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PW Talks with Alan Moore
In his first collection of short fiction, Illuminations: Stories, out now from Bloomsbury Publishing, legendary comics writer Alan Moore offers nine stories ranging from his earliest short prose to the 2021 novella, “What We Can Know About Thunderman,” a scathing fictional dissection of the American comic book industry.
PW spoke via Zoom with Moore—regarded as one of the greatest comics writers of all time—about his retirement from comics and why, the influence of comics writing on his prose, and his deep misgivings about the superhero genre and regrets over his role in its current popularity.
Publishers Weekly: What led to your first try at short prose fiction in 1987?
Alan Moore: I started out, as a teenager, as part of what used to be called the psychedelic left in England, in the 60s and 70s. And I would do practically everything—I would be performing, I would be writing prose fiction, I’d be writing poetry, I’d be doing illustrations. This is the background that I come from, basically doing all sorts of things. The fact that I became focused for largely economic reasons upon comics, was just that that was the most practical thing to do. And I was very, very good at it. But I’ve always, throughout my entire career as a comics writer, been doing all sorts of other artistic ventures, I’ve been writing things in all sorts of media, it’s just that they don’t tend to get seen by as wide an audience. So in 1985, it was more a matter of, I’d like to let people see what I can do when I don’t necessarily have pictures illuminating the narratives. I figured that I’m pretty good with prose. And so basically, when I was given the opportunity to write a short story for the Liavek shared-world anthology, I thought, yeah, this might be nice to let people know that I can do other things rather than just comics. And I was very pleased with the result.
Was there anything from writing for comics that was helpful for shifting to short prose fiction?
Well, I think that if you’re taking a multidisciplinary approach to your writing, then you’ll find that whatever field that you’re working in, that will greatly help all of the other fields—there are approaches and understandings that are transferable. And that’s particularly the case with comics. Throughout my comics career, I have done probably the most detailed scripts in the industry. My scripts were huge, unwieldy things that would be giving the artists the directions for everything from characters’ expressions, to lighting, to the position of people, to the angle of the shot—everything, so that was very useful when it came to short prose writing. Because I’ve often felt that my prose writing must read like somebody who is used to having an artist, and is trying to compensate for that, I do tend to be very rich, in my descriptions, because I am trying to do the same thing for the reader, as I would be doing in my instructions to the artist; I’m trying to conjure the scene that in my head, and transfer that to, in the case of comics, to the artist, or in the case of strike fiction, purely directly to the reader. So yes, that has helped a great deal.
In 2020, you’d stated that when you “entered the comics industry, the big attraction was that this was a medium that was vulgar, created to entertain working class people, particularly children.” What about that attracted you to the industry in the first place?
Exactly that. I mean, I came from a working-class background. And I had noticed that the entertainment that is generally given to working class people is fraught with an expectation of perhaps stupidity, or an inability to understand things. Working-class people tend to be treated as almost childlike by the broader culture. And the opportunity that I saw in comics was a medium, which was cheap, accessible, very fast, whereby ideas that I thought might be helpful to a broad mass of people could be communicated to them. Interesting new ideas could be communicated to them very quickly, very cheaply, and would be within everyone’s reach.
But that changed.
I think that, possibly largely through my own efforts, around the 1980s, the comics field became gentrified. I think that graphic novels are the equivalent of studio loft apartments. I think that it is now a medium that is largely there to entertain the standard middle-class audience, people who don’t necessarily need these ideas so much as the people for whom they were originally intended. That was what used to attract me to comics. And that is amongst the many factors that have actually separated me from comics, where I no longer think that comics are providing that function.
What accounts for the gap between your 2018 retirement from comics, and writing the 2021 story “What We Can Know About Thunderman” when, as you state in this book’s acknowledgments, the story “exploded like a lanced boil”?
Comics is a wonderful medium. I think it’s a lousy industry, but a wonderful medium. But by and large, I wanted nothing to do with comics anymore. However, having said that, and having internalized it, are two different things. I’ve found that having worked in comics for nearly 40 years, it tends to leave its psychological tracks. It’s easy to say, I’m not going to work in comics anymore, and I don’t want anything to do with comics anymore. That’s all easy. But to actually stop thinking about comics, generally in a negative light, in my own circumstances, is more difficult. I found that the comics industry was haunting me.
There will be things that you will find your mind returning to, even if you don’t want them to. So I think that “What We Can Know About Thunderman” was an attempt at an exorcism. I’d been thinking for a long time, yeah, you want to write something about your experiences in the comics industry, but I don’t know quite how you could do it. And I’d been wrestling with that. And then all of a sudden, the title, popped into my head. And I saw a different way that this could be approached, a way that could actually be, although horrific, quite funny. And I started writing it, and it seems to just flow out, I hadn’t realized that I’ve got that much poison bottled up inside me.
And having lanced the boil in 2021, has having written that story had a therapeutic benefit for you?
