Well: Price for a New Hip? Good Luck Getting a Reliable Estimate

Jaime Rosenthal, a senior at Washington University in St. Louis, called more than 100 hospitals in every state last summer, seeking prices for a hip replacement for a 62-year-old grandmother who was uninsured but had the means to pay herself.The quotes she received might surprise even hardened health care economists: only about half of the hospitals, including top-ranked orthopedic centers and community...

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How to Cope With Time Zone Changes and Jet Lag When Flying

Ilona De March, who lives in Amsterdam and travels frequently to Atlanta, has a strict rule when she flies across time zones: no alcohol. A business traveler for 20 years, Ms. De March, a president at BCD Travel, knows the intricacies of long-haul flying — what works and what doesn’t. When she arrives, she has another guideline. “I don’t lie down because then I would fall asleep,”...

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Ambitious makeover planned for old housing project

Denise Penegar puts a little extra effort into the teenage girls, the ones who've dropped out of high school to care for their...

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Wired Science Space Photo of the Day: Wings of the Seagull Nebula

This image shows the intricate structure of part of the Seagull Nebula, known more formally as IC 2177. These wisps of gas and dust are known as Sharpless 2-296 (officially Sh 2-296) and form part of the “wings” of the celestial bird. This region of the sky is a fascinating muddle of intriguing astronomical objects — a mix of dark and glowing red clouds, weaving amongst bright stars. This new view...

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All eyes on Frank Ocean as Grammy Awards kick off

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Everybody’s thinkin’ about Frank Ocean.Ocean is a cause celebre and the man with the momentum as Sunday’s Grammy Awards kicked off with pre-telecast wins by Rihanna and Mumford & Sons. One of six top nominees with six nominations apiece, the 25-year-old R&B singer turned cultural talking point will have the music world’s attention.It remains to be seen if it will be the...

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For Families Struggling with Mental Illness, Carolyn Wolf Is a Guide in the Darkness

When a life starts to unravel, where do you turn for help? Melissa Klump began to slip in the eighth grade. She couldn’t focus in class, and in a moment of despair she swallowed 60 ibuprofen tablets. She was smart, pretty and ill: depression, attention deficit disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, either bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder. In her 20s, after a more...

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American and US Airways Are Expected to Announce Merger This Week

After months of negotiations, American Airlines and US Airways are expected this week to announce a merger, which would create the nation’s biggest airline and concentrate even further a once-fragmented industry. A merger would expand American’s domestic network, particularly in the Northeast and the Southwest, and create a more formidable competitor internationally. The combined airline...

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A delicate new balancing act in senior healthcare

When Claire Gordon arrived at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, nurses knew she needed extra attention.She was 96, had heart disease...

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DC Comics Turns the Occupy Movement Into a Superhero Title

Eighteen months after the phrase first entered the collective public consciousness, the plight of the 99 percent is coming to mainstream superhero comics — via a new series from the second biggest publisher in the American comic industry, which just happens to be a subsidiary of a multi-national corporation that makes around $12 billion a year. Irony, anybody?In May, DC Comics will launch...

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In Nigeria, Polio Vaccine Workers Are Killed by Gunmen

At least nine polio immunization workers were shot to death in northern Nigeria on Friday by gunmen who attacked two clinics, officials said. The killings, with eerie echoes of attacks that killed nine female polio workers in Pakistan in December, represented another serious setback for the global effort to eradicate polio. Most of the victims were women and were shot in the back of...

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