Article about bird flu written in November 2005. Global human pandemic of bird flu or similar virus is only a matter of time according to the World Health Organisation. World Bank says cost to wealthy nations alone up to $550bn. Several countries talk about closing borders if needed. "Worst-case" death toll remains very unlikely if appropriate action is taken at every stage, and a pandemic could turn out to be no more serious than a larger-than-usual outbreak of ordinary flu. Greatest risk could be emotional reaction to spread. However US government worst-case estimate is 1.9 million US deaths. UK government's worst-case is 800,000 deaths. UN global worst-case is 60 million deaths and 2% fall in output of the global economy.

Human cloning: who is cloning humans, how, why and who is paying
How human clones are being made - for medical research. Arguments for and against human cloning research. Why investors are moving away from human cloning and why human cloning now looks a last-century way to fight disease. Why some people want to clone themselves or even to clone the dead (and not just cloning pets).

Clinical trials of many kinds are continuing, after a range of successful studies of stem cell use in animals.  Comment in 2008 with very accurate predictions.

Adult stem cells promise astonishing medical advances and investor returns while embryonic stem cells and therapeutic cloning raise major ethical, legal, and image problems.

Many ethical questions remain about use of stem cells from aborted foetuses, but reseachers are discovering the huge potential of stem cells from a patient's own body.