An immense therapeutic value! I am no longer haunted by old comics in the way that I was before—I can go for days or weeks without thinking about them. It was immensely helpful. Of course, I’ve just unloaded all of my nightmarish problems onto the general readership. So I apologize for that. But I’m feeling a lot better off.
Was the 2021 timing of writing “Thunderman” connected to the rise of Trumpism?
Well, yes, because I realized a long time ago that if I was going to talk about comics, as I see them, that would involve talking about a lot of other things. About 2011 or 2012, I was interviewed by somebody who asked my opinions upon the modern superhero film phenomenon. And I said that I found it immensely worrying. Because the idea that hundreds of millions of adults were queuing up to see characters and situations that were created to entertain 12-year-old boys 50 years before, I found socially worrying, because it seemed to speak to me of a kind of retreat into infantilism.
We are living in an unbearably complex world that I think many people find overwhelming, that they have no idea how they can even begin to engage with. And I think that in times like that, historically, you’ll find people seeking a more simplistic world that they can bail out into. And it struck me that what we were potentially looking at was the rise of populist fascism. When people are under pressure, and when they don’t feel they can deal with it, then a simpler narrative seems to be something that a lot of people will reach for, whether that is the simple narrative of all of your problems are being caused by the Jewish banking conspiracy in Germany in the 1930s, or whether that is the simpler narrative of, say, the QAnon conspiracy theorists, or whether that is the simple narrative of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where problems are all being caused by some unlikely threat or villain or monster, and the solution will be some equally unlikely and implausible superhero. I noted, for example, that in the year that Trump was elected, and that a lot of the British people seemed to vote for withdrawing from the European Union, six of the twelve best-selling films were superhero movies.
This may be just me, imposing my personal prejudices upon the world situation, but I don’t think so. I think that generally, in our trash culture, we are very often able to see the various tensions and stresses that are present in our broader society. And so yes, I do think that the superhero has become almost a white supremacist, a sort of symbol of the kind of simplistic thinking that we are still trying to apply to a incredibly complex world. And which doesn’t seem to be working out for us. I did feel that comics, and particularly the superhero movie industry, have got a lot to answer for in that respect. So yes, Thunderman was a very useful vehicle for being able to connect those ideas together.
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Salman Rushdie: Author’s ‘road to recovery has begun,’ agent says, as stabbing suspect pleads not guilty
“He’s off the ventilator, so the road to recovery has begun,” Rushdie’s agent, Andrew Wylie, told CNN on Sunday. “It will be long — the injuries are severe. But his condition is headed in the right direction.”
“Though his life changing injuries are severe, his usual feisty & defiant sense of humor remains intact,” the statement said.
Rushdie was preparing to give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution on Friday when a man jumped on stage and stabbed him in several places, including the neck and stomach.
Staff members and guests then rushed onto the stage and held down the suspect, identified as 24-year-old Hadi Matar, of Fairview, New Jersey, before a state trooper assigned to the event took him into custody, according to New York State Police.
The author’s injuries include three stab wounds to the right side of the front of his neck, four stab wounds to his stomach, puncture wounds to his right eye and chest, and a laceration on his right thigh, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt said Saturday during Matar’s arraignment. Wylie previously told the New York Times the attack left Rushdie with liver and nerve damage.
Rushdie was airlifted to a hospital following the attack and underwent surgery, police said. The author may end up losing his right eye, Schmidt said.
“We are so grateful to all the audience members who bravely leapt to his defense and administered first aid along with the police and doctors who have cared for him,” the statement said, “and for the outpouring of love and support from around the world.”
Another speaker at the event, 73-year-old Ralph Henry Reese, suffered a minor head injury during the attack. He was taken to hospital in an ambulance and later released with a facial injury.
In a tweet Sunday, Padma Lakshmi, the TV host and author’s former wife, said she was “relieved” Rushdie is “pulling through after Friday’s nightmare.”
“Worried and wordless, can finally exhale. Now hoping for swift healing,” she said.
The suspect has pleaded not guilty
Matar pleaded not guilty to charges of second-degree attempted murder and second-degree assault with intent to cause physical injury with a deadly weapon, his public defender, Nathaniel Barone, told CNN on Saturday.
The attorney said Matar has been “very cooperative” and communicating openly, but he did not discuss what was said during those conversations.
Matar was refused bail and remanded to the Chautauqua County Jail. His next court appearance is Friday.
He faces up to 32 years if convicted of both charges, Schmidt said.
The FBI is now working with local and international authorities to investigate the attack at the Chautauqua Institution, which happened in front of an audience as Rushdie was being introduced.
A witness, Joyce Lussier, was sitting in the second row when she saw a man leap across the stage and lunge at Rushdie. She heard people screaming and crying, she told CNN, and saw people from the audience rushing up to the stage.
Another witness, Stephen Davies, who captured video of the moments just after Rushdie was attacked, said he couldn’t tell if the attacker had a knife in his hand.
