Staring into the abyss
Relatives of people with Alzheimer's may have a much higher risk of developing it themselves, new research suggests. Sarah Ebner on what it is like to care for a sufferer - while wondering if you are next
Is anybody out there?
More and more of our children are being diagnosed as autistic, though experts cannot agree on why it is happening. Are we getting better at spotting the signs earlier - or on the brink of an epidemic?
Doctors’ disorders
Tim Radford revisits a dark age of quacks and quips in Bodies Politic: Disease, Death and Doctors in Britain 1650-1900 by Roy Porter
Swallowing the company line
It's time we had proper, open trials on the Prozac family of antidepressants.
Where there’s mucus…there’s brass.
John Sutherland on why drug companies love the hay fever season.
How to make a genius
The Medical Research Council's lab is a world leader. So what's its secret? By Lee Elliot Major
Laura was killed by anorexia. She was 80
Her granddaughter India Faulkner-Wiley on a condition that is just as likely to affect the elderly as the young.
Butt out
Theodore Dalrymple on why hospitals are wrong to stop patients smoking
Want to live to be 100?
The islanders of Okinawa live longer than anyone else on the planet. And they stay fit, active and happy long into old age. Now a new book reveals their secrets. Emily Wilson reports.