Word: takings
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...than ever. In the following pages we ask what we hope are provocative questions about our health and the health of our planet. The sobering news is that we will have more people to care for; the good news is that technology and common sense should allow us to take better care of the place we call home. Meanwhile, the imminent mapping of the human genome--all 140,000 genes--could lead to rapid advances in treating heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's and perhaps even AIDS. One of our enduring traits--after all, we have not only survived this long...
...genomics may be new, but not the economics. When you take your gene card to the pharmacy in 2025 for flu pills, bring a credit card too. Made-to-fit drugs won't be cheap. Some of us may have to make do with two aspirins and all the liquids we can drink...
...medical science has had only mixed results with brain-cell transplants. Take the treatment of Parkinson's disease, for example, a condition that is gradually depriving more than 1 million Americans of their ability to move and speak. The disease is caused by the slow deterioration of brain cells that produce dopamine, a chemical essential for the transmission of messages from the brain to the rest of the body. A decade ago, Swedish researchers started implanting dopamine-producing cells from human fetuses into the brains of Parkinson's patients. The treatment improved the mobility of many of the patients...
...Where was this all leading?" Snyder says he asked himself many times. "In 20 years would I have done nothing more than create a thriving colony of healthy, smart mice that are free of brain disease? You can't take it for granted that every medical advance in mice will also benefit people." But the evidence started mounting. Over the past three years, researchers have discovered that brain cells regenerate in primate-like tree shrews, marmoset monkeys and rhesus monkeys, all of which are closer to us on the evolutionary scale than are mice (except in Kansas). The real payoff...
...this is meta-neuroscience," says Snyder, laughing. "But I tend to think that the cells will take their cue from the host that houses them" rather than remembering their past lives like so many cellular Shirley MacLaines. So, in the case of brain-cell implants, it would seem, it is better to be the recipient than the donor...