# Spice must visualize

Repository: [https://github.com/zakhar-kogan/viz-spice-consumption](https://github.com/zakhar-kogan/viz-spice-consumption)

So, apparently, melange from Dune had increased the lifespan of its consumers. And I wanted to practice data gathering and visualization in Python…

![Melange (fictional drug) - Wikipedia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/2/2e/Melange%2BSnooper-Dune1984.png align="center")

Presumably, spice consumption should mitigate cancer rates and mortality. Couldn’t help but get some data. Let’s see what we have here…

Spice consumption seems to have a wee little bit of correlation with cancer rates, but this could be confounded by other factors:

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1735294257350/002302fb-0ddc-4900-94b2-5bc29c5fb76e.png align="center")

Further, higher spice consumption has no correlation with life expectancy:

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1735294141824/0700e1dc-62c2-414f-9e75-64474ef084b3.png align="center")

Yet another weird thing I’ve seen is a correlation between life expectancy and cancer rates:

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1735290872586/6180bece-997d-4a90-a43e-d126a6881830.png align="center")

Turns out [it’s a thing](https://www.perplexity.ai/search/life-expectancy-and-cancer-rat-7wN1LMhmSaurAnpQ6blc1A), and higher life expectancy is connected to, per-country:

* ⬆️ crude cancer rates
    
* ⬆️ colorectal, breast and prostate cancers
    
* ⬆️ survival rates
    

Considering the last one - there may be a two-way relationship, along with a couple of wild assumptions from my head:

* most top spice consuming countries are **not that** rich:
    

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1735294678382/929aa0b8-4389-42b4-8e41-8a8be6a2fcd5.png align="center")

* again, “spice-rich” countries don’t have the highest life expectancy ➡️ one may not survive until cancers start massively hitting the coffin <s>nails/bills/doors</s>
    
* higher life expectancy ➡️ higher GDP ➡️ more likely to have western diet and lifestyle ➡️ rectal/breast/prostate cancers (eating crap, sitting a lot, etc.)
    
* again, high GDP ➡️ higher healthcare spending ➡️ higher probability of better cancer therapies ➡️ higher survival rates
    

Another unsurprising correlation:

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1735462995817/e979caf0-59f8-4637-b2b0-1097bd342673.png align="center")

And, SURPRISINGLY, more money spent on health ➡️ less chance to die of cancer once one has it:

![](https://cdn.hashnode.com/res/hashnode/image/upload/v1735465247357/1fba5ef2-0616-4f6a-9a81-4ed8029e2f8e.png align="center")

Next in our “I forget to put up utility functions” series:

* scraping <s>(much wow)</s>
    
* using a workflow engine <s>(such magic)</s>, e.g. Windmill because I feel like it
    
* making a knowledge graph <s>(yipee, everyone already did that!)</s>
    
* using agents <s>(a bit later)</s>
    

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