There are fads and fashions in what the lay public accepts about medical information. One of the most alarming at the moment is the resistance to vaccination, including the one we are dispensing at the moment against influenza. Persuading patients to get a flu shot, even when it’s free at their local pharmacy, is not

It’s hard to believe that less than 20 years ago, the White House announced what may be the most important discovery in human history: we had unraveled the structure of the human genome. After years of painstaking effort from scientists all over the world , we finally discovered how the genes that make us who

There’ve been a few interesting studies of women in the workforce lately; unfortunately, the data for the most part are based on interviews from small samples and don’t describe the attitudes, demands and expectations of different generations of women. In any case, most observers agree that societal expectations of men and women are not only

Our fascination with sleep is universal and ancient. One of my favorite images from Greek mythology appears repeatedly in the cameo brooches of the Victorian era. It  shows the goddess of night, Nyx, with a baby on each shoulder. One is her son Hypnos, the god of sleep and the other Thanatos, the god of

From sprawling lichen to the most tenacious jaguar, the Amazon is home to millions of diverse species. An intricate ecosystem dwells among the foliage of the rainforest, which produces 6% of the planet’s total oxygen (giving it the memorable title, “Lungs of the Earth.”) This ecosystem is in grave danger, according to Robinson Meyer of The

Pluripotent stem cells, also known as “master” cells, have the ability to divide into all three types of body layers in humans – the ectoderm (skin and nervous system), the endoderm (endocrine glands, liver, pancreas, respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts), and the mesoderm (bone, muscle, cartilage, circulatory system and connective tissues.) These “master cells” have the