Aging: Is it a power failure? Researchers explore the role of mitochondria (The Boston Globe)
By Alice Dembner, Globe Staff  |  November 2, 2004

They are the power plants within our cells, crucial for life, and concentrated in the tissues that often deteriorate the most as we age -- the brain, the heart, the muscles, the eyes. But are the mitochondria a driving force in aging?

Increasingly, researchers are focusing on the possibility that this tiny element of a cell may be a factor in failing memory, increasing weakness, thinning hair, and other symptoms of aging…

Looking at the reverse proposition -- extending life via changes in mitochondria -- Gary Ruvkun, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, got roundworms to live 20 percent to 30 percent longer by genetically halving the efficiency of their mitochondria, which he theorized might have caused them to produce fewer damaging free radicals…

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2004/11/02/aging_is_it_a_power_failure?pg=2

click url to read 

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Strategies: Play and Win Blood Sugar Game (The New York Times)
By ERIC NAGOURNEY
Published: November 2, 2004

Getting children with diabetes to prick themselves four times a day to check their blood sugar levels can be a challenge.

But doctors have found that if they turn the chore into a game involving a personal digital assistant, young patients will do the checks more consistently…

Many people with diabetes don't do this as well as they should. But children, and especially teenagers, can be the most troublesome, said the senior author of the study, Dr. Lori M. Laffel, director of the pediatric and adolescent section at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston and an associate professor at Harvard Medical School…

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/02/health/02stra.html click url to read

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Defining a Doctor, With a Tear, a Shrug and a Schedule (The New York Times)
By ABIGAIL ZUGER, M.D.
Published: November 2, 2004

This new model of medical internship got some important validation in The New England Journal of Medicine last week, when Harvard researchers reported the effects of reducing interns' work hours to 60 per week from 80 (now the mandated national maximum). The shorter workweek required a larger staff of interns to spell one another at more frequent intervals. With shorter hours, the interns got more sleep at home, dozed off less at work and made considerably fewer bad mistakes in patient care…

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/02/health/02comm.html

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EDUCATION: Plain Talk From Larry Summers: Harvard's president surveys the outlook for the U.S. economy and the university (BusinessWeek)

By Stephen B. Shepard

November 8, 2004 

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, now the 27th president of Harvard University, became a tenured professor of economics there at age 28. He has since divided his career between academia and Washington. On Oct. 21, as part of the Captains of Industry series at New York's 92nd Street Y, Summers and BusinessWeek Editor-in-Chief Stephen B. Shepard had a wide-ranging discussion. Some excerpts...

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/04_45/b3907100.htm

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Presidential victor replaces Greenspan: Kerry may go for Rubin or Summers, Bush for Hubbard or Feldstein when current chief exits in 2006. (Reuters)

November 1, 2004: 7:12 PM EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - It scarcely rated a mention on the campaign trail, but choosing a successor to Federal Reserve chief Alan Greenspan may be the biggest economic choice that Tuesday's U.S. presidential election victor will face…

Several names are already in the frame as possible picks -- former Treasury chiefs Robert Rubin or Lawrence Summers, if Democrat Sen. John Kerry wins; and Glenn Hubbard or Martin Feldstein, former chairmen of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, if President George W. Bush returns…

While many think Summers would want the job, opinions are divided on whether he would feel it appropriate to step down as president of Harvard University after just a few years…

http://money.cnn.com/2004/11/01/news/economy/election_fed.reut/?cnn=yes

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Preventing Cancer in the Womb (The Wall Street Journal)
By AMY DOCKSER MARCUS
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
November 2, 2004; Page D1

Add this to the list of things expectant mothers need to worry about: New research suggests that what and how much a mother eats while pregnant could increase her child's risk of getting cancer later in life…

All this puts further pressure on pregnant women, who are already struggling to follow a growing list of recommendations of what to eat. "You don't want to drive women crazy," says Karin B. Michels, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and co-author of a book of recipes for pregnant women interested in lowering their children's risk of health problems as adults…

Please note: the following link is only available to subscribers to the on-line Wall Street Journal

http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB109934429797361443,00.html