If President Bush wants to remain at all relevant and leave any kind of positive legacy in his last year in office, he could put whatever muscle he has left in service of restoring the federal government’s commitment to medical and health research.

The veto of the stem cell research bill refocuses attention on a national scandal of falling federal support all kinds of medical research. Hold your elected representatives accountable.

Legal drugs are getting to be as dangerous as illegal drugs, not because of what's in them but because of how people use them.

Actually, it is the Washington Post science writer Rob Stein who sings a fascinatingly disgusting story of arms and the man – research about the "virtual zoo" of microbes festering on the human body's largest organ.

Yes, it's the skin.

There is unquestioned social good in having pharmaceutical companies discover beneficial drugs and use their marketing prowess to ease pain and save lives.

Sometimes political imperatives align with those of public health. Texas is not one of those places you would expect it.

Youth fitness is a huge health problem because research has shown that eating habits and propensities toward obesity start in earliest childhood.

Upon hearing President Bush's latest attempt to elevate politics over science, Galileo would be turning in his grave. (Or not turning at all, were the Inquisition still in play.)

Two news items today mark paradigm shifts worth noting in the translation of medical research into practice.

You can't watch a movie nowadays without seeing identifiably branded soft drinks, computers or cars. The process is known as "product placement," the product being placed for a fee. The process has now reached new heights, or lows. One product placement, for the Baby Einstein line of videos, books and toys, was the highlight of the president's State of the Union address, which says something about both the product and the speech.