When the Beat Goes Wrong
Arrhythmia, the leading cause of sudden cardiac death, remains a mystery. But thanks to an animal model they’ve created, NYU researchers are gaining insight into this storm in the heart. SIDEBAR: Trials of the Heart.

Where Death Takes No Holiday
In the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner of the City of New York, forensic pathologists translate and interpret messages from the dead to aid the living.

Man vs. Microbes
Martin J. Blaser, M.D., one of the country’s top experts on infectious disease, addresses some troubling questions, including “Who’s winning the war—the bugs or us?”

The Big 10
The Skirball Institute celebrates a decade of collaborative, cross-disciplinary research efforts.

Body Heat
Infrared images of the body’s surface temperature, used at the Rusk Institute to help diagnose certain conditions, show that medicine is as much an art as a science.
[This is a special Web-extended version of this article.]