Obesity as an epidemic on social networks

A while ago --- maybe something like 1.5 years ago --- I read and provided comments on a preprint by one of my (now-)coauthors James Fowler concerning obesity as an epidemic that spreads on social networks.

Well, the published version of the paper came out last week, and it's been getting a ridiculous amount of press. (Just go to news.google.com and type in "James Fowler" and you'll see.) Articles have appeared in numerous countries as well as in prominent venues like USA Today and the New York Times (in a front-page article that was the second-most e-mailed article in the whole paper at some point!).

Earlier today, James mentioned that he just got off the phone with people from The Daily Show, as they apparently might be interviewing him.

When I was in the waiting room for my visa, I heard people on CNN Headline News discussing epidemic spread of obesity via social networks and was wondering if they were discussion Fowler's article. I hadn't know at the time that the article was just published, so I guess they were talking about them. The people discussing this couldn't get over the fact that things like obesity might spread via social pressures (either explicit or implicit). Of course, that insight itself brought the response of 'duh' from me, because there are entire fields founded on that very principle!