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Osteoporosis affects some 10 million Americans now, and those numbers are likely to grow as the baby boom generation ages. Wendy Schmelzer reports on a study in this week's New England Journal of Medicine, which finds that a drug treatment used by women to treat osteoporosis works just as well for men. That's important, because men account for 20 percent of those affected.

NPR's David Kestenbaum reports on the newest developments in research on narcolepsy.

Michele Kelemen reports from southern Siberia, where computer programmers are hoping to create their own Silicon Valley. Akademgorodok was built as a model town for Soviet scientists. With its highly-educated workforce, it's home to software companies that do programming work -- cheaply -- for Western customers.

Commentator David Weinberger recently returned from four days in Beijing, China. He says as a Westerner it was a truly foreign experience, but there's one place he felt completely at home: on the Internet.

NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports that a day after meeting with President Clinton in Cairo, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak met with Yasser Arafat in yet another attempt to get the Middle East peace talks back on track. American mediators are still trying to bridge the gaps between the two sides over Jerusalem in advance of a September deadline for reaching a final peace deal.

Richard Gonzales reports that the U.S. Supreme Court has issued an emergency order that stops the distribution of marijuana for medical use. The ruling bars implementation of the medical marijuana measure passed by California voters in 1996.

After a gruesome start to the year, stocks have made a solid recovery this summer. As Jim Zarroli reports, while lots of dot-coms have hit rock bottom, many other sectors such as consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and financial stocks are faring well. The economy has cooled without coming to a halt, interest rates are falling, and many investors think the market looks reasonably healthy.

Writer Verta Mae Grosvenor examines how massive, rapid resort development has altered life on the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina. The long-time residents are the Gullah -- or Geechee -- people. The names are interchangable. The Gullah people are descendents of slaves, and managed for years to retain a distinctive, African-influenced way of life. Some 30 years ago, high-end tourism came to the region. One by one, land was bought up by outside developers. Now the Gullah people want to profit from the little land they still own.

NPR News Science Correspondent Richard Harris reports that scientists have been surprised by a rapid change in the Arctic Tundra. When the Arctic air warmed up in the 1980s, this delicate ecosystem started venting large quantities of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere, potentially adding to global climate change. But a study in the journal "Nature" finds that arctic plant life has adapted to the changing climate, and is helping soak up some carbon dioxide.

Alison Richards of NPR News begins a three part series on osteoperosis. Today she details how the disease has become a public health crisis in such a short period of time. No one realized the size of the problem until the accountants took a look at the heath care costs.