The Greatest

By ANTHONY TOMMASINI

Who are the greatest composers? Some candidates: above, from left, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Mozart, Schoenberg, Haydn, and Stravinsky; below, from left, Schumann, Brahms, Schubert, Handel, Bach, and Debussy.

A critic tries to pick the Top 10 composers of Western classical music. You’re invited to help.

•  First Video in a Series: Bach
• ArtsBeat: Help Write the List

The Importance of Being Astonished

By BEN BRANTLEY

Brian Bedford, who seems to pick up a Tony nomination whenever he steps foot on a Broadway stage, has returned to portray Lady Bracknell in “The Importance of Being Earnest.”

The Comic Who Explores Comedy’s Darkest Side

By DAN SALTZSTEIN

Marc Maron is an angry and bitter comedian. All the better to get other comics to open up on his cult-hit podcast.

•  Video

He’s Fought His Own Way Back to Work

By TERRENCE RAFFERTY

The Australian director Peter Weir, with his film “The Way Back,” returns to his “large canvas” look at life, this time with prisoners in a gulag.

• Filmography: Peter Weir

‘Game’ on: More Real Than Reality TV

By JON CARAMANICA

“The Game,” which is returning to television on BET, was an inadvertent precursor to reality television about the semi-famous.

Health

Marijuana Dispensaries Are Facing New Scrutiny

By ZUSHA ELINSON

Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

Harborside Health Center, which runs a marijuana dispensary in Oakland, is being audited by the I.R.S., the chief executive said.

Local and federal authorities say they are trying to distinguish between legitimate health practitioners and sellers of illegal drugs.

PATIENT MONEY

A Talk With the Doctor May Help Patients Afford Care

By WALECIA KONRAD

An internist offers tips for negotiating prices with health care providers.

•  Post a Comment

In Battle Over Health Law, Math Cuts Both Ways

By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

As Republicans try for a repeal and Democrats defend, budget projections stymie arguments from both parties.

In Wider War in Afghanistan, Survival Rate of Wounded Rises

By C. J. CHIVERS

More helicopters, heavily armored vehicles and emphasis on the use of tourniquets have helped to save troops.

•  Photographs: Speeding Wounded to Care

Government to Recommend Less Fluoride

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

The federal government said Friday it planned to lower the recommended levels for fluoride in water, the first such change since 1962.

In Women’s Tears, a Chemical That Says, ‘Not Tonight, Dear’

By PAM BELLUCK

Researchers studying the effects of women’s emotional crying found it to dampen arousal in men.

• Read Comments (167)

THE NEW OLD AGE BLOG

In Sickness and in Health

By PAULA SPAN

There are few good housing options for elderly couples when one spouse is ill and the other is well.

Health Columns

Health Columns

PATIENT MONEY

A Talk With the Doctor May Help Patients Afford Care

By WALECIA KONRAD

An internist offers tips for negotiating prices with health care providers.

•  Post a Comment

DOCTOR AND PATIENT

When Insurers Put Profits Between Doctor and Patient

By PAULINE W. CHEN, M.D.

“Deadly Spin” is an evenhanded yet riveting account of the inner workings of the health care insurance industry.

•  Post a Comment

CASES

A Winding Path to the Emergency Room

By PAUL CHRISTOPHER, M.D.

A doctor follows the surprisingly long, circuitous path to treatment for one emergency room patient.

PERSONAL HEALTH

Gay or Straight, Youths Aren’t So Different

By JANE E. BRODY

Despite publicity about the risk of suicide among gay teenagers, research has found more similarities than differences among gay and straight adolescents.

• More Personal Health Columns »

REALLY?

The Claim: Taking a Walk Can Help Reduce Cravings

By ANAHAD O'CONNOR

A simple trick could come in handy for those trying to break a bad habit or cut back on food: go for a walk.

•  Post a Comment | More Really? Columns »

Snake Owners See Furry Bias in Invasive Species Proposal

By LESLIE KAUFMAN

Djamila Grossman for The New York Times

Mr. Stone’s animals, raised in captivity, pose no threat, he says.

The government is seeking to ban the importation and interstate transportation of nine species of foreign snakes, but reptile owners see flawed science.

SCIENTIST AT WORK BLOG

Rocks, Zircon Zapping and a Big Shrimp

By JOHN GOODGE

Geologists preparing to leave Antarctica look ahead to a year of geochemical analysis.

Mass Animal Deaths: An Environmental Whodunit

By JAMES GORMAN

After 5,000 birds died in Arkansas, the search was on for a villain — even if there was no villain.

POSSESSED

In His Own Image

By DAVID COLMAN

Exploring the mystery surrounding one’s identity includes looking at your reflection.

Scope and Pace of Gulf Cleanup Is Criticized

By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

Louisiana officials sense indifference and inaction in the face of the environmental damage.

Local Intelligence | Sand Dollars

By HANK PELLISSIER

Ocean Beach in San Francisco is a great place to collect sand dollars. This guide explains when and how to find them and just what you’re getting when you do.

In Women’s Tears, a Chemical That Says, ‘Not Tonight, Dear’

By PAM BELLUCK

Researchers studying the effects of women’s emotional crying found it to dampen arousal in men.

