Mary Carmichael

God, as the hymn goes, may have made all things bright and beautiful, but for sheer weirdness first prize should go to a man-made creation instead: aerogel.

There's a debate raging over Lyme disease, although you'd never know it unless you've been paying close attention—because on the surface it sounds like the dullest argument imaginable.

Are people deciding to get plastic surgery based on TV reality shows? A new study says yes, but the tube is only part of the picture.

Ten weeks ago, Bo Cleveland and his wife embarked on a highly unscientific experiment—they gave birth to their first child. For now, Cleveland is too exhausted to even consider having another baby, but eventually, he will.

On Thursday, President Bush's nominee for surgeon general, Dr. James Holsinger, faced blunt questioning at his Senate confirmation hearing about how he would react if he were pressured to put politics before science. "I would resign," Holsinger said.If history is any indication, he's likely to be tested on that promise.

Diabetes kills as many as AIDS, and is a big problem in poor countries. Dr. Martin Silink, head of the International Diabetes Federation, spoke with Mary Carmichael.

For decades, scientists have been squabbling over the importance of  birth order like siblings fighting over a toy. Some of them say being a first-, middle- or lastborn has significant effects on intelligence.

A proudly expectant father talks about how he expects to manage America's 14th set of sextuplets—and their diapers.

In a major breakthrough, scientists have 'reprogrammed' fully matured skin cells in mice, causing them to act exactly like embryonic stem cells.

Millions of aging boomers and the latest generation of wounded soldiers hope the secrets of our most enduring medical foe can finally be unlocked

Daily life in the developed world has depended so much, for so long, on clean water that it is sometimes easy to forget how precious a commodity water is.

New research shows that flaxseed and ginseng have something to offer patients. Shark cartilage, however, comes up short.

They started the running craze and aerobics. Now they're finding new ways to keep their bodies young.

Last week, Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced a plan to boost the state budget for life sciences by $1.25 billion. The proposal immediately grabbed attention for its vision of a vast stem-cell bank, the world's largest, which would open up new opportunities for embryonic stem-cell research.

All that aerobic exercise and jogging took a toll.

Questions are raised over how a potent painkiller has been marketed.

In a new book, author Jonathan Cohn uses the stories of nine ordinary Americans to examine our ailing health-care system.

Every year, the cap of sea ice floating atop the North Pole dwindles from about 14 million to 7 million square kilometers—a number that would panic scientists if it weren't a normal occurrence, courtesy of nature.

Lance Armstrong took your questions during a Live Talk on Wednesday, April 4, about his personal and political fight against cancer.

Surprises from the annual meeting of the American College of Cardiology

Exercise does more than build muscles and help prevent heart disease. New science shows that it also boosts brainpower—and may offer hope in the battle against Alzheimer's.

Medical students use iPods to learn the sounds of unhealthy hearts. Rocking out to 'aortic regurgitation.'

A new book chronicles the allure, deception and deadly legacy of the cigarette industry in America.

Ancient, closely held religious secrets; messages encoded on the walls of Middle Eastern shrines; the divine golden ratio—readers of a recent issue of the journal Science must have wondered if they'd mistakenly picked up "The Da Vinci Code" instead.

When surgeons removed Carol Hurlburt's diseased gallbladder in 2005, they had to cut a long, gory incision in her abdomen, and she was still hurting when her husband developed his own gallbladder infection a month later.

The Problem: To celebrate the anniversary of Charles Darwin's birthday, on Feb. 12, 1809, Bob Stephens, a retired scientist, is organizing more than 850 celebrations worldwide--parties with bearded impersonators, serious debates and a guy in England who's skipping work, in jest, on religious grounds.

Western analysts still can't say what Beijing was thinking when it shot down one of its aging weather satellites. True, the recent test was a fine show of marksmanship, destroying a refrigerator-size target sailing at orbital speed 500 miles up (as high as U.S. spy satellites).

Does the international war on terror have a new front? Earlier this month, police in western Xinjiang province swept down on a camp where, Chinese authorities say, armed Muslims were stockpiling explosives: 18 militants were shot dead and 17 arrested.

The nobel prize isa lot more than a medal. Winners get $1.4 million and the world's best résumé line. Here's another thing to file under "life's not fair": Nobel winners also live longer.

Stem-cell research is divided into two major camps: one focused on cells from adults, the other on the controversial technique that destroys embryos. Now there may be a third way--a new category of stem cells that are readily available, perhaps ethically trouble-free and possibly as powerful and as flexible in function as their embryonic counterparts: amniotic-fluid stem cells, found in both the placenta and the liquid that surrounds growing fetuses.The cells are "neither embryonic nor adult.