“He lunged onto Mr. Rushdie and started pummeling him with his hand, very quickly,” Davies said. “I was completely stunned and shocked.”
Authorities have not disclosed the specific type of weapon that was used in the attack.
The suspect had a pass to the event that now faces questions over its security procedures
The suspect arrived in Chautauqua at least a day before the event and bought a pass to the event two days prior, Schmidt said during Matar’s arraignment.
Matar traveled to Chautauqua by bus and had cash, pre-paid Visa cards and false identification with him, said Schmidt, who called the stabbing a “targeted, pre-planned, unprovoked attack on Mr. Rushdie.”
There were no security searches or metal detectors at the event, a person who witnessed the attack told CNN. The witness is not being identified because they expressed concerns for their personal safety.
The attack has raised questions about the security precautions at the host institution.
The institution’s leadership had rejected recommendations for basic security measures, including bag checks and metal detectors, fearing that would create a divide between speakers and the audience, according to two sources who spoke with CNN on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Institution President Michael Hill defended his organization’s security plans when asked during a news conference Friday whether there would be more precautions at future events.
“We assess for every event what we think the appropriate security level is, and this one was certainly one that we thought was important which is why we had a State Trooper and Sheriff presence there,” Hill said. “We will assess for each of the events at the Institution what we think the appropriate level of security is and that’s an ongoing process that we work in concert with local law enforcement on.”
Matar — who authorities say has no documented criminal history — was described as being a quiet person who mostly kept to himself. CNN exclusively spoke with State of Fitness Boxing Club owner Desmond Boyle, who said Matar enrolled at the gym in North Bergen, New Jersey in April.
“You know that look, that ‘it’s the worst day of your life’ look? He came in every day like that,” Boyle told CNN on Saturday.
As the investigation continued, police on Friday evening were seen at a New Jersey home believed to be connected to the suspect.
Rushdie had a bounty on his head
Rushdie’s writings have won him several literary prizes, but it was his fourth novel, “The Satanic Verses,” that drew the greatest scrutiny as some Muslims found the book to be sacrilegious. The book, which sparked demonstrations, was banned in multiple countries.
The late Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who described the book as an insult to Islam and Prophet Mohammed, issued a religious decree, or fatwa, calling for Rushdie’s death in 1989.
As a result, Rushdie began a decade under British protection.
The bounty against Rushdie has never been lifted, though in 1998 the Iranian government sought to distance itself from the fatwa by pledging not to seek to carry it out.
However, in 2017, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was asked if the “fatwa against Rushdie was still in effect,” and he confirmed it was, saying, “The decree is as Imam Khomeini issued.”
CNN’s Kiely Westhoff, Andy Rose, Paul P. Murphy, Aya Elamroussi, Ray Sanchez, Christina Maxouris, Artemis Moshtaghian, Sara Smart, Samantha Beech and Liam Reilly contributed to this report.
US library defunded after refusing to censor LGBTQ authors: ‘We will not ban the books’ | Libraries
A small-town library is at risk of shutting down after residents of Jamestown, Michigan, voted to defund it rather than tolerate certain LGBTQ+-themed books.
Residents voted on Tuesday to block a renewal of funds tied to property taxes, Bridge Michigan reported.
The vote leaves the library with funds through the first quarter of next year. Once a reserve fund is used up, it would be forced to close, Larry Walton, the library board’s president, told Bridge Michigan – harming not just readers but the community at large. Beyond books, residents visit the library for its wifi, he said, and it houses the very room where the vote took place.
“Our libraries are places to read, places to gather, places to socialize, places to study, places to learn. I mean, they’re the heart of every community,” Deborah Mikula, executive director of the Michigan Library Association, told the Guardian. “So how can you lose that?”
“We are champions of access,” she added, including materials that might appeal to some in the community and not others. “We want to make sure that libraries protect the right to read.”
The controversy in Jamestown began with a complaint about a memoir by a nonbinary writer, but it soon spiraled into a campaign against Patmos Library itself. After a parent complained about Gender Queer: a Memoir, by Maia Kobabe, a graphic novel about the author’s experience coming out as nonbinary, dozens showed up at library board meetings, demanding the institution drop the book. (The book, which includes depictions of sex, was in the adult section of the library.) Complaints began to target other books with LGBTQ+ themes.
One library director resigned, telling Bridge she had been harassed and accused of indoctrinating kids; her successor, Matt Lawrence, also left the job. Though the library put Kobabe’s book behind the counter rather than on the shelves, the volumes remained available.
“We, the board, will not ban the books,” Walton told Associated Press on Thursday.
A few months later, in March, an anonymous letter went to homes in the area. It criticized the “pornographic” memoir and the addition of “transgender” and “gay” books to the library, according to Lawrence. “That fired a lot of people up and got them to start coming to our board meetings to complain,” he said. “The concern from the public was that it’s going to confuse children.”
