Thin cut

The latest evidence that being slim can improve your health comes from the radiologists. They have managed to make a hole in a magnetic resonance imager into which a surgeon can slip, so that he can operate at the same time as the imaging is going on.

The problem is, the hole is so narrow that the technique can only be performed by the thinnest of surgeons, says Ian Isherwood, professor of diagnostic radiology. Perhaps surgeons should add their waist measurements to the string of letters after their names.