“People who study diet and evolution have pointed out most of the high sugar–containing plants like sugarcane are tropical plants. So in northerly latitudes, you have to be more sensitive to sugar to find calories.”

Dennis Drayna, of US national deafness institute, explains his research showing that those with European relatives are more sensitive to sweet tastes (ScienceNOW).

“It’s astounding. At first, we couldn’t believe the numbers. I think it’s very worrisome.”

Michal Melamed, of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, comments on research showing that 7.6 million children and young people in the US are deficient in Vitamin D (Washington Post).

“Bad body odour will affect fellow colleagues in the narrow confines of a space shuttle.”

Shi Bing Bing, a doctor at the 454th Air Force Hospital in Nanjing, explains why one of the rules for would-be Chinese astronauts bans body odour. Others ban bad breath and scars, which “might burst and bleed when spaceships are accelerating” (BBC, Xinhua).