The library’s refusal to submit to the demands led to a campaign urging residents to vote against renewed funding for the library. A group calling itself Jamestown Conservatives handed out flyers condemning Gender Queer for showing “extremely graphic sexual illustrations of two people of the same gender”, criticizing a library director who “promoted the LGBTQ ideology” and calling for making the library “a safe and neutral place for our kids”. On Facebook, the group says it exists to “keep our children safe, and protect their purity, as well as to keep the nuclear family intact as God designed”.
Residents ultimately voted 62% to 37% against a measure that would have raised property taxes by roughly $24 in order to fund the library, even as they approved similar measures to fund the fire department and road work. The library was one of just a few in the state to suffer such a loss, Mikula said: “Most passed with flying colors, sometimes up to 80%.”
The vote came as a “shock” to Lawrence, who left his job in part because of town officials’ criticism of the Patmos library and libraries across the US.
“I knew that there were people that were upset about material in the library, but I figured that enough people would realize that what they’re trying to do with the removal of these books is antithetical to our constitution, particularly the first amendment,” he said.
The vote comes as libraries across the US face a surge in demands to ban books. The American Library Association identified 729 challenges to “library, school and university materials and services” last year, which led to about 1,600 challenges or removals of individual books. That was up from 273 books the year before and represents “the highest number of attempted book bans since we began compiling these lists 20 years ago”, the ALA president, Patricia Wong, said in a press release.
“We’re seeing what appears to be a campaign to remove books, particularly books dealing with LGBTQIA themes and books dealing with racism,” Deborah Caldwell-Stone, head of the ALA’s office for intellectual freedom, told the Guardian last year. Celebrated books by Toni Morrison, Alison Bechdel and Ibram X Kendi are among those facing bans.
“I’m not quite sure what instigated the culture wars that we’re seeing, but libraries are certainly at the front end,” Mikula said. Indeed, as states across the US move to deny LGBTQ+ rights, the ALA’s No 1 “most challenged” book last year was Gender Queer.
“When you remove those books from the shelf or you challenge them publicly in a community, what you’re saying to any young person who identified with that narrative is, ‘We don’t want your story here,’” Kobabe told the New York Times in May.
Each library chooses its own collection, Mikula noted, an intensive process that involves staying abreast of what’s new, listening to what’s being requested, and “weeding out” selections that are rarely on loan.
“Our librarians are qualified. They have advanced degrees,” she said. “We want to make sure that the people who have been hired to do this work are trusted and credible, and that they’re making sure that the full community is represented within their library. And that means having LGBTQ books.”
If community members oppose the inclusion of certain books, there are formal means of requesting their removal, involving a review committee and ascertainment that the person making the appeal has actually read the book in question. But recently, she said, people have been “going to board meetings, whether it’s a library board meeting or a school board meeting and saying, ‘Here’s a list of 300 books. We want them all to be removed from your library.’ And that’s not the proper channel, but they’re loud and their voices carry.”
Ric Flair, 73, handles ‘pressure,’ authors classic performance in winning his final wrestling match
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Ric Flair did his trademark strut. He led the crowd in chanting “Woo!” The legendary pro wrestler even bled, the color red drenching his face and recognizable white hair like it would have in the 1970s or 1980s.
And fittingly, Flair’s final wrestling match ended Sunday night here at a sold-out Municipal Auditorium with the figure-four leglock, the finishing move that is synonymous with “The Nature Boy.” Flair, 73, was the winner, of course, in a tag team match alongside partner and son-in-law Andrade El Idolo against the team of Jay Lethal and Jeff Jarrett. The attendance was nearly 10,000, per broadcast provider Fite TV.
Flair was clearly exhausted by the end of his first match since 2011, but he was healthy enough by the end to walk out under his own power and do an interview with longtime wrestling broadcaster Tony Schiavone. After the match, Flair was helped out of the ring, and he greeted his family in the front row, as well as pro-wrestling luminaries The Undertaker, Bret Hart and Mick Foley.
“I had one of my best matches of my career here with Ricky Steamboat,” Flair said. “All my family is here. We made jokes about me being married five times. All the kids are here. One wife, but all my granddaughters. My friends are here. I swear to God, guys. If I didn’t have enough pressure on me tonight, f—ing Kid Rock walked into the locker room tonight.”
The grueling match was nearly 30 minutes long and, while it was clear Flair was not the same man who transcended pro wrestling in the ’70s, ’80s and ’90s and Andrade, Lethal and Jarrett did the bulk of the hard-hitting moves, Flair was able to hold his own weight. He landed chops and punches, his donkey kick low blow and even took a vertical suplex from Lethal, with whom he trained for this match to get ring-ready.
