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Can We Learn to Beat the Reaper?
Science has been winning battles against old age, but can it win the war?
Too Heavy, Too Young
Obesity is rapidly becoming the major health crisis of the next generation. What parents can do to help kids control their own weight
Walk Don't Run
It's simple, it's cheap, and studies show that walking may be the best exercise for reducing the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes
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CIPRO
Cipro was just another antibiotic used mostly for treating stubborn infections when it was catapulted to pharmaceutical stardom by the anthrax attacks. Cipro, it turned out, was the only antibiotic specifically approved by the FDA to treat anthrax, and suddenly it was the hottest drug in town. Doctors were besieged by patients demanding prescriptions "just in case," and pharmacies, particularly in New York, Washington and Florida, couldn't keep up. Other antibiotics, including doxycycline and that old standby penicillin, are just as effective against the particular strain that was showing up in tainted letters, and a few weeks later, when the CDC recommended that doctors switch to those, Cipro's days in the spotlight were over.
Related Story: Cipro, Drug of the Moment
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CLONING
Nobody cloned a human last year (at least so far as we know), but a Massachusetts biotech firm managed to create a stir nonetheless just by making a six-celled embryo from a human cell. The goal was to achieve what the company called therapeutic cloning, by which cells are coaxed into generating whatever replacement tissues or organs a patient might need. The House of Representatives, however, voted to ban all human-cloning research — including therapeutic cloning — out of concern that it might be the first step down a slippery slope to a world of Mini-Me's. The Senate put off debating the issue until later this year.
Related Story: One Step Too Far?
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C.T. SCANS
Computed tomography is an invaluable tool for doctors, giving them an inside view of the body that can help spot appendicitis as well as cancer, pneumonia and other dangerous diseases before they become untreatable. But young children, whose growing cells are still dividing rapidly, may be at higher risk of developing brain cancer when exposed to the radiation of C.T. scans, according to a new study. The risk is small, but it can be reduced even further if technicians lower the dose for kids.
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