Leptin and Leapt out

I was incredulous when reading the front page of METRO this morning. Allegedly tests on rats have shown that a supplement containing the hormone, leptin, suppresses appetite and has been shown to have positive effects on obesity in rats - even when subjected to a high-fat diet.

Supposedly treating unborn children by administering this supplement in the womb could be beneficial to humans.

I had to check that this wasn't a spoof story. Quite apart from interference with the nature of childbirth, on the basis of tests on vermin, I find it incredible that generally bad diet and lack of exercise, let alone the wider problem of family fragmentation and lack of cohesive education on parenting, could somehow be 'solved' by a pill. It absolves everyone of responsibility for obesity apart from drug companies. It seems that the health lobby have desperately sought to do the English thing and find a single cause to a multifaceted problem. If it isn't advertising - and I firmly believe it isn't - it must be some sort of natural urge that should be suppressed.

I don't doubt that this could become part of a package of treatment but implants in the womb suggest a 'killing at birt' strategy.

Barbie

I was reading today that there were more Barbie dolls in the U.S. than there are people.

Does this mean that Ken has been especially active or that the U.S. alpha male is just playing at being virile?

Sowing seeds

When looking out across the Fens yesterday there was a procession of tractors, moving slowly and deliberately across the black soil. The first tractor ploughed, the second dropped seeds from a large tray and the third flattened everything down again. These silent creators could be seen as far as the flat horizon.

Today I observed a procession of pigeons, moving slowly and deliberately across the black soil. The first attacked the soil with its beak, the second attacked the first pigeon with its beak and the third calmed everything down by eating surface seeds and attracting both their attentions.