Copenhagen, Denmark
A tax on fat: Danes, traditionally big fans of pork and pastries, now have to pay a tax on those and many other favorite foods. The government last week launched a $1.29 per pound levy on saturated fat, which will apply to all foods with a fat content of more than 2.3 percent. The measure is expected to raise the price of a bag of chips by about 12 cents and that of a hamburger by about 40 cents. The government projects that the new tax will reduce fat consumption and increase the average lifespan of Danes by three years over the next decade. But Danes may not be easily swayed. Asked if he’d forgo butter, Copenhagen resident Mathias Buch Jensen said, “I would fry cabbage in butter, and add a little more butter at the end. That way at least I’m getting my vegetables.”
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Posthumous prize: The Nobel Foundation found itself in an “unprecedented” situation this week when it unknowingly awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine to a Canadian-born researcher who had died just days before. Although the rules state that “work by a person since deceased shall not be considered,” the foundation confirmed the award to Ralph Steinman, reasoning that he had been selected “in good faith.” Steinman, a professor at Rockefeller University in New York, was honored along with American Bruce Beutler and Luxembourg-born Jules Hoffmann for research on the body’s immune responses. Steinman’s wife, Claudia, said the week had brought her “a wave of incredible sadness and then a wave of incredible pride and excitement.”
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