The Checkup: A Super-Skinny Sarah Palin Is Writing a Fitness Book

I mean, of course she is.

• Former vice presidential candidate and reality-show star, Sarah Palin, is looking mighty thin these days. Photos snapped of her during a shopping trip surfaced over the weekend, and she can only be described as gaunt. And maybe a little leathery. She told People magazine not to worry, though, because she’s just fine; in fact, she’s better than fine—she’s writing a fitness book. In an email to People earlier this week, she wrote, “Our family is writing a book on fitness and self-discipline focusing on where we get our energy and balance as we still eat our beloved homemade comfort foods!” No word on whether she actually has a contract for said book, and when it might be finished.

• This is funny. Did you hear about the two geniuses who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine earlier this week for figuring out how to turn any cell in the body into stem cells? Well, one of them, British researcher John Gurdon, hasn’t always been top notch in science, turns out. When he attended Eton College, an elite boarding high school near Windsor, one of his science professors wrote in a report card that Gurdon’s pursuit of scientific endeavors would be a “waste of time” and that his work was less than satisfactory. Gurdon really showed him, eh? Check out a copy of the report card here.

• And in more serious news, researchers say they’ve developed a simple blood test that could screen newborns as young as two days old for hundreds of genetic disorders. It’s a much speedier and more accurate screening test than what’s currently available, which sometimes boils down to doctors making less-than-informed guesses (yikes). More here.