Popular Science - USA (2020 - Spring)

The T206 Honus Wagner baseball card

is the ultimate find for collectors. It was

part of a limited-edition series issued in

tobacco packs between 1909 and 1911.

Production of Wagner’s T206 report-

edly stopped early, so it’s the rarest of

the bunch. There are somewhere

between 50 and 75 of them in the

world— depending on who you ask—

and 33 have come through our com-

pany for authentication and grading.

When a card arrives at our office, we

first make sure it’s real, then assess its

condition on a scale of 1 to 10. Because

copies have sold for millions at auction,

the Wagner used to be a popular tar-

get for forgeries. These are easy to

spot: Up close, modern printing pat-

terns look much different than the old

methods. It also helps to have in-depth

knowledge on what the collectible

should look like. For example, a 1948

not an experienced grader,

per, minuscule dents produce tiny

shadows. We also measure the center-

ing of the printing. Companies always

cut individual pieces from larger sheets.

So with older print runs, the closer to

the edge a card was, the more likely the

factory would cut it crooked. Those that

are centered properly will grade higher

than skewed ones. So far, we haven’t

seen a perfect-10 T206 Wagner—but

one did manage a near-mint 8.

TALESFROM THE

A few years ago, my workplace

had a competition where we

all got fitness tr ackers, formed teams,

and raced to accumulate the most

overall steps. Many people were

taken aback when they found they

weren’t easily reaching the coveted

10,000 strides—a number most well-

ness apps promote as a standard for

good, even optimal, health. I have

studied the role that physical activity

plays in preventing disease for a long

time, and it made me wonder: Where

did that number come from?

It turns out that in 1965, a Japanese

company called Yamasa Clock cre-

ated a personal-fitness pedometer

called the Manpo- kei, which means

“10,000 steps meter.” The Japanese

character for 10,000 looks almost like

a person walking or running, which is

likely how the gadget-maker landed

on the name—and the number. It’s

also an easy goal to remember, espe-

cially when accompanied by a sketch

of a person who’s literally walking.

But that benchmark wasn’t based

on any scientific evidence. Even to-

day, few studies have looked at the

connection between steps taken and

overall health. After my work competi-

tion, I decided to do my own research.

I found that in older women, half that

number of footfalls—4,400—still low-

ered their risk of death, and that the

benefit tapered off at around 7,500.

There’s still more work to do with dif-

ferent age groups, but it’s safe to say

that 10,000 is no magic number.

104

don’t fret about

10,000 steps

as

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I-MIN LEE, EPIDEMIOLOGIST
AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
authenticating
the grand slam of
baseball cards
JOE ORLANDO,PRESIDENT AND
CEO OF COLLECTOR’S UNIVERSE
SPRING 2020 / POPSCI.COM