Top Stories 
Published On January 15, 2007
TECHNOLOGY
Master of Disguise
Robert Barron, who once created masks for CIA agents, now uses his talent for a different purpose: bringing people disfigured by trauma and disease out from hiding.
For 15 years, Robert Barron created masks for the Central Intelligence Agency, helping agents disappear into the shadows. Since his retirement in 1993, he has used his talent for a different purpose: bringing men, women and children disfigured by trauma, disease and congenital defects out from hiding. Made of silicone and painstakingly hand painted, Barron’s removable prosthetic ears, noses, fingers and faces—held in place by magnets, adhesives or screws—are nothing short of transformational.
Dispatches
Too Much of a Good Thing Exercise is usually healthy. But taken to an extreme, can it put the heart in peril?
Higher Education Medical marijuana has swept the country, but physicians aren’t trained how to use it.
Homegrown Kayse Shrum is launching the first U.S. medical school affiliated with a Native American tribe—part of a strategy to train doctors where they’re needed most.
Out of Pediatric Care, Into…? For young people with chronic illnesses, the transition into adult care can be uncharted—and dangerous—territory.
Beyond Cold Storage A metabolic slowdown would press pause on the body until surgeons can repair damage. How close is it to becoming a reality?
Riding a Wave of Sound One way to get drugs through the blood-brain barrier: smuggle them across using sound waves.
Top Stories
The Neuroscience of Giving Up
Why do some people react poorly, even catastrophically, in emergency situations?
