On the Connection between Planets, Dark Matter and Cancer: Comment on 'Planetary Dependence of Melanoma'
| Autor: | Hector Socas-Navarro |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2019 |
| Předmět: |
Physics
0303 health sciences Melanoma Dark matter Biophysics Cancer Astronomy medicine.disease 01 natural sciences Melanoma skin cancer Connection (mathematics) 03 medical and health sciences Structural Biology Planet 0103 physical sciences medicine 010306 general physics Molecular Biology 030304 developmental biology |
| Zdroj: | Biophysical Reviews and Letters. 14:1-9 |
| ISSN: | 1793-7035 1793-0480 |
| Popis: | In a recent paper, Zioutas and Valachovic (2018) claim that dark matter is responsible for a significant fraction of the melanoma skin cancer. This conclusion is drawn from their observation of a significant correlation between skin melanoma incidence in the US and the inner planets positions (especially those of Mercury and Earth). Here, I present a number of objections to their interpretation. Some (but not all) of the counterarguments are based on the analysis of a larger dataset from the same source, considering more cancer types and separating by patient attributes, such as race. One of the counterarguments is that if the melanoma fluctuations with periods similar to planetary orbits were produced by dark matter density enhancements on Earth, then we would have to conclude that the black population is somehow immune to dark matter, a conclusion that seems incompatible with the current Weakly-Interacting Massive Particles (WIMP) paradigm. Interestingly, some periodicities are present in the data, including the ones reported by Zioutas and Valachovic, but I argue that they must have a societal rather than astronomical origin. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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