• Question: how many people have you tested?

    Asked by naiym to Simon on 19 Nov 2013.
    • Photo: Simon Langley-Evans

      Simon Langley-Evans answered on 19 Nov 2013:

      Over the years I have done many, many experiments. Some of them are on animals and some of them are on humans. When we do studies of humans we have to recruit a lot of subjects to take part because people are so different. A lab rat has been bred so that it is very similar genetically to other rats, and it is housed under controlled conditions. People differ hugely genetically and because we are ‘free living’ the differences in our lifestyle and habits can affect the results. Many studies use hundreds of thousands of people.

      The biggest studies I have done have involved up to 500 people. At the moment we are doing a study of weight gain in pregnant women, which has recruited about 200 women.

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