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When we eat, a series of chemical switches turns on, releasing bile, lowering blood sugar, and ramping up blood flow to the intestines. Fat stores are activated too, burning old calories to prep for the new ones in your meal. But now researchers have figured out how to hijack that process with a pill—no calories needed. Ronald Evans describes the finding this week in the journal Nature Medicine. So far, he and his colleagues have shown that the “imaginary meal” pill works in mice, helping them to shed extra weight. Can it do the same in humans? 


Diet Pill Mimics the Effects of Eating

Ryan Rykaczewski describes one of the most massive migrations on the planet, driven by the sun. Image by Tintinnidguy (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons 

#ExplainTheSun  - The Largest Migration on The Planet

Once, there was the ordinary incandescent light bulb. It shone brightly, but wasted much of the energy put into it as heat. Then came the compact fluorescent. And as costs have dropped, consumers have increasingly been switching to light-emitting diode (LED) technology for many lighting applications, in an ongoing search for a more efficient bulb. Now, in work published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, researchers report that nanophotonic devices may be able to breathe new life into old incandescent technology. Marin Soljačić and Ognjen Ilic, two authors of the study, explain how they’ve been able to “recycle” some of the incandescent bulb’s wasted heat and re-emit it as visible light, boosting efficiency.

For the Lowly Incandescent Bulb, a Ray of Hope

Science, technology, and other cool stuff from public radio's Science Friday. It's brain fun, for curious people. From WNYC Studios.

Diet Pill Mimics the Effects of Eating

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