In his marvelous book “Better,” Atul Gawande tells the tale of obstetric forceps. Invented in the 17th century to help stuck babies get unstuck during labor, they promised to be a valuable addition to the medical toolkit — so...
POSTED Monday, October 6, 2008

In Grover Beach, California, nineteen-year-old Cameron Clapp trains for his next track meet — on battery-powered, robotic metal legs. Meanwhile, in Framingham, Mass. a pharmaceutical company is splicing human genes into cow and goat embryos, enabling the animals to...
POSTED Monday, September 8, 2008

“Think globally, act locally” is a well-known approach to enabling change in the deep structure of our society. Perhaps the ultimate local action is what food we choose to place into our bodies. While deciding on a personal diet...
POSTED Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Consider this scenario. Your doctor feels a small lump in your gut. You ask her what to do next. And this is what she says: “There is a test we can order to determine if this lump is an...
POSTED Wednesday, August 13, 2008

The current system of education in the U.S. and most of the industrialized countries revolves around a factory mentality that was designed to serve the industrial era. Just as the assembly line worked for producing goods, it was thought...
POSTED Monday, July 28, 2008