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SCIENCE EDUCATION:
The Science of Fat
by Jennifer Boeth Donovan
(L) Ronald M. Evans and (R) Jeffrey R. Friedman
THE TYPICAL AMERICAN consumes nearly a million calories a year, yet weight generally fluctuates very little. The body has mechanisms that track and carefully balance food intake and energy output. That’s what makes dieting so difficult.
The science behind obesity came alive for hundreds of high schoolers late last year when two experts delivered a series of engaging lectures on the subject at HHMI headquarters. HHMI’s 2004 Holiday Lectures on Science, titled The Science of Fat, featured HHMI investigators Ronald M. Evans, from the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, and Jeffrey M. Friedman, from the Rockefeller University. Over two days in early December, a live audience shared their lectures with viewers around the world via live Web simulcast.
Now, the complete lecture series—along with a rich collection of animations, interviews, and other special features—is available from HHMI on a free DVD. The three-DVD set can be ordered online at www.hhmi.org. 
Photos: ©Paul Fetters
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Studying mice that are massively obese, Jeffrey Friedman and his colleagues identified the gene for leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells. Leptin—named after the Greek word for “thin”—feeds into the circuit of neurons in the brain that controls eating and energy expenditure.
Ronald Evans is an expert on a family of proteins called PPARs (for peroxisome proliferator activator receptors), which control how the body uses sugar and fat. One member of this family, PPAR-γ, acts as a master switch that drives the formation of fat cells and regulates the storage of fat.
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