[flachsechs]

i'll go out on a limb and agree with you. it's not "obvious" that obesity is linked to cancer unless you view the world through hindsight-glasses. skinny athletic people get cancer too.

it wasn't even "obvious" for most of the 20th century cigarettes gave you cancer. people have short memories.

a contemporary example: is it "obvious" right now that sugar gives you cancer? because to a lot of people it is blindingly, astoundingly obvious, and to some that sounds like conspiracy theory nonsense.

i don't understand this aversion to doing "obvious" science -- we have to do science to make things obvious, not the other way around.