Medicine

In his new memoir, Doctored, Sandeep Jauhar describes a growing discontent among doctors and how it's affecting patients. He says rushed doctors are often practicing "defensive medicine."

Arthur Allen's new book, The Fantastic Laboratory of Dr. Weigl, describes how as WWII scientist in Poland smuggled the typhus vaccine to Jews -- while his team made a weakened version for the Nazis.

Fresh Air tech contributor Alexis Madrigal explains how a tiny computer attaches to a pill you ingest to record how your body responds. It sounds crazy, he says, but it was approved by the FDA.

In Missing Microbes, Dr. Martin Blaser argues that the overuse of antibiotics, as well as now-common practices like C-sections, may be messing with gut microbes.

In 2006, Oregon successfully made pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient of meth, a prescription drug. Since then, Mother Jones' Jonah Engle reports, 24 states have tried to follow suit -- and 23 have failed. Engle attributes those failures to pharmaceutical companies' massive lobbying efforts.

New York Times reporter Barry Meier's new e-book explores opiate painkillers and the consequences that come with long-term use. He focuses in particular on OxyContin, how it came to be prescribed for chronic pain, what the consequences have been, and how it became a street drug.

Science journalist Emily Anthes talks about how scientists are engineering mice with tumors and working to create pigs that can grow organs for human transplant and insects that could serve as drones for the military.

Dr. Sam Parnia researches the experiences of cardiac arrest patient in the time between when their hearts stop and when they are brought back to life. Paranoia thinks of these experiences as actual-death experiences as opposed to near-death experiences.

Researchers want to create a widely effective drug that targets viruses much in the same way that penicillin kills a wide range of bacteria. Science writer Carl Zimmer profiles the scientists who are developing these antiviral drugs, and the technology behind it, in his latest piece for Wired magazine.

Science writer Dick Teresi and transplant surgeon Richard Freeman discuss the ethics of transplant surgery and how doctors determine the point between life and death.