A warm welcome to Winter issue of The Endocrinologist, which covers the broad and important area of lipids and metabolism, including how they influence and intersect with endocrinological processes and how perturbation can lead to disease.

We have two articles on the controversial topic of ‘browning’ of white adipose tissue as a potential therapeutic target for obesity (see here and here), with differing opinions on its utility. Scientific discoveries require testing and debate. Reading these articles soon after this year’s Society for Endocrinology BES conference, I was reminded of the vitamin D debate between Martin Hewison and Naveed Sattar. This provided balanced arguments around the pros and cons of vitamin D supplementation for the population. To advance our understanding, it’s important to continue these debates as new data emerge, and to demand evidence and think critically in a measured and analytic way.

Outreach is also an increasingly important activity for us to engage in, and it was inspiring to see the cohorts of schoolchildren interacting with clinicians, nurses and scientists at SfE BES 2022 as they took part in the outreach activities. In this issue, Abigail Byford gives an insightful account of her public engagement journey, which has been enabled by being awarded a Society Public Engagement Grant, and the placenta-printing activities that she co-ordinated at the conference. 

With SfE BES 2022 still fresh in our minds, it’s hard to not be inspired by Philipp Scherer, recipient of the 2022 Transatlantic Medal. You can read our interview with him in this issue. His career has been a tour de force of adipocyte physiology, with the discovery of the adipocyte secretory factor adiponectin: a major milestone. Whilst not everyone will discover a new hormone in their scientific career, he rightly identifies that there are still plenty of problems to solve along the way!

I wish you a peaceful break over the holiday period.

Kim Jonas