COVER STORY

Stealth Surgery

A new path to internal organs would cause little pain and leave no scars. But will the benefits outweigh the risks?

Still a Scourge

After crippling millions worldwide, polio may soon be wiped out. But to the last, the virus is proving an elusive, stubborn foe.

Turning Off Cancer

A "new" approach, 40 years in the making, attempts to keep blood vessels from feeding tumors. It's starting to work.

No More Lies

Brain-scanning breakthroughs are proving remarkably able to detect falsehoods. But is it wrong to invade a liar's skull?

25 Years of AIDS

They were hooked from the start, four pioneers whose work changed the course of a modern plague—and they're not done yet.

Message from the MGH

The pursuit of paradigm-shifting ideas in medicine, by Peter L. Slavin and David F. Torchiana.

Second Opinion

Readers point out mistakes and warn of MRSA’s spread.

Color Coding

Why do scrubs look they way they do?

First, Do No Harm

In an environment where doctors are paid by the test, Nortin M. Hadler is convinced that many tests are useless, or worse, harmful.

Blood Count

The need for—and dearth of—one precious commodity.

Drug Approval Decoded

The Food and Drug Administration has been alternately lauded as a protector and dismissed as outmoded. Here's how a drug makes its way through FDA approval.

Higher Tech for Diabetics

New technologies could ease the patient’s routine of constant injections and blood monitoring.

Should there be different drugs for different races?

Point: Race is a social construct, not a genetic indicator; counterpoint: Race correlates highly with genetic variation.

Will NIH Cuts Stifle Research?

The National Institutes of Health fund much of U.S. medical research. Could budget cuts stem the flow of breakthroughs?

The Difficult Patient

The author ponders her argumentative relationship with her doctor.