ACTIVITIES AND INTERESTS > FOOD AND WINE

10 Restaurants Worth a Plane Ride

Evan Sung for The New York Times

M. Wells in Long Island City.

By GISELA WILLIAMS

Published: January 7, 2011

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From new offerings by marquee chefs to more modest openings in out-of-the-way spots, here are 10 restaurants around the globe to keep an eye on in 2011, in alphabetical order.

Food and Wine Interest Guide

Go to the Food and Wine Interest Guide »

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Tell Us the Best Places to Go in 2011

Related

• The 41 Places to Go in 2011(January 9, 2011)

• Practical Traveler: 11 Tricks to Cutting Travel Costs in 2011(January 9, 2011)

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Lauryn Ishak for The New York Times

Andre Chiang dresses oysters at Restaurant Andre in Singapore.

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Thor Swift for The New York Times

Urchin tofu with salmon roe, Benu in San Francisco.

APONIENTE

EL PUERTO DE SANTA MARíA, Spain

In the exclusive world of America’s and Europe’s top chefs, Ángel León has been getting some hard-won respect. His 22-seat restaurant,Aponiente, which opened in 2005 in a small port village in southern Spain, specializes in sustainable seafood; it was awarded a Michelin star last year. Mr. León, 33, is an insatiably inventive and curious chef who is always trying to invent techniques with traditional products — using unusual (to say the least) ingredients like fish eyeballs (as a sauce thickener) and plankton.

BENU

SAN FRANCISCO

Not long after Corey Lee, Thomas Keller’s wunderkind chef de cuisine at the French Laundry, left to open his own place, San Francisco’s food critics were waiting hungrily for the debut of Benu, which finally opened in August. Despite the high-altitude expectations and prices (the 12-course menu is $160), the response has been impressive. Michael Bauer, food critic at The San Francisco Chronicle, recently awarded the chef three and a half stars and noted a “beautifully crafted menu that looks eastward for inspiration.”

DINNER BY HESTON BLUMENTHAL

LONDON

The highly respected British chef Heston Blumenthal, winner of three Michelin stars at his Fat Duck restaurant, has been researching British recipes that date as far back as the 14th century. They will serve as inspiration for his new, much anticipated outpost, Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, which is scheduled to open in London’s Mandarin Oriental hotel at the end of this month. While dining on dishes like hay-smoked mackerel with a lemon salad and gentleman’s relish, guests will be able to see into the kitchen through a floor-to-ceiling glass wall and watch its modern stainless steel pulley system, modeled on a 16th-century design for the Royal British Court’s kitchens.

M. WELLS

LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y.

If there happens to be an uptick in passengers on the 7 train to Queens, it might be thanks to the word-of-mouth engendered by this retrofitted diner, overseen by Hugue Dufour, formerly chef at Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal, and his wife, Sarah Obraitis. When it opened in July, M. Wells served only breakfast; it is now open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the intention of opening for dinner once a liquor license is obtained. For now, the menu is a glutinous celebration of Montreal and American dishes and ingredients like pickled pig’s tongue, escargots and bone marrow, and a much-loved breakfast sandwich.

MIRAZUR

MENTON, FRANCE

Last spring the popular and well-respected food blogger Pim Techamuanvivit, following a friend’s recommendation, tracked down this restaurant in a village in the French Riviera. Mauro Colagreco, the Argentine chef at Mirazur, paid his dues at the acclaimed, vegetable-friendly L’Arpège in Paris, so it’s no surprise that he grows some of the restaurant’s produce on the premises. In 2009, he was named Chef of the Year by Gault-Millau, becoming the first non-French chef to be given that title. Ms. Techamuanvivit raved in her blog entry about her meal there: “I still dream of the impossibly sweet red prawn, enrobed by ribbons of fresh young asparagus, borage and wild garlic blossoms and a drizzle of buttery Ligurian olive oil.”

MOMOFUKU

SYDNEY

In just a few years, the chef David Chang has come to be a major force on the New York scene, as he’s expanded his Momofuku empire to include five restaurants. So the foodie gossip mills started churning when he recently announced that he will be opening his first restaurant outside New York: a Momofuku outlet in Sydney’s Star City casino. It will develop its own menu, limited to “the abundance of Australia,” he wrote in an e-mail. “We will try not to import anything except some wine and Japanese products like shoyu,” he added, referring to a type of soy sauce. Mr. Chang will trade kitchen duties with Peter Serpico, the chef at Ko, the high-end Momofuku branch in downtown Manhattan.

RESTAURANT ANDRÉ

SINGAPORE

Only a few weeks after the October opening of Restaurant Andre, in Singapore’s lively Chinatown district, the chef Andre Chiang is wowing even the city’s most critical gourmands with French-inspired dishes like braised eggplant with cockscombs and duck tongue. Having spent 14 years training in France at some of the country’s most revered destination restaurants, Mr. Chiang has finally found a place to come into his own.

RESTAURANTE GARZON

GARZON, URUGUAY

If you happen to be as obsessed with grilling meat — and have as powerful a personality — as the Argentine chef Francis Mallmann, you can manage to pioneer a remote spot like the Uruguayan village of Garzon on your own. A few years ago he left the resort of José Ignacio, bought a chunk