Scared fish get lazy, and lazy fish get fat

Get the fat out!

Obesity is associated with increased risk of a number of cancers in humans, but the mechanism(s) responsible for these associations have not been established. It is estimated that 68% of adults are overweight or obese and that obesity may be causative in 4% to 7% of cancers in the United States. Several hypotheses have been put forward to explain the association between obesity and cancer inclu...

Lazy Learners at work : the Lazy Learning

Get Syk and get cycling

Overenthusiastic repair of damaged blood vessels could cause a fatal blockage. Sedding et al. (page 2801) report that the normal repair-restricting function of factor VII activating protease (FSAP) is disrupted by a common mutation. People carrying the mutation might thus be more at risk of vessel narrowing. Approximately 5% of the population carries an FSAP polymorphism linked to cardiovascula...

Get Happy, Get Rich

The world’s poor, whether they live in dangerous urban slums or in the remote countryside, are often in dire need of food, clean water, and basic medications. So it might appear misguided to argue that mental health should be a primary rather than secondary concern in developing countries. But the reality is that mental health is not just a First World problem: disorders such as depression are ...

Commentary: why don't plant leaves get fat?

Recent pressures to obtain energy from plant biomass have encouraged new metabolic engineering strategies that focus on accumulating lipids in vegetative tissues at the expense of lignin, cellulose and/or carbohydrates. There are at least three important factors that support this rationale. (i) Lipids are more reduced than carbohydrates and so they have more energy per unit of mass. (ii) Lipids...