Cartoon by Peter C. Vey. For more: http://nyr.kr/Zp1f7S

Cartoon by Zachary Kanin. For more from this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/13tYycw

…Our testing has gotten a bit more advanced since the last time you two were in here. Would you like to know more about your embryo? …Would you like to know her sexual orientation?

O.K.

Ruby is heterosexual.

Phew. I mean, I have neutral feelings about this. I mean, obviously, I have no issues with—

Shhh. This is a safe zone. Ruby is definitively heterosexual, but she will experiment on and off in college and shortly thereafter. These experiments will be motivated by her emo-ish boyfriend, Lucas Adler-Zeitz, who is currently a Grade B embryo just a few drawers down from her.

A Grade B? Couldn’t Ruby do better?

Oh, she will. She’s going to marry Robert Westinghouse, who I believe is about to turn fifteen.

Wow. That’s a big age difference.

Well, she’s going to be “that kind of girl.” Ooh, this is quite positive. On the tenth chromosome here, she has a high H.S.C. factor.

What’s H.S.C.?

High-school-cool factor. By tenth grade, she’ll be making fun of the loser girl who still draws horses and smells like soup, instead of being the one who’s made fun of herself.

I’m not so sure how I feel about that.

Yes, you are.

Fine. We’re relieved.

Any other questions?

If I may… never mind.

You can ask.

This is embarrassing.

She’s going to Penn.

Oh. O.K.

It’s an Ivy.

Yeah, but it’s the Ivy about which people have to say “it’s an Ivy” afterward.

Well, if it makes you feel any better, she’s going to get into Harvard. But she’s going to choose Penn.

That’s insane. We’ll see about that.

Sure you will…

Continue reading: http://nyr.kr/13r38Z2

(Source: newyorker.com)

In this week’s issue, Michael Specter profiles Dr. Mehmet Oz, and looks at some of the controversial ideas that he entertains on his show: “Much of the advice Oz offers is sensible, and is rooted solidly in scientific literature,” Specter writes. “That is why the rest of what he does is so hard to understand…

“…Oz has been criticized by scientists for relying on flimsy or incomplete data, distorting the results, and wielding his vast influence in ways that threaten the health of anyone who watches his show.”

Click-through to read “The Operator”: http://nyr.kr/W5c2Y0

Photograph by Ethan Levitas.

(Source: newyorker.com)

Cartoon by J.C. Duffy. For more: http://nyr.kr/UCo9dX

Cartoon of the day by Zachary Kanin. For more from this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/UsTXDl

Radium and Lab Cats: Cancer’s History

In “The T-Cell Army,” [sub. req.] Jerome Groopman writes about new approaches to curing cancer that involve activating the body’s own immune responses to fight tumors. Recently, researchers have found that the body’s white blood cells can be stimulated to shrink tumors, leading to startling remissions in some patients. For over a hundred years, doctors have relied on chemotherapy and radiation as the only effective ways of treating the disease.

- Click through for the story behind the above images, and for more images of the methods and people from the last century of fighting cancer: http://nyr.kr/ITWoK6

Cartoon of the day. For more: http://nyr.kr/xyYvB0