2024-09-18
8 分钟The Economist Hello, this is Alok Jha,
host of Babbage, our weekly podcast on science and technology.
Welcome to Editor's Picks.
We've chosen an unmissable article from the latest edition of The Economist.
Please do have a listen.
In a talk she gave in 2016, Katie Hind,
a biologist from Arizona State University,
lamented how little scientific attention was commanded by breast milk.
Up until that point, she said both wine and tomatoes had been far more heavily studied.
Eight years on, alas, that remains true.
What is also true, and this was the serious point of Dr Hines' talk,
is that scientists have been neglecting a gold mine.
Unlike wine or tomatoes,
breast milk's physiological properties have been honed by evolution to be healthy.
In babies, it can reduce inflammation,
kill pathogens and improve the health of the immune system.
As a result,
some components of breast milk are now being studied as potential treatment for a host of adult conditions,
including cancer, heart disease, arthritis and irritable bowel syndrome or IBS.
Scientists may never look at breast milk in the same way again.