What a mensch was Peter Falk. An average-Joe hero, he embodied the best of us on our worst day. He was best known as TV's Lieut. Columbo, who, for 30 years, taught snooty murderers that, however crafty they thought they were, he was smarter. Every episode in the series was a class struggle, which reached its peak in the mid-1970's, played as a comedy of manners and won by the wily proletarian. But Falk, who died last ...

Will nanomachines one day be launched into our bloodstreams to monitor health and combat disease? Or will "self-replicating nanobots" proliferate out of control until they completely overrun the planet? A runaway plague of rogue nanobots wouldn't violate basic scientific laws, but that doesn't make it realistic. This extreme outcome is not likely, but it's not impossible either — and that's exactly what critics of the technology are worried about. It is foolhardy to venture predictions about what science will achieve this ...

Remember the childhood thrill of twirling in circles until the world spun wildly and you couldn't stand on your feet? That's how many of my former patients described their disorienting bouts with dizziness--especially the elderly ones. As many as 38% of older Americans struggle to keep their world stationary, trying to avoid dangerous falls and potentially life-threatening injuries. Dizziness is so common among seniors that patients and their doctors tend to write it off as an inevitable consequence of aging. ...

LORI CROWN THOUGHT she was doing the right thing last year when she moved to a dryer climate in Bakersfield, California, after being plagued by asthma attacks during her six years in Hawaii. A few months later, Crown, 35, was suffering from severe headaches, a prolonged fever of 102 degreesF, swollen feet and painful bumps on her hands and legs. The diagnosis: "valley fever," or coccidioidomycosis, a dust-borne disease caused by the microscopic spores of a fungus, Coccidioides immitis. As ...

Shin Chang-seon seems to know everyone in Gapyeong, a small town about 45 miles northeast of Seoul. The 58-year-old president of the local beef association was once the village chief here; he now has a cattle farm with just over 100 cows. As he walks around town, residents approach him on the street to shake his hand and talk about local issues. But in farming-heavy Gapyeong , the conversation has shifted from countryside small talk to concern ...

For the estimated 1% of the population with celiac disease, gluten is a kryptonite that can trigger digestive distress and cause long-term health problems.

Jewaun Smith, a 9-year-old boy from Chicago, is lucky to be alive. A scrape on his left knee that he picked up riding his bike last October turned into a runaway infection that spread in a matter of days through the rest of his body, leaving his lungs riddled with holes. Jewaun managed to survive, but what worries doctors most about his near-death experience is that it's not an isolated case. The bacteria that infected his knee has become resistant ...

You've heard or read the headlines: that methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus is deadlier than AIDS; that the killer bug is alarmingly more widespread than anyone thought; that it's in your kids' locker rooms and at your gym. Stories abound of young high-school athletes becoming infected with MRSA and dying within weeks, and you're starting to worry about whether that nick or scrape you just got could be your last. So here's what you really need to know. Yes, ...

Pregnancy rates among U.S. teenagers, which had been dropping since 1990, took an upturn in 2006, according to newly released data. The figures, obtained from government sources and abortion providers by the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive-health think tank, echo previous Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that births among teens had risen. But the new Guttmacher report rounds out the picture: in 2006, there were 71.5 pregnancies for every 1,000 women under the age of 20. ...

Doctors attack heart disease with new techniques and potent drugs Charles Weiner, 45, was trudging through Boston's snowy streets one night when he suddenly felt a gripping pain in his chest. In the previous eight years he had had two similar experiences, but after thorough physicals, including blood tests and electrocardiograms, doctors could find nothing wrong with his heart and attributed the pains to a mild gall bladder attack or chest muscle strain. This time, though, Weiner was given a ...