Science Tuesday...

[lsanderson]

Talking With Children About Sex and AIDS: At What Age to Start?
By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

What age is the right age to have “the talk,” not just about where babies come from, but also about sex and AIDS?

How about, oh, 4? More

When the Body Decides to Stop Following the Rules
By LOREN BERLIN

Every day over breakfast, I fill three pillboxes. Fifteen pills in the morning, 3 at lunch and 8 before bed, for a total of 26. To my surprise, I find pleasure in the sorting, as it is one of the few moments when I can pretend I have some control over the bizarre war raging in my colon.

When I learned 11 months ago at age 29 that I had a chronic illness, I understood that my life was going to change. I knew I would stop eating certain foods, limit stress and think more strategically about when to have children. What I didn’t anticipate was the loss of control over my life that I thought I had, until the gastroenterologist uttered the words “ulcerative colitis.” More

Court Considers Protecting Drug Makers From Lawsuits
By GARDINER HARRIS

WASHINGTON — Less than a week after issuing a sweeping ruling that bars most lawsuits against medical device makers, the Supreme Court heard arguments Monday in the first of two cases that could determine whether drug makers receive similar protection.

Justice Stephen G. Breyer said the fundamental question in the cases was who should make the decisions that will determine whether a drug is “on balance, going to save people or, on balance, going to hurt people?”

“An expert agency on the one hand or 12 people pulled randomly for a jury role who see before them only the people whom the drug hurt and don’t see those who need the drug to cure them?” Justice Breyer asked.

Normally a member of the court’s liberal wing, Justice Breyer came down squarely on the industry’s side when he answered his own question, saying Congress left the role of policing the medicine market exclusively to the Food and Drug Administration. More

The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors
By JOHN TIERNEY

The next time you’re juggling options — which friend to see, which house to buy, which career to pursue — try asking yourself this question: What would Xiang Yu do?

Xiang Yu was a Chinese general in the third century B.C. who took his troops across the Yangtze River into enemy territory and performed an experiment in decision making. He crushed his troops’ cooking pots and burned their ships.

He explained this was to focus them on moving forward — a motivational speech that was not appreciated by many of the soldiers watching their retreat option go up in flames. But General Xiang Yu would be vindicated, both on the battlefield and in the annals of social science research.

He is one of the role models in Dan Ariely’s new book, “Predictably Irrational,” an entertaining look at human foibles like the penchant for keeping too many options open. General Xiang Yu was a rare exception to the norm, a warrior who conquered by being unpredictably rational. More

A Review of Prostate Cancer Leaves Men in a Muddle
By TARA PARKER-POPE

A diagnosis of prostate cancer is scary enough. But just as scary is that nobody can tell a man the best way to treat it.

This month, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality issued a sweeping review of prostate cancer treatments, including surgical removal, radiation, hormone therapy and so-called watchful waiting, which involves careful monitoring but no active treatment until the cancer shows signs of growing.

Because none of these treatments emerged as superior, the agency came to the troubling conclusion that it could not recommend one over the others. More