A Meta-Note, Plus Goodbye to Needles

My excellent vacation gave me some much-needed time to think about goals. Since I've got some big things coming down the pike in the next few months, I've decided to reduce my posting from daily to once or twice weekly, at least on a temporary basis. I might experiment with digest-style or just keep going as I've been, with one story per post as the focus. Stay tuned!
So, on to the news of the day. Every parent who has ever had to hold their little one during a shot at the doctor's office will appreciate this one: Scientists are hard at work devising medical tests that will operate on a drop of saliva rather than a vial of blood. It's hard to say when pediatricians might be able to start using these--taking advances from the lab to the clinic is not a quick process--but one scientist in the field says "the technology is advancing so rapidly."