The finish came when Jarrett, a legend in his own right performing in his hometown, landed his signature guitar shot on Lethal accidentally when Andrade pulled Flair away. Flair’s other son-in-law and the card’s promoter, Conrad Thompson, threw Andrade a pair of brass knuckles from the front row, which Andrade passed to Flair. Flair landed a brass-knuckles shot on Jarrett and then put him in the figure-four leglock to end the match.
“This match is the most important of my career,” said Andrade, an AEW star who is married to Flair’s daughter and WWE standout Charlotte. “… This is unbelievable. I don’t even have words for this. [Flair] feels better than guys 20 years old. He’s an inspiration to me.”
Flair is a former 16-time world champion and a two-time WWE Hall of Famer. He’s one of the greatest wrestlers in the history of the business, and his stardom has crossed over into the mainstream, even in the current day. Flair has been featured in several music videos by top hip-hop artists, including a song written about him called “Ric Flair Drip” by Offset in 2017. He was the leader of the influential Four Horsemen faction in wrestling, and his matches and work on the microphone are iconic. Many of his catchphrases — and of course, the classic “Woo!” — are still repeated today.
Flair’s style and swagger — complete with expensive suits, diamond-encrusted robes, eye-catching jewelry and crocodile-skin shoes — have been emulated well beyond the wrestling world.
Flair wore a robe that was estimated at nearly $40,000 to the ring Sunday night. But that’s where the glitz ended and things got more down and dirty. Midway through the match, Flair took a razor blade to his forehead to cause bleeding, a pro-wrestling technique to add intensity to a match. Lethal said Flair doing that was his biggest concern, because of the unpredictability of how a septuagenarian Flair would react to a cut.
“That’s the unknown variability,” said Lethal, who also wrestles for AEW. “I hate to give too much away in wrestling, but Ric, he likes to do what’s called walking and talking. There isn’t a lot that’s planned. But I can foresee how a lot of the moves will go. The only thing I can’t foresee is how much he will bleed, is it controllable? Was it too much? It was out of our hands.”
Jarrett was emotional after the match, saying it was “overwhelming.”
“It’s his last one,” said the 55-year-old Jarrett, a WWE Hall of Famer who works as an executive in WWE. “If anything goes wrong, it’s on me. It’s on others. I’m so damn happy for Ric, I don’t know what to say. … As a spectator, y’all watched it and went home tonight. When you’re participating, it’s a whole other level of pressure that I’ve never been under.”
A bloody Flair was helped up the ramp to the back by Andrade. Lethal, who had been an enemy in storyline, came out, and he and Flair fell into a long embrace. Flair had been incredibly appreciative — and trusting — of Lethal to get him ring-ready for his final match.
“I said, ‘I f—ing love you, you’re the f—ing man, I’m trying to be like you when I grow up, because you’re f—ing great. You’re the greatest wrestler in the f—ing world’,” Lethal said. “He starts crying and says, ‘Thank you. Thank you so much.'”
Over 50% of World’s Population Is Likely Affected by This Health Disorder Every Year
For some, a headache means you may need to pop an aspirin. But many among us are affected by more persistent and serious head pain; a new study has now estimated the extent of this disorder worldwide, and the data are staggering.
A team led by epidemiologists from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology summarized epidemiological headache studies from 1961 to the end of 2020; the data included general headaches, migraines, and tension-type headaches, revealing that 52 percent of us suffer from some form of headache disorder each year.
The 357 publications reviewed mostly came from high-income countries. The team included studies that sampled participants not just from clinical studies, but from a broad range of settings including company employees, university students, and hospital staff.
Taken together, the authors estimate that global prevalence for migraines is 14 percent, and 26 percent for tension-type headaches.
“Each day, 15.8 percent of the world’s population had headache,” the authors grimly point out.
Researchers also found that all types of headaches were more common in females than in males, with migraines showing the largest difference (17 percent in females and 8.6 percent in males). Women were also more likely to report their headaches as an ongoing health issue, with 6 percent of females reporting they had a headache on 15 or more days per month, compared to 2.9 percent in males.
Many of the studies analyzed made their own estimates of global headache prevalence, but these tended to vary widely.
Modeling showed that 6 percent of the variation in migraine estimates could be explained by the different years the studies were published, with prevalence estimates increasing with more recent publications. However, there was no relationship between the publication date and other headache types.
While it appears that migraine is increasing, the team notes that’s not the only possible explanation.
“The apparent increase in migraine prevalence over time may be real, perhaps related to environmental, physical, behavioral or psychological changes, but more probably it has to do with methodological developments over the years, leading to better techniques of access and engagement and improved diagnostic instruments,” say the authors.
When the authors took into account methodological factors such as screening questions, sample size, publication year, and how diagnostic criteria were applied, they could explain 29.9 percent of the variation in migraine estimates, and less for other headache categories.
Due to most of the studies reviewed coming from high-income countries with good healthcare systems, the authors caution against generalizing these findings to every country. If more data could be gathered from middle and low-income countries, we would get a more accurate global estimate.
