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In Focus

Prohibition at 100

The 18th Amendment launched the most sweeping health experiment in U.S. history. Physicians—then and now—have debated its complex legacy.

Howard Atwood Kelly, one of the “big four” physicians who founded Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, held a view of alcohol typical of his generation. He began his career prescribing it to treat weakness, fevers and other conditions. But he found that “the effect is temporary, evanescent, that the drug (for such it is) does no real good,” he said...

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In Depth

Lessons From a Long Sleep

Stroke researchers marvel at what hibernating animals can do. Now they’re searching for strategies that would benefit patients.

An Endgame for an Epidemic

AIDS still kills, in numbers more vast than most people realize. But the right blend of science and policy could end the scourge.

140 Million Miles From Home

Two years in deep space will subject the body to unprecedented stresses. Scientists are probing the secrets to survival.

New Heroes of the Microbe War

More and more bacteria are nearly impervious to treatment. Could new approaches pick up where antibiotics leave off?

The Rise of Fake Medical News

More and more websites are peddling “alternative facts” to deceive the public and sell bogus cures. Fixes won’t be simple.

New Tools for Depression

At long last, new therapies—including heat treatments and psychoactive drugs—are offering relief for people with depression.

Knots in the Family Tree

In Utah extensive data on families and their genetic anomalies are helping unlock secrets about major diseases.

100 Year Shadow

A century after the worst plague in history, researchers seek a universal flu vaccine to head off a repeat of the disaster.

Tiny Marvels

Miniature versions of organs help scientists understand disease and fine-tune treatments in ways that work in mice can’t match.

A Future Defunded

There's no question that financial support for young scientists leads to medical breakthroughs. But now that formula is broken.

The Dawn of the Bionic Pancreas

Automated systems could soon take the guesswork out of managing diabetes. But will patients trust them with their lives?

Nano Arsenal

In theory, smart microscopic particles could evade defenders and home in on cancer targets. Will reality catch up to the hype?

A Code for Autism

Is risk of the disorder inherited, or do genes get scrambled in the womb? Researchers may be closing in on some answers.

Is Genetic Privacy a Myth?

Genetic tests and genome sequencing are generating terabytes of sensitive private data. How can they be kept safe?

When the Researcher Is the Subject

Self-experimentation has a long history in medicine. Should its practice today be shunned or embraced?

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Dispatches

Podcast: Can AI Save Us from Despair?

Psychiatry is finding its footing with machine intelligence. New tools may dramatically help those who need it the most.

A New Iron Age

As more bacteria gain resistance to standard treatments, is the answer a return to therapeutic metals?

The Pharmacist Will See You Now

As the role of the pharmacist changes, one program explores how it can help people with heart disease and other conditions.

The Battle of the Bouffant

Guidelines for operating room attire may change in 2019 and ease tension over donning the controversial bouffant.

Your Brain on Drugs, Revisited

People with drug addictions produce more of a certain brain chemical—and research may point to new ways to block it.

Podcast: Polar Lessons

Researchers are untangling how animals can live in the Arctic and Antarctic cold. The applications for human medicine could be vast.

First Thoughts

Tiny models of the brain are becoming more complex. When should the ethicists step in?

Choosing Unwisely

Why is it so hard to eliminate waste, even when physicians agree on how to do it?

On Her Wavelength

Indoor light can affect health in good ways and bad. Photobiologist Mariana Figueiro wants to get patients the optimal exposure.

Out of Reach

A father tries to connect with his newborn son in the NICU.

Putting the Dead to Rest

Students at the New York Academy of Art are using their sculptural and artistic training to reconstruct the faces of unidentified remains.

Second Opinion Fall 2018

Experts reflect on the rise of fake medical news and better ways to treat depression.

Should Older Patients Have Their Own ED?

Advanced age brings special needs, especially in the emergency department. So some hospitals are changing designs and processes for their senior patients.

Is there a Doctor in the Kitchen?

Physician-chef Rani Polak explains why clinicians should learn cooking skills—and teach them to patients.

To Slim the Liver

New drugs for fatty liver may offer the first skirmish in a growing epidemic.

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From Mass General

An Extra Pair of (A)Is

Machine intelligence takes a big step into the clinic, with a technology that helps identify patients with an elevated risk of breast cancer.

Doctoring on a Screen

Telemedicine made its first broadcast 50 years ago in an airport clinic.

Ending the AIDS Epidemic

Since the early 1980s, AIDS has killed more than 35 million people worldwide. But researchers are determined to find better treatments, cures and preventions that many finally put an end to the epidemic.

For Some Clots, It Takes a Village

Treatment of pulmonary embolisms may benefit from a team approach. But that model faces obstacles inside and outside the hospital.

Shining a Light on Depression

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris highlight the need for new approaches to treating depression.

A (Small) Cause of Big Pain

Neurologist Anne Louise Oaklander investigates a cause of chronic pain that is treatable without opioids.

Investing in Our Future

Peter L. Slavin and Timothy G. Ferris discuss the importance of research funding.

After the Storm

Hurricane Maria shut down a factory where intravenous fluid bags were made. Why has this roiled a nation’s hospital system?

The Crisis in the Air

Slowing climate change is important for our health long term. But cleaning up polluted skies will also yield immediate health benefits.

Medicine in the Mix

The science of embedding medications in polymers opens new doors.

Sparkling Like (Nano) Diamonds

Tiny diamonds set loose in the body can promote a sharper MRI image.

Respect for Our Elders

Peter L. Slavin discusses the importance of giving older inpatients the proper care.

The Brain’s Beat

By studying the mysteries of anesthesia and how it affects the brain, Patrick Purdon may have found a new way to predict Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative conditions.

Untangling Chromatin

More than marvels of biological architecture, structures within the cell nucleus may be intertwined with aging itself.

Marching for Science

Peter L. Slavin discusses why funding research is key to America's future.

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Charts & Data

The Village Without Memory

In France, a home for people with dementia is designed from the ground up.

To Choose Death

Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act crosses the 20-year mark.

In Passing

How does a hospital keep patient details from getting lost in the shuffle?

To Catch a Protein

The world of protein imaging undergoes a chilly revolution.

The Next Zika

Vaccines are most helpful before an epidemic hits. So which diseases should researchers prepare for next?

ResearchKit

A software platform from Apple is helping medical researchers collect health data from any iPhone user

White Coats

The standard garb of the physician comes with surprising risks and benefits.

Unsound the Alarm

Hundreds of alarms compete for a clinician's attention. Can less noise mean better care?

Babel in the ICU

Machines in an ICU can't speak to one another—but what if they could?

The Changes We've Seen

Proto looks at trends in health care during the last 10 years.

Born Too Soon

Despite steady declines over the past decade, the U.S. still has one of the highest preterm birthrates in the developed world.

An Outbreak Told in Genomes

Rapid genetic sequencing maps an Ebola outbreak in fine detail.

20 Years After Apartheid

In the 1980s physician Miguel Ribeiro took stunning photographs of his South African patients. How has the nation’s health care fared in the years since?

Grand Theft Medical

The move to electronic medical records may be helping identity thieves.

Living Anatomy

Artist Danny Quirk paints the living structures of the body on live models.

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