In the common (albeit misleading) terminology, no industrial revolution could have taken place without the preceding agricultural revolution. This labor push factor was potentiated by the effect of the already noted Engel’s law: reduced share of spending on food can be used to buy more manufactured products. Second, new opportunities in industrial

Average fertilities of 7 to 8 children per lifetime should be thus taken as representative maxima for entire populations,

Given the history of rising agricultural and manufacturing productivities, it was inevitable that most people in modern societies will end up doing something other than growing food and making things.

that dietary and behavioral intervention (reducing intake of total energy and sweetened drinks in particular, exercising more) in individuals with prediabetes can reduce the disease’s onset by 30–60%

Only after Watt’s

1776 patent had expired did it become possible to develop new high-pressure designs suitable for mobile applications

Abandonment of traditional (low-fat, complex carbohydrates) diets in favor of high-energy, high-sugar diets that include more processed foods are, together with more sedentary lifestyles, leading nongenetic contributors to the rising prevalence of type 2 diabetes

the size of the population residing in the country’s nth largest city is equal to 1/n of the largest city’s total, corresponding to a power law with a coefficient of –1

healthy life expectancy defined as the average number of years that a person can expect to live in “full health”: