The Lowdown on Brown Fat

A type of body fat that actually burns calories sounds counter-intuitive, but that’s what brown fat does. Babies and animals have it, and earlier this year we learned that adults have it too. Today the latest developments in brown fat will be released on the online version of the journal Nature. Researcher Bruce Speigleman and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have decoded the recipe for brown fat and concocted functional brown fat cells from both mouse and human stem cells. Joining us to discuss the research and the implications of this latest breakthrough is health reporter and special correspondent for The Takeaway, Rachel Gotbaum.