Author Archives: colinmathers

One of the world’s highly cited researchers!

Posted on July 7, 2014 by colinmathers

My sister happened to notice that I was listed in the world’s 3,127 most highly cited researchers, based on publications in years 2002-2012. According to the website http://highlycited.com/ Highly Cited Researchers 2014 represents some of world’s leading scientific minds. Over … Continue reading →

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Calorie restriction and longer life in nematode worms

Posted on June 27, 2014 by colinmathers

A paper just published in PLoS Genetics has found that diet restriction suspends development in nematode worms, and doubles their lifespan. The study found that C. elegans could be starved for at least two weeks and still develop normally once … Continue reading →

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Longevity and telomere length

Posted on June 21, 2014 by colinmathers

Came across a New Scientist article last week about the findings from an examination of the blood and tissues of Hendrikje van Andel-Schipper after her death in 2005. Aged 115 at her death, she was at one point the oldest … Continue reading →

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How does the life expectancy of Australian men compare to others?

Posted on June 9, 2014 by colinmathers

I was asked by a journalist last week for statistics on trends in life expectancy of Australian men, and in particular, where Australia ranked in the world. So I pulled out our latest life expectancy estimates, published a couple of … Continue reading →

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Newborn survival: progress but still too many preventable deaths

Posted on June 2, 2014 by colinmathers

Every year, 2·9 million newborn babies die from largely preventable causes, and 2·6 million more are stillborn. The recent Lancet Every Newborn Series paints the clearest picture to date of a newborn’s chance of survival and the steps that must … Continue reading →

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Peak productivity?

Posted on May 25, 2014 by colinmathers

Its been a crazy couple of weeks leading up to the 2014 World Health Assembly (just ended). We were involved in the launch of four global reports with a substantial statistical input from us in a period of 8 days. … Continue reading →

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My Erdös number drops to 4, I doubt it will go lower.

Posted on May 22, 2014 by colinmathers

Chatting to colleagues at work the other day I boasted that my Erdös number had dropped to 5 (see previous post on this), and Dan asked what an Erdös number was. I explained, and he obviously went back to his … Continue reading →

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The world is living longer but still too many premature deaths

Posted on May 15, 2014 by colinmathers

Average global life expectancy has increased by 6 years from 1990 to 2013 and is now 73 years for females and 68 years for males. Our latest statistics report (www.who.int/gho) shows that low-income countries have made the greatest progress, with … Continue reading →

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Maternal mortality rates rising in the USA

Posted on May 13, 2014 by colinmathers

We released new estimates for maternal mortality rates last week. See post at https://colinmathers.com/2014/05/06/latest-estimates-for-global-maternal-mortality-show-accelerating-progress/ The big story is that faster progress is needed and most countries will not achieve the Millenium Development Goal for a 75% reduction between 1990 and … Continue reading →

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The world is getting smaller – my Erdös and Einstein numbers drop

Posted on May 8, 2014 by colinmathers

In an earlier post (https://colinmathers.com/2014/01/26/its-a-small-world-erdos-bacon-and-other-numbers/), I described author paths that gave me an Erdös number of 6 and an Einstein number of 7. The other day I came across a comment that Kenneth Arrow, Nobel Prize Laureate in economics in … Continue reading →

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