ILLUSTRATION FOR TIME BY MICHAEL KLEIN

SMALLPOX
The rise of terrorism and the anthrax attacks of 2001 have led to concern that this historic scourge, banished from the U.S. in 1949, could be reintroduced into the population. That's why the U.S. government has begun vaccinating military and health-care personnel and ordered up enough vaccine to inoculate the entire U.S. population if necessary. It's the first smallpox-vaccination program since routine shots were discontinued in the U.S. in 1972. Should you get a smallpox shot when it becomes widely available next year, assuming the threat is still merely theoretical? Things to consider before you line up for a shot: many of the college students who volunteered to test the new vaccine experienced fevers, chills and muscle aches severe enough to keep them from classes for a day. Those with weakened immune systems, such as AIDS patients and cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, as well as people with a history of eczema or other skin conditions probably shouldn't get vaccinated under any circumstances.

Related Sources:
White House (Dec. 13, 2002)

STEM CELLS
If 2001 was the year of the embryonic stem cell, 2002 was the adult stem cell's turn. When President Bush stopped government funding for the creation of new stem-cell lines from embryos, researchers turned their attention to the next best thing—stem cells extracted from adult sources like bone marrow. Exactly how useful these adult cells will be for therapeutic purposes is a matter of intense debate. A Minnesota scientist reported that she was able to coax bone-marrow stem cells to act like embryonic stem cells, which in theory can give rise to any of the 200 cell types in the body. Other scientists fear that the apparent breakthrough may have been the result of laboratory contamination: in order to get the marrow cells to develop into other cell types, they needed to be mixed with embryonic stem cells.

Related Sources:
Nature (Mar. 13, 2002)

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