MATT FUCHS

Various chemicals, from those in plastics to food additives, have made headlines lately for their potential roles in triggering diseases. Pesticides are unique among chemicals, though, says Melissa Perry, an environmental epidemiologist and dean of George Mason’s College of Public Health. “They’re deliberately manufactured to kill things.” By poisoning weeds, pesticides clear the way for farmers’ crops to thrive. But their deadly design may undermine human health, too. A rece

A few years back, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez started noticing the extreme brightness of car headlights in rural Washington, where she lives—and felt bombarded. “You come around a curve and get these headlights smack in your face,” she says. “They make you lose reaction time. It’s a real safety risk.” As a U.S. Representative, she’s working to change federal regulations to limit how bright headlights can be. Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez—who is also co-founder of an auto repair shop in

At the Longevity Investors Conference last October in Switzerland, speakers described breakthrough therapies being developed to manipulate genes for longer lifespans. Swag bags bestowed pill bottles promising super longevity, stirring hopes for centuries of youth. Then Charles Brenner took the stage. The biochemist from City of Hope National Medical Center, in Los Angeles, addressed these ideas and treatments one by one, picking them apart, explaining that they’re based on fa

When George Thurston leaves his cottage in the woods of Waccabuc, N.Y. , to head for work, a pollution monitor clipped to his belt--called an AirBeam--shows pristine air quality. As he takes the train through the suburbs, the device's digits rise, meaning more pollution. By the time he gets to his office in Manhattan, they're even higher. I t's important to know your exposure profile to protect against everyday risk," says Thurston, professor of medicine and population hea