COVER STORY

Yes. No. Maybe.

Hormone therapy after menopause may prevent heart attacks and cancer—or cause them. New research could show who benefits.

Catching a Chill

Ordinarily resistant to economic ills, health care this time is suffering too. Poor and uninsured patients are most at risk.

The Other Stem Cells

Once considered mere substitutes for embryonic cells, re-engineered adult cells are making breakthroughs of their own.

Shock Value

Art and message merged in twentieth-century posters, raising the alarm about contagions from TB to AIDS.

The Transplant Trick

An experimental protocol fools the immune system into accepting a new organ without debilitating drugs. Could it become routine?

Message from the MGH

A new era for stem cell research, by Peter L. Slavin and David F. Torchiana.

Second Opinion

Readers discuss depression, bugs, drugs and natural orifice surgery.

A Dance of Musical Color

Artists with a certain neurological condition put all their senses to work.

To Sleep, Perchance to Walk

With insomnia drugs yielding bizarre side effects, sleepwalking has wandered back into public consciousness.

The Tell-Tale Heart

How an electrified, 660-pound behemoth became a common diagnostic tool: the ECG.

A Miraculous Conception

Thirty years ago, the first test-tube baby made medical history.

To Catch an Addict

Michael G. Fitzsimons, head of the drug-testing program at the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Anesthesia and Critical Care, discusses preventing fallout from addicted physicians.

Handle With Care

In an excerpt from his novel Cutting for Stone, Abraham Verghese examines the importance of words of comfort.

Strapped for Cash

Scientists—whether they’re new or experienced, engaged in mainstream or unconventional research—all face stiff competition in getting NIH funding.

Striking Unlucky

Confronted with her son’s diagnoses with three rare diseases, a mother contemplates luck—good and bad.