In the September 23, 2005 issue, Cell published a re-traction of a 2004 paper from Nitz et al. on heritable integration of parasite DNA into host genomes. This was a very unusual situation in which the paper was retracted by the journal rather than by the authors of the paper. The decision to retract the paper came after a year of careful consideration and extensive correspondence with both the...

Phototherapy was developed in the late 1950s and is today considered the mainstay of managing neonatal jaundice. Yet prominent academic leaders continued to promote the older approach of exchange transfusion well into the 1970s, despite the considerable risks involved. This article explores why phototherapy took so long to be embraced, and how pediatric residents were caught in the middle of th...

Despite its long history and common practice, circumcision remains a controversial procedure. This article reviews the history of this operation, examines the controversy that surrounds it, and emphasizes the performing practitioner's responsibility to the patient and his family in guiding them through the complicated decision making surrounding newborn circumcision.

Despite several decades of research about triglycerides and atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, controversy still surrounds the question whether triglycerides are more than a biomarker and play a direct causative role in atherogenesis. In this Editor’s Roundtable, a panel of leading lipid experts was invited to address this question and several closely related issues about triglycerides, in...

The potential use of drugs to enhance cognition, emotion, and executive function has engendered controversy despite the fact that few such agents exist today. Here, I provide a context for discussions based on medical, regulatory, and ethical concerns that have been raised by the possibility that enhancers will emerge from current efforts to discover drugs for neuropsychiatric disorders.

Despite established guidelines for group A Streptococcus pharyngitis diagnosis and treatment, pediatricians are overtreating and mistreating sore throat in children. (1) This results in unnecessary antibiotic use and contributes to antimicrobial resistance, increased health care costs, and risk for adverse drug reactions. In addition, controversy exists among pediatricians regarding the indicat...