On the Record

“We tend to eat a lot of fried foods...most restaurants don't have healthy choices.”

West Virginian Rudy Philips tells The New York Times why the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has launched its first-ever investigation into an ‘outbreak of obesity’ in his state.

“I'm sure skinny people go to those same restaurants.”

Daniel McGee, a statistician at Florida State University, finds Philips's explanation unpalatable.

Scorecard

No jacket required

Japan is rolling up its sleeves to hit its emissions targets. The government is asking businessmen to throw off their sharp suits and go for that cool, casual look to cut the use of air conditioning.

Culture club

Egged on by recent cloning success, South Korea is planning a world stem-cell bank. And with current rates of interest, the growth potential is enormous.

Dope show

Citing a possible link between homegrown cannabis and the global drugs market, the US Supreme Court has made medical marijuana illegal, prompting some to ask whether it has truly lost the pot.

Overhyped

Life on Mars

When methane was found in Mars's atmosphere last year, the media (and many scientists) seized on the idea that it was a whiff of life from martian bacteria. As estimates of the gas grew, so did column inches on the hopes of finding microbes.

But the real source may be far more mundane: chemistry. Geologists have calculated that given a supply of water and carbonates, just 80,000 tonnes of the mineral olivine would be enough to generate a year's worth of methane. Another paper reports a Cuba-sized olivine field on Mars's surface, and suggests there may be more beneath. Could the prospects for life be stone dead?