GUT-WRENCHING STORY A Stanford University postdoc drank a cloudy, salty solution of enteropathogenic E. coli in the name of science--and a story. Kristin Weidenbach, now a Boston-based science writer, decided to participate in the study, whose aim was to determine the mechanisms by which the diarrhea-causing bacteria become virulent. Some volunteers ingested wild-type E. coli, others gulped mutant versions that produced more pili, the bristly filaments protruding from the bacteria's cell walls, and another group consumed a mutant without pili. In test tubes, bacteria with too many pili clump together, don't disperse and don't twitch as much. The study was designed to see if these characteristics would have any effect on causing diarrhea in hosts. Weidenbach and the other volunteers did not know in advance which strain they would swallow. "There was a bit of a psychological barrier to overcome," she recalls. Weidenbach, who documented her three-day ordeal for a ...
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PHANTOM PAIN GUT-WRENCHING STORY PACEMAKER IN THE BRAIN THE SCOOP ON DINO DINING SUMATRAN TIGER, A DISTINCT SPECIES FUNGUS AMONG US HONORABLE QUARTET FROM GM PAIN EXPLAINED: Washington University's Min Zhuo found that a region of the brain in rats could activate neurons in the spinal cord, possibly causing feelings of pain without any external stimulation. PHANTOM PAIN Results from a Washington University study bring up new questions about your high-school gym teacher's old proclamations tha
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