The Future of Fat: As Obesity Grows to Epidemic Proportions, Researchers Are Trying to Halt the Trend.

At first, Ahmed El-Sohemy was puzzled by his data-they were the complete opposite of what they should have been. It was supposed to be a straightforward study of cholesterol metabolism in rats and merely replicate the protocol from another, previously published study. El-Sohemy initially assumed the discrepancy had something to do with the rat chow; but, no, he had fed the rats the very same high-cholesterol feed as in the previous study, and the blood levels of cholesterol reflected that. Had he skipped a step? Taken the wrong measurement? He leafed through his lab notes, but, again, no, he had followed the previous study precisely.