SMART DRUGS

Snort your way to perfect health? Just last week, we heard that snorting stem cells might be the best way to get them into your noggin. And this week, scientists have declared that a nasal spray can help your memory.

Wish you had a photographic memory? Well, Encyclopedia Brown, drugs may amp your brain up to that point soon. A group of Spanish scientists claim to have singled out a protein that can extend the life of visual memory significantly. When the production of the protein was boosted in mice, the rodents' visual memory retention increased, from about an hour to almost 2 months.

Ginkgo biloba

The Brain Claims:
Extract of the ginkgo tree has been used in Asia to treat all manner of physical and mental ailments for at least 1,000 years. The foul-smelling ginkgo—at 200 million years old, its the oldest living species of tree on Earth—is also purported to improve circulation in the brain, supposedly improving cognitive functioning and helping prevent neuron decay.

The point of medicine is to make sick people “well,” which is really just