Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2025 October 21
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October 21
[edit]Abacavirhydrochlorid
[edit]Is this the same thing as Abacavir? Trade (talk) 03:38, 21 October 2025 (UTC)
- It's the hydrochloride salt of it (written in a German-like way). The salt has higher water solubility and probably better storage properties, but it's the same active component. DMacks (talk) 04:21, 21 October 2025 (UTC)
- Entries for abacavir hydrochloride:
- ‑‑Lambiam 07:31, 21 October 2025 (UTC)
JFK life expectancy
[edit]Given his various health problems, what would have been John F. Kennedy's life expectancy in late 1963, had he not been assassinated? Remember that this is a reference desk, not a speculation desk; I'm looking for projections by scholars and medical professionals, not your own opinions. Google search results are overwhelmed by social media posts; if there's anything out there, I missed it. Nyttend (talk) 20:18, 21 October 2025 (UTC)
- I'm getting some promising results from a Google Books search. Unfortunately from the snippet views I can't tell if they're saying Addison's would cut 10 years off his life expectancy, or that he had only 10 years left. This might require a trip to the library. Abductive (reasoning) 10:28, 22 October 2025 (UTC)
- I'm able to read more than you — perhaps Google is set up to permit additional access to Australian IP addresses, for some reason? — and can tell that the results are less helpful than they seem from snippet :-( For example, when The final chapter on the assassination of John F. Kennedy says "realized that his life expectancy and his political career might not be long", it's talking about LBJ, and when Amending America says "repeated speculation about his health and his life expectancy", it's referring to Eisenhower. (The latter book examines the history of Amendment XXV, talking about sudden presidential death as a basis for replacing the VP.) Thanks for the good search string! Nyttend (talk) 18:22, 22 October 2025 (UTC)
- At least one author imagines that JFK's health issues would not have diminished his life expectancy:[3]
- "Had he not been assassinated, Kennedy would have turned 90 in the spring of 2007".
- Such an optimistic expectation was shared by "we" in 1994 (unless "we" imagined that the office of the President can be held by a deceased individual):[4]
- "But whenever we think of him we have the odd sensation that if he had not been killed he would still be president."
- The authors of these passages may not be scholars or medical professionals, though.
- While life expectancy is a single number, there is a huge spread in the actual remaining years of life among a homogeneous population of middle-aged individuals with very similar medical histories. Had the killer missed their shots on that day in Dallas in 1963, JFK might have died of a heart attack in 1964, but he might also have lived on to an old age, so even the best researched single number will not be that informative. ‑‑Lambiam 08:22, 23 October 2025 (UTC)
- Just to make things less clear, I note that our own article on Addison's seems conflicted. The prognosis section starts with "Outcomes are typically good when treated. Most people can expect to live relatively normal lives." (with no references) and then switches to sufferers having double the mortality rate (and quadruple the rate when combined with diabetes). So, we're somewhere between "live long and prosper" and "don't start any long books". Matt Deres (talk) 20:32, 23 October 2025 (UTC)
- Google AI tells me "For a 46-year-old man in 1963, the life expectancy was approximately 27.6 more years, meaning he could expect to live until about 73.6 years of age. This figure is derived from historical actuarial data published by the U.S. Social Security Administration." This obviously doesn't account for any personal factors but, IMO, those can't really be given numbers without speculation. I wasn't able to track down the actual table with those numbers but, extrapolating from tables like Table 7 and Table 11, it's in the right ball park. Eluchil404 (talk) 00:03, 24 October 2025 (UTC)