Many girls think it’s normal to be fat

Washington A new study on girls’ attitudes toward weight and body image suggests anti-obesity programs focused solely on proper diet and exercise may not work for girls whose health goals come down to one thing: “appearing normal.”

Placing a higher premium on emotional health than on body weight, 88 percent of 11- to 17-year-old girls say feeling good about yourself is better than how you look, according to a Girl Scout Research Institute survey of 2,060 girls released Wednesday.

With the number of obese American children reaching 9 million, the study suggests girls in some instances consider being overweight to be normal. The survey found 45 percent of overweight girls didn’t realize they were overweight.

World’s smallest fish discovered in swamp

Bangkok, Thailand Scientists say they have discovered the world’s smallest known fish in threatened swampland in Indonesia.

The fish, a member of the carp family, has a translucent body and a head unprotected by a skeleton. Mature females grow to less than a third of an inch long.

The males have enlarged pelvic fins and muscles that may be used in reproduction, researchers wrote in a report published Wednesday by the Royal Society in London.

Single gene blamed for some Parkinson’s

Researchers said Wednesday they have identified a single genetic mutation that accounts for more than 20 percent of all cases of Parkinson’s disease in Arabs, North Africans and Jews, a big surprise for a major disease in which genetics was thought to play a relatively minor role.

Although the mutation is rare in people with ethnic roots outside the Middle East, its discovery raises the prospect that undiscovered mutations may be major causes of Parkinson’s in other groups.