Dermatologist Richard Weller wants to know: Why are Scots so
sick? Edinburgh-native Richard Weller was studying medicine in
Australia when something suddenly struck him as odd: Why are the
Scots so sick? Australians suffer from heart disease at one-
third the rate that Britons do, with lower death rates from
heart attacks and heart failure, and fewer strokes overall. When
Weller looked into it, this wasn't unique to Australia and
England: In fact, there are wide gaps in mortality even within
the UK, a gradient which maps roughly ... geographically? A
five-degree change in latitude -- between London and Edinburg,
for example -- shows a nearly 20 percent higher rate of
mortality. Weller and his team have been working ever since to
crack this mysterious gap, and most recently their research
shows it may be related to exposure to sunlight. Nitric oxide
(NO), a chemical transmitter produced by the skin and stored in
great reserves, is released by exposure to UV rays, and this in
turn is very important to cardiovasc