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Medicine

Oil platforms (above, the Spree tied to a Gulf of Mexico rig) serve as artificial reefs, attracting organisms with intriguing properties.

Medicine from the Sea

From slime to sponges, scientists are plumbing the ocean’s depths for new medications to treat cancer, pain and other ailments

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Prize Fight

Raymond Damadian refuses to take his failure to win a Nobel Prize, for a prototype MRI machine, lying down

Neuroscientist Eugene Aserinsky attaches electrodes to his son, Armond, who was a frequent subject in his early sleep studies

The Stubborn Scientist Who Unraveled A Mystery of the Night

Fifty years ago, Eugene Aserinksy discovered rapid eye movement and changed the way we think about sleep and dreaming

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Take Two and Call Me in the Morning

Once we didn’t know how aspirin works; now we know that it does a lot more than ease pain and inflammation

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The “Indomitable” MRI

Raymond Damadian’s medical imaging machine set off a revolution but not without controversy

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You Will Feel No Pain

Doctors and patients swear hypnosis works, but after years of research we still don’t know how

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The Quality of Mercy

At a small hospital in Vermont, nurses practice medicine as an art, marshaling compassion and skill in equal measure

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How a Weed Once Scorned Became the Flower of the Hour

The gaudy sunflower is the ornament of the Nineties, turning up everywhere and on everything, including baseball players’ faces

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