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More Stories:
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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STEM CELLS
Taken from embryos only days old, stem cells are nature's blank slates, capable of developing into any one of the more than 200 cell types found in the human body. Scientists hope these cells may someday be used to treat a range of degenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and diabetes. But using human embryos for research poses ethical problems, and until last year federal funding for such work was blocked. After much soul searching, President Bush decided last summer to allow federal grants for research that used only the 60 or so stem-cell lines that have already been established. Some scientists fear those 60 lines will not be adequate. Meanwhile, other scientists are making headway in turning adult cells into functional equivalents of embryonic stem cells, which, if successful, would neatly sidestep the controversy.
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SMALLPOX
Just two decades after it was declared gone for good, this deadly scourge is back — in our fears if not in fact. Anthrax was bad enough, but smallpox in the hands of terrorists could make a far more devastating bioweapon. There is no effective treatment for the disease, and because routine vaccination was halted in 1972, even a single case could spread like wildfire. Officially, the only remaining sources of the virus are small quantities kept at two secure labs in the U.S. and Russia. Experts believe, however, that Iraq, North Korea and Russia may have secretly pursued weapons research that involved smallpox. Erring on the side of caution, the White House has ordered 300 million doses of the vaccine, enough for every man, woman and child in the U.S.
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SECONDHAND SMOKE
Banishing smokers from offices, restaurants, malls and airplanes has been a big success — for nonsmokers anyway. The Centers for Disease Control reports that the levels of toxic chemicals produced in nonsmokers' blood by secondhand smoke have plunged more than 75% since they were last measured 10 years ago. That's great news, considering that secondhand smoke is blamed for thousands of cancer and heart-disease deaths each year.
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