, screen specialist and writer “Living in a new digital world” published by DUNOD

Origin of mysterious pneumonia in Argentina revealed: it is legionella

This is a family of bacteria that owes its name to the epidemic that occurred in 1976 at a legionary congress. What he meant at the time: AC circuit. Indeed, these bacteria have a natural environment in fresh water and wet soil and can colonize certain stagnant waters such as air conditioners or showers. Contamination then occurs through the projection of aerosols, tiny droplets containing the pathogen.

Legionella would therefore account for a very localized outbreak in Argentina, without human-to-human contamination. To date, there have been 5 deaths out of 11 registered cases, and the clinic has been isolated as a precaution. Still know what the tension is, because this family has about sixty.

Global warming also affects pathogens

This is one potential effect but has not been measured until now. Therefore, researchers from the University of Hawaii look in the past at the impact of 10 climate events that are sensitive to greenhouse gas emissions, such as sea level rise, heavy rains, storms or heat waves… and these on every human infectious disease. Thus they have mapped 1,000 pathways, 1,000 ways these climatic events impact pathogens. For example: heavy rains and floods allow mosquitoes or mice to infect humans. Warmer oceans and heat waves can lead to food contamination.

It seems that more than half of these diseases, 58% to be exact, are at some point exacerbated by climate hazards, while 16% of them are reduced. This study underscores that the risk of climate change brings us closer to pathogens.

The Perseverance rover has succeeded in producing oxygen on Mars

We talked about this Rover on Tuesday and the discovery of igneous rock at Jezero Crater. The instrument in question this time is MOXIE. He managed to produce oxygen from CO2, the carbon dioxide that makes up 95% of Mars’ atmosphere. According to this research published in Science AdvancesMoxie is functioning well, day and night, and she has delivered 50 grams of oxygen.

This is a demonstration of its capabilities as oxygen is not stored in the rover. However, this air is not meant to be inhaled by future explorers, but as fuel to transport astronauts from the Martian surface to ships to return to Earth. Indeed, it would be too expensive to transport all this oxygen from our planet. Therefore keep building oxygenators hundreds of times bigger.

Thanks to Serge Tisseron and Erwin Dehouck (@planetologist) for their valuable explanations.

For further

Video games: well-being or disease, doubtful links (Science and the Future)