A new drug prevents weight gain and fatty liver by controlling magnesium in cells. It made mice stay slim despite lifelong exposure to an unhealthy diet.

Van Leeuwen also cited the example of a group of chimpanzees at a zoo in the Netherlands in which one female started walking as if she were carrying a baby even though she wasn’t.
Soon, all of the females had adopted this walking style, he said. In addition, when two new females were brought into the group, the one that adopted the style swiftly was integrated quickly, whereas the one that refused to walk in the group style took longer to be accepted.
For Van Leeuwen, these behaviors are about fitting in and smoothing social relationships, just as with humans.
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Technical University of Vienna (TU Wien) have invented a new type of tunable semiconductor laser that combines the best attributes of today’s most advanced laser products, demonstrating smooth, reliable, wide-range wavelength tuning in a simple, chip-sized design.
Tunable lasers, or lasers whose light output wavelengths can be changed and controlled, are integral to many technologies, from high-speed telecommunications to medical diagnostics to safety inspections of gas pipelines.
Yet laser technology faces many trade-offs—for example, lasers that emit across a wide range of wavelengths, or colors, sacrifice the accuracy of each color. But lasers that can precisely tune to many colors get complicated and expensive because they commonly require moving parts.