Jolie’s medical decision says again what shouldn’t need re-saying: that a woman’s body is hers, that breasts are for something other than ogling, and that hard choices are made for strong reasons. Her decision to make her choice public is bold and brave and admirable. It is what celebrity is for.

—Rebecca Mead on Angelina Jolie’s decision to make her mastectomy public: 

http://nyr.kr/16xgKDW

(Source: newyorker.com)

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

Is there a downside to clean hands? In this week’s issue, David Owen writes about the rise of Purell, and looks at the hand-cleaning transformations to come in both our everyday lives and in the medical world (subscription required): http://nyr.kr/YhTvGh

Cartoon editor Bob Mankoff reflects on aging and hypochondria in his newsletter this week:

I had some minor surgery a few weeks ago. Thanks, I’m fine. Completely routine—for the doctor…

For more cartoons, and more of Mankoff’s musings: http://nyr.kr/Vko41d

Cartoon by Barbara Smaller. For more from this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/12ZwCLC

Bacteria make us sick. Do they also keep us alive? Michael Specter explores the human microbiome: http://nyr.kr/QWdsRR

Cartoon of the day by Charles Barsotti. For more from this week’s issue: http://nyr.kr/SdM29S

Click-through to join Michael Specter in a live chat as he takes readers’ questions on genetically modified mosquitoes and the dengue virus, which he writes about in this week’s issue.  

For more from Michael Specter on this topic, read his post “Mosquitoes and Nimbyism”. 

Michael Specter on the “striking developments on the genetically modified mosquito front in the past few days”: http://nyr.kr/L9mS6l