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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
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.
Medicine and the Makers Roderic Pettigrew is training a new hybrid specialty—half physician, half engineer.
Sins of the Past The California Death Certificate Project is finding the physicians associated with opioid overdoses. Is it justice or a witch hunt?
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.
Where Have All the Microbes Gone? Internist and researcher Martin Blaser believes that disturbances in the gut may underlie several modern maladies.
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.
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