Resistance to drugs by bacteria that cause tuberculosis is a global phenomenon but is worse in "hot zones" identified by a new study of thirty-five nations, conducted through the World Health Organization. Lead author: Columbia's Dr. Ariel Pablos-Mendez '92PH, assistant professor of medicine and public health.

Important clinical gene therapy trials took place at Pavia Medical Center in Italy and University College of London. Columbia participant: Dr. Arthur Bank '56B, professor of medicine and of genetics and development, who developed a gene transfer technique used in the United Kingdom to treat patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Thyroid cancer and other thyroid diseases were correlated with radiation exposure following the Chernobyl nuclear accident. Dr. Robert J. McConnell '73P&S, associate clinical professor of medicine, is part of the continuing study.

Innovative strategies to improve the rate of vaccinations in Mali and in New York City were tested in a project funded by the Agency for International Development, linking Columbia with the University of Rochester and the National Medical School of Mali.

Columbia and medical schools in Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong collaborated on important studies dealing with osteoporosis and other metabolic bone diseases.

Experiments by Columbia scientists indicated that monkeys share with humans the capacity to master simple arithmetic, challenging the notion that animals cannot think without language and B. F. Skinner's finding that all animal intelligence is conditioned behavior.

An enzyme that prolongs the life span of microscopic roundworms by protecting against oxidative damage, linked to Alzheimer's and Lou Gehrig's diseases, was discovered by Professor of Biological Sciences Martin Chalfie and a team of researchers.

Two Columbia engineers from Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, using new sonars they had designed, traveled under the Arctic ice aboard the nuclear-powered submarine USS Hawkbill and collected unprecedented high-precision images of the largely unmapped floor of the Arctic Ocean.