News this summer of a flu vaccine patch sparked a lot of chatter. Could getting vaccinated be as easy as putting on a bandage? Could there be fewer, or at least smaller, needles in our future? Some companies and academic labs are working to make those things happen. They're refining technologies that involve tiny needles, less than a millimeter long, and needle-free injectors that can send a dose of vaccine through your skin in a fraction of a second. Some of these technologies are already available on the market, while others are still being tested. One hundred very tiny needles A flu vaccin

REPORTED BY MIA MCNIECE My mother, Mary Ann, lived with Alzheimer’s for 20 years and died in 2004 at age 89. She was a bacteriologist at Walter Reed Army hospital, and to see this bright, beautiful scientist struggle with everything memory- and brain-related for so many years was like being thrown into a dark and forbidding forest without a flashlight. The Alzheimer’s Association is a great place to turn to if you discover that you or someone you care about has Alzheimer’s. They can help give you access to care options and assistance with legal, financial and living-arrangement decisions, and

Glioblastoma, the brain cancer that Sen. John McCain has, is invariably — and accurately — described as aggressive and as having a poor prognosis: Not even Sen. Edward Kennedy or Beau Biden, with access to the best care and most cutting-edge therapies in the world, beat it. Recent advances, however, have persuaded some scientists that effective treatments are on the horizon — and some might even help McCain live longer than earlier patients did.  “We’ve learned a tremendous amount about the biology of this cancer,” said Dr. David Reardon, director of neuro-oncology at Boston’s Dana-Farber Canc