Another new study is linking obesity to something other than lack of exercise and proper diet.  This time, they analyzed the bacteria found in the digestive tract of obese mice and skinny mice, then in people as well.  Turns out that in both experiments, the obese parties had a significantly higher concentration of a particular strain of bacteria that are superefficient at extracting calories from food. 

Rather than using this as another excuse for why we are fat, hopefully, it'll lead to more research about how to control our weight.  Maybe by finding certain foods that are more difficult for this bacteria to process or in extreme cases, drug therapy.  For example, people are taking over-the-counter medications to increase their metabolism with detrimental effects, such as nervousness, hypertention, and in some cases, death.  Perhaps if there is a way to hit these microbes without hitting the others we can avoid the stress on our delicate systems.