Today’s dose is only half fat — and half news on the fight against infectious disease.

— A group of retired US military officials says the latest generation of recruits is “Too Fat to Fight.” That’s the name of a new report by Mission: Readiness, which estimates 27% of young adults age 17-24 are ineligible to join because of medical reasons, mostly their weight, which keeps them from passing certain tests. Drop and give ’em 20, if you can, future soldiers. (CNN)

— Scientists at the American Association for Cancer Research meeting in Washington, DC say that both the daughters and granddaughters of rodents fed fatty diets have a greater risk of breast tumors. Even when their own mothers ate healthily, granddaughters of unhealthy rats had at least an 18% higher chance of developing the disease. (New Scientist)

— Eyjafjallajokull is not only causing travel headaches — it might potentially contribute to the spread of polio. A vaccine campaign for 85 million children in Central and Western Africa was slated to begin its second phase this Saturday, but 15 million doses are trapped at airports in France and Germany because of the volcano’s ash cloud. (Reuters)

— Here are a few partners you don’t normally see: Bill Gates and Ashton Kutcher; Colin Powell and Ryan Seacrest; Shaq and Gordon Brown’s wife, Sarah. Well, today those celebrities are part of a widespread Twitter campaign raising funds to purchase bednets against the spread of malaria. Click to follow the trending topics of #endmalaria and #worldmalariaday. (Reuters)

Image by Nevada Tumbleweed via Flickr Creative Commons