Synthetics

In a stately 19th-Century building of marble and gold trim, young Colombian scientists are splitting molecules, deciphering DNA and creating chemically synthesized proteins in a battle against one of the world's most deadly diseases: malaria. The wizard directing this project on the grounds of the San Juan de Dios Hospital is Dr. Manuel Elkin Patarroyo.

Andemariam Teklesenbet Beyene left a Stockholm hospital Friday, breathing through a manufactured trachea that was built with his own stem cells. The 36-year-old Eritrean geology student at the University of Iceland in Reykjavik had suffered from an advanced case of tracheal cancer, and tumors were threatening to block his windpipe and choke off his supply of oxygen before the artificial trachea was implanted June 9. Dr. Paolo Macchiarini of Karolinska University Hospital decided there was no time to wait for a donor trachea, so he assembled a team to build one. Since the artificial trachea was made with Beyene's own cells, he hasn't needed anti-rejection drugs that would have suppressed his immune system and made him vulnerable to other infections.

Chevron Corp., the fourth-biggest U.S. oil company, said it will double production of chemicals used in plastics and synthetic lubricants at its Baytown, Texas, facility to meet growing demand. San Francisco-based Chevron said it will build a new alpha olefin plant at its Chevron Chemical subsidiary's Cedar Bayou, Texas, facility, boosting total capacity in Baytown to 1.5 billion pounds annually from 750 million pounds.

It is both a great success and a colossal failure. Rising like a mirage from the barren North Dakota prairie, the Great Plains Synfuels Plant is one of the most noteworthy remnants of the frantic era that followed the Arab oil embargo, when the United States spent millions of dollars to develop alternative energy sources. The Great Plains plant showed that the country could produce natural gas on a commercial scale from the West's vast supply of coal.

A chemical compound that looks like toothpaste but hardens into artificial bone within hours is streamlining the treatment of fractured limbs and offers new hope for aged, fragile bones. The compound, now in experimental trials at 12 U.S. hospitals, is used to hold splintered bones in place, to fill voids caused by osteoporosis and to replace some of the metal plates and screws that have been used to repair shattered hips, wrists and ankles.

Football--along with building character and keeping America's couch potatoes from clogging up the jogging paths every weekend--is educational. Take last Sunday, for instance. I learned a lot watching the Bengals and 49ers beat the Bills and Bears. Until Sunday, I thought Ickey Woods was where Al Davis has sent his coaching staff for its postseason vacation. It turns out that Ickey Woods is the running back for the Cincinnati Bengals, the team with the ickey helmets.

Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. (D-Del.), contending that the federal government has disregarded promising medical treatments for narcotics addiction, on Wednesday proposed a 10-year strategy to encourage development of new anti-drug medicines. Biden, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released a committee report recommending a national agenda to speed development of such treatments.