Half of adults too fat and getting fatter
More than half the adult British population is now overweight or obese and getting fatter, leading British doctors say today. In a third report on obesity drugs, the Royal College of Physicians says that in 1980 6 per cent of men and 8 per cent of women were classed as obese. Twenty years later obesity in adults has soared to 21 per cent in men and 21.4 per cent in women, with 55 per cent of the population either overweight or obese.
(Daily Telegraph)
Bread mould is almost as complex as humans
Researchers at the Whitehead Institute Centre for Genome Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, have worked out the genetic blueprint of Neurospora crassa - better known as bread mould. The mould's genes indicated it had a biological clock and could sense the time of day, react to blue and red light and was able to defend itself against invading viruses, a report in the journal Nature says.
(Independent)
Supermodel images drive girls to smoke
A study by Japanese researchers published in the medical journal Tobacco Control reveals that girls who are not bothered about their weight are less likely to take up smoking.
(Daily Mail)
Nobel winner Sir Bernard Katz dies
Sir Bernard Katz, died on Sunday, aged 92. He was one of three scientists awarded the 1970 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine for their separate work in unravelling how nerve messages are transmitted. Katz was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1952 and served as vice-president of the society in 1965 and again from 1968-76, when he was also biological secretary. He was knighted in 1969.
(Daily Telegraph)