While there remains some uncertainty as to the exact figures of headache prevalence globally, the review, along with other research, consistently demonstrates that headache conditions create a huge burden worldwide.
The 2019 iteration of the Global Burden of Disease study found that migraine alone was the second highest cause of disability, and first among women under 50 years of age, highlighting headache disorders as a major public health concern globally.
“We found that the prevalence of headache disorders remains high worldwide and the burden of different types may impact many. We should endeavor to reduce this burden through prevention and better treatment,” says neurologist Lars Jacob Stovner, from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
“To measure the effect of such efforts, we must be able to monitor prevalence and burden in societies. Our study helps us understand how to improve our methods.”
The study was published in The Journal of Headache and Pain.
We Finally Have a Genetic Link Between Ovarian Cancer And This Common Disorder
Scientists have found a genetic link and a potentially causal relationship between endometriosis and some types of ovarian cancer.
The absolute risk of an endometriosis patient developing cancer is still very low, but these overlapping genetic markers could help researchers understand and treat both illnesses better in the future.
“We don’t want women with endometriosis to worry, but rather we want them to be aware and know that the purpose of this study was to increase our understanding of both of these diseases by understanding the genetic link between them,” explains molecular bioscientist Sally Mortlock, from the University of Queensland, Australia.
Endometriosis is a highly common and notoriously underdiagnosed condition. It occurs when cells similar to the lining of the uterus grow elsewhere in the body, sometimes causing pain or infertility.
Similar to other female pain conditions, endometriosis, or ‘endo’ for short, has been historically overlooked by medicine, and thanks to that setback, today, we still know very little about it, including how it’s caused.
Recent research suggests endo holds a strong genetic component, often clustering in families. Epidemiological studies have also shown those with endo are more likely to develop ovarian cancers later in life.
To further investigate the relationship between these two conditions, researchers in Australia gathered together data from several genome-wide association studies.
In the end, they found 19 genetic locations in female DNA that appear to predispose people to endo while also predisposing them to epithelial ovarian cancer (which is the kind that develops in the lining outside the ovary).
“Overall, studies have estimated that 1 in 76 women are at risk of developing ovarian cancer in their lifetime, and having endometriosis increases this slightly to 1 in 55,” says Mortlock.
We still don’t know how to predict which endo patients are more likely to develop ovarian cancers, but Mortlock’s recent research gives us a few clues.
The study used genomic data from several large and recent meta-analyses on endometriosis and epithelial ovarian cancer. Unlike previous studies, however, the authors were able to causally associate the genetic components of endometriosis with some types of ovarian cancer.
In simple terms, this means researchers found the genes responsible for endometriosis were driving the development of tissue that increase the risk of developing ovarian cancer, but not the other way around.
This directionality suggests that endometriosis and epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) are biologically related, and that “a genetic variant’s effect on endometriosis is likely to cause its effect on EOC for the variants highlighted in this study”, according to the authors.
The genetic regions shared by endometriosis and EOC could help experts figure out what mechanisms are driving this causal relationship and what biological pathways might contribute to the risk.
Such research could provide potential drug targets and treatment options for both illnesses, halting their progression.
In the current study, for instance, some shared genetic variants were found in regions known to host hormone-responsive genes.
This suggests hormone regulation might help block the causal pathway between endometriosis and a type of EOC known as clear cell ovarian cancer (CCOC), which is associated with abnormal tissue growth outside the uterus.
The authors also note that cell adhesion pathways were “significantly enriched” for some genetic variations shared between endo and CCOC. This suggests the ability of endometriosis lesions to adhere to tissue might be an important part of disease development for both illnesses.
Endometrioid ovarian cancer (ENOC) was also similarly associated with endometriosis, and, to a lesser extent, high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), which is one of the deadliest human cancers with few predictive biomarkers.
Some of the genetic markers for endo and EOC identified in the current study are also shared with other reproductive diseases, like polycystic ovary syndrome and uterine fibroids.
The authors, therefore, suspect the “perturbation of underlying pathways important for the development and regulation of the reproductive and endocrine systems may predispose women to a variety of diseases”, depending on their genetic and environmental risk factors.
Endometriosis itself is not cancerous, but over the years, researchers have compared the way endometrial lesions metastasize, spread, invade and damage tissue to that of cancerous cells.
Some case studies have even shown that on very rare occasions, endometrial lesions can transform into malignant tissue.
There are still so many avenues to explore when it comes to understanding endometriosis, but genetic studies like these can help experts whittle down the numerous options in front of them, pushing future research in the right direction.
The study was published in Cell Reports Medicine.
Birds Use Earth’s Magnetic Field For ‘Stop Signs’ When They Migrate
Thanks to a combination of sensing the Earth’s magnetic field through vision and an in-built compass that allows them to orient themselves according to magnetic intensity, migratory birds don’t have much trouble finding their way.
