Science

"In Case of Emergency," ABC, Jan. 3. The premise: Former high school friends are reacquainted during trips to an emergency room where another alumnus, Dr. Joanna Lupone (Lori Loughlin), treats them. Each lists a friend from high school as an emergency contact on the hospital forms, which speeds their unusual reunion. One of them, Jason Ventress (David Arquette), accidentally shoots himself in the foot with a large handgun while contemplating suicide. Lupone bandages the foot and he is released.

A body -- spontaneously -- bursts into flames, leaving behind nothing but ash and a leg, a head or (in one alleged case) a prosthetic hip. In the three centuries since spontaneous human combustion was first discussed by researchers and investigators, heavy drinking, smoking, body fat, static electricity and the wrath of God have all been blamed. These days, most experts have dismissed the phenomenon as a myth.

I've heard that ionized water can cure whatever ails you. Sounds like snake oil to me. MIKE \o7Los Angeles\f7 --- The product: Ionized water isn't exactly snake oil. (These days, very few beverages are snake-based.) But because water ionizers can cost several thousand dollars, consumers are right to wonder what they're getting. Water ionizers attach directly to your kitchen faucet. The devices will filter water, infuse it with minerals and zap it with an electric current.

"Grey's Anatomy," Thursday, Jan. 11 and 18, 9 p.m., "Six Days." --- The premise: Intern George O'Malley (T.R. Knight) is worried because his father, Harold, having recently undergone a heart operation (aortic valve replacement), is now having an operation for esophageal cancer. The doctors don't know if the cancer has spread. Harold is told that the tumor won't be removed if it is too extensive. Harold tells the surgeon, Dr. Richard Webber (James Pickens Jr.

"House," Feb. 6, 9 p.m., "Needle in a Haystack." The premise: A 16-year-old is brought to the hospital after experiencing breathing difficulties while making out with his girlfriend. When a chest X-ray reveals fluid in the pleural space (lining of the lung), Dr. Gregory House and his team conclude that the fluid must be blood, so they shoot dye into the teen's veins (venogram) and then his arteries (arteriogram) searching for the source.

ON either side of the stage in the Stella Adler Theatre, Dr. 4 and Professor Cheddar stand with long, plastic cylindrical sleeves. Dr. 4, played by Trish Sie, asks one of the many young theatergoers to just \o7try\f7 to fill her 5-foot balloon with air. A boy volunteer attempts to blow it up, barely filling a few inches before running out of breath. "That's nothing!" scoffs Professor Cheddar (Christin Underwood), opening her tube and blowing into it.

To get an idea of how much remains unknown about a subject that affects most people's lives, check out the International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health. Scientists, gynecologists, therapists and hundreds of other experts who gathered for the society's sixth annual meeting are still trying to figure out which hormones and neurotransmitters make sexual arousal possible, where in the brain orgasm takes place and which nerves control the genital organs.

Charles Taylor, a Canadian philosopher who for 45 years has advocated the inclusion of spiritual dimensions in the study of humanities and natural and social sciences, won the 2007 Templeton Prize worth more than $1.5 million, it was announced in New York on Wednesday. Taylor, 75, who teaches at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill., is the first Canadian to win the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries About Spiritual Realities.

Fewer than a third of American adults eat the amount of fruits and vegetables the government recommends, a trend that has remained steady for more than a decade, health officials said Thursday. That's "well below" the government's goal of getting 75% of Americans to eat two servings of fruits and having half of the population consume three servings of vegetables each day by 2010, said Dr. Larry Cohen of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Crazy-sounding ideas for saving the planet are getting a serious look from top scientists, reflecting their fears about global warming and the desire for an insurance policy in case things get worse. How crazy?