Free Republic

The Catholic University of America has received an $8 million gift from the Knights of Columbus to renovate a vacant building near the center of campus that will house the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family The Catholic University of America has received an $8 million gift from the Knights of Columbus to renovate a vacant building near the center of campus that will house the John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family as well as space for university classrooms and other academic activity. The gift from the New Haven, Conn.-based Catholic men’s...

The Food and Drug Administration yesterday permitted a unit of Johnson & Johnson to market an artificial spinal disk in the United States as a new form of treatment for people with severe lower back pain. The disc, called the Charité (pronounced shar-ee-TAY), represents the first of a wave of such devices that are expected to become available over the next decade as an alternative to spinal fusion surgery. Spinal disk implants are projected to become a billion-dollar market for medical device companies in the next decade, although many orthopedics researchers think that artificial disks will eventually be overtaken by...