Those biological gadgets, known as magnetoreception, allow birds to not only know which direction to head in on their first outbound migration but to know how to return to their nesting sites with extreme accuracy, often within meters of their original natal site.
To figure out how birds know when to stop, scientists investigated if birds may also be using cues from Earth’s magnetic field to locate their breeding sites more accurately.
The cues could be the magnetic inclination – the dip angle between Earth’s magnetic field and Earth’s surface – or the magnetic intensity, the overall strength of Earth’s magnetic field.
Earlier research suggested similar ideas as a means for birds to return to their desired flight paths if an extreme weather event had sent them off course.
The new study used data from 17,799 ringing recoveries (marked birds) from 1940 to 2018 to investigate if and how the Eurasian reed warbler (Acrocephalus scirpaceus), a trans-Saharan migratory songbird, used magnetic information to return to its nesting site.
If these birds actually use cues from Earth’s magnetic field to locate their original breeding site, then the researchers reason that yearly variations in Earth’s magnetic field should be reflected in gradual positional changes of the bird’s nesting areas.
“Because Earth’s magnetic field shifts slightly year by year, the magnetic parameter values characteristic of an individual’s natal or breeding site will exist in a different location the following year,” the authors explain.
“Hence, if birds used magnetic parameters to determine the location of their natal or breeding site, we would expect that positional changes between years would reflect year-on-year changes in the location of specific magnetic parameters.”
Findings from the study point to magnetic inclination as the primary magnetic cue for the birds when relocating their breeding site, with specific inclination parameters signaling as a sort of ‘stop sign’.
The authors suggest that the birds ‘learn’ the inclination angle before departing their breeding sites.
“We hypothesize that this is consistent with inclination acting as a uni-coordinate stop sign: Birds could recall their natal or breeding location using only one coordinate dimension, if used alongside a compass bearing linking the wintering and breeding sites,” state the authors.
Using magnetic inclination as the primary cue for relocating their breeding site makes sense, according to the authors, because it has the most stable year-on-year variation compared to other potential magnetic cues. It provides migratory birds with a more reliable sign that they have reached a desirable location.
“Additionally, other magnetic gradient–derived positions move further with secular variation, which makes the proposed mechanism relatively robust. The position of the natal site as estimated using inclination and declination as a bicoordinate map would move, on average, 18.5 km (11.5 miles) between years; as estimated using intensity and declination, 20.4 km; and as estimated using intensity and inclination, 98.2 km,” state the authors.
“By contrast, the location of the breeding site denoted using inclination as a stop sign moves only 1.22 km between years. We suggest that, by remembering breeding location relative to the most stable cue and referencing it alongside a compass bearing, the proposed strategy minimizes the impact of secular variation.”
In fact, scientists found that birds recovered for use in the study closer to the site predicted by the inclination stop sign model than they were to their natal or breeding site, suggesting the birds may even prioritize the bio coordinate clues of magnetic inclination over even their breeding site.
Overall, it appears that by harnessing a number of biological mechanisms related to the parameters determined by Earth’s magnetic field, migratory birds are able to successfully navigate and find the crucial environments needed for their continued survival.
The research was published in the journal Science.
Something in Your Eyes May Reveal if You’re at Risk of Early Death, Study Shows
A quick and pain-free scan of the human eyeball could one day help doctors identify ‘fast agers’, who are at greater risk of early mortality.
Getting older obviously has an impact on everybody’s body, but just because two people have the same number of years under their belt doesn’t mean they are physically declining at the same rate.
Looking deep into a person’s eyes could be a far better way to measure their true biological age, and this could provide a glimpse into the future health of patients.
A machine learning model has now been taught to predict a person’s years of life simply by looking at their retina, which is the tissue at the back of the eye.
The algorithm is so accurate, it could predict the age of nearly 47,000 middle-aged and elderly adults in the United Kingdom within a bracket of 3.5 years.
Just over a decade after these retinas were scanned, 1,871 individuals had died, and those who had older-looking retinas were more likely to fall in this group.
For instance, if the algorithm predicted a person’s retina was a year older than their actual age, their risk of death from any cause in the next 11 years went up by 2 percent. At the same time, their risk of death from a cause other than cardiovascular disease or cancer went up by 3 percent.
The findings are purely observational, which means we still don’t know what is driving this relationship at a biological level.
Nevertheless, the results support growing evidence that the retina is highly sensitive to the damages of aging. Because this visible tissue hosts both blood vessels and nerves, it could tell us important information about an individual’s vascular and brain health.
Previous studies have suggested the cells at the back of the human eye can help us predict the onset of cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, and other signs of aging. But this is the first study to present the ‘retinal age gap’ as a strong predictor of mortality as a whole.
“The significant association between retinal age gap and non-cardiovascular/non-cancer mortality, together with the growing evidence of the link between eye and brain, may support the notion that the retina is the ‘window’ of neurological diseases,” the authors write.
Because only 20 people in the study died due to dementia, the authors were unable to link this specific brain disorder to retinal health.
They also point out that cardiovascular-related deaths have gone down in recent years, as medicine continues to prevent what would once have been fatal events.
This means that retinal health could still be an important lens into cardiovascular health, despite the fact that it was not linked to cardiovascular mortality.
Previous studies, for instance, have shown photographs of the retina can help predict cardiovascular risk factors.
“This body of work supports the hypothesis that the retina plays an important role in the aging process and is sensitive to the cumulative damages of aging which increase the mortality risk,” the authors conclude.
Other existing predictors of biological age, like neuroimaging, the DNA methylation clock, and the transcriptome aging clock, are not as accurate as the retinal age gap appears to be. These methods can also be costly, time-consuming and invasive.
The retina, meanwhile, can be easily scanned in less than 5 minutes. If we can learn more about how this layer of tissue is connected to the rest of the body, clinicians could have an excellent new tool on their hands.
The study was published in the British Journal of Ophthalmology.
Could cannabis prevent COVID? To the authors of a new study, it sure looks like it
A groundbreaking new study published this week identified what could be an unexpected tool in the world’s fight against COVID-19: cannabis.
Yes, you read that right.
According to a peer-reviewed paper published this week in the Journal of Natural Products, titled “Cannabinoids Block Cellular Entry of SARS-CoV-2 and the Emerging Variants,” at least three compounds naturally occurring in the cannabis plant were shown in lab tests to be effective at stopping coronavirus molecules from entering human cells. The mechanism effectively mimics the activity of antibodies, with the cannabis compounds attaching themselves to the virus’ spike protein, one of the authors told Salon. The study concludes:
With widespread use of cannabinoids, resistant variants could still arise, but the combination of vaccination and CBDA/CBGA treatment should create a more challenging environment with which SARS-CoV-2 must contend, reducing the likelihood of escape.
In case any of that is confusing, the authors also included in the paper a handy illustration of the phenomenon:
An illustration showing how cannabinoids can block the entry of SARS-CoV-2 from human cells. (Courtesy the Journal of Natural Products)
The findings have gone viral, so to speak, trending on Twitter and inspiring much speculation online under the hashtag “#WeedPreventsCOVID.” But don’t reach for that joint just yet — the compounds, CBD-A, CBG-A, and THC-A, are non-psychoactive and degrade at high temperatures, which makes smoking or baking less-than-ideal ways to consume them. Pills or gummies are better, not to mention concentrates that have been designed to maximize the content of these specific substances.
Beyond that, the entire premise must undergo a series of clinical trials before researchers will say for sure whether it works in real life the way it does in the controlled conditions of a lab. Still, Dr. Richard van Breemen, one of the study’s authors and a professor of medicinal chemistry at Oregon State University, says the results are “incredibly promising.”
“This is by far the biggest response to a study that I’ve encountered in my career,” Dr. Van Breemen told Salon.
“A number of hemp dietary supplements containing these compounds are available over-the-counter all over the country,” he added, meaning if the findings were carried over into successful clinical trials, the preventative treatment would immediately be accessible by millions of Americans.
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The entire project was a collaboration between the Linus Pauling Institute and the Global Hemp Innovation Center, both headquartered at Oregon State University, which picked up research into the commercial and pharmaceutical applications of hemp several years ago after the USDA gave academic institutions the greenlight to resume research into hemp following a decades-long moratorium. The paper’s seven authors are all faculty members at either OSU or Oregon Health & Science University.
Researchers set out with the intention of testing a number of botanical extracts that they thought might bind with the spike protein of the SARS-COV-2 virus, which causes COVID-19. Dr. Van Breemen said they went through “dozens” of substances before discovering cannabis worked.
Another compound, this one found in licorice, was also found to reliably bind to the SARS-COV-2 virus — but more research is needed to determine if it will produce the same antiviral activity as the compounds found in cannabis.
So what does all of this mean for the average person?
Simply put — it’s still too early to tell. But people are unlikely to experience any of the viral protection benefits from ingesting cannabis in a way that will also get them high. Because of the current research restrictions on THC-A (and its connection to the psychoactive compound THC), it will be effectively impossible to continue research into proper application methods for that compound.
Meanwhile, CBD-A and CBG-A are both acids that break down into CBD through the application of heat — a process called “decarboxylation.” That same heating process is responsible for the psychoactive qualities found in marijuana.
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While it’s still entirely unclear what dosage level may prove clinically viable, most all over-the-counter hemp supplements have to list their CBD-A and CBG-A content, which will at least make information about a given product’s efficacy easy to determine.
The other good news? It appears that testing suggests the cannabis compounds are effective against all known variants of COVID-19.
“Our data show minimal impact of the variant lineages on the effectiveness of CBDA and CBGA, a trend that will hopefully extends to other existing and future variants,” the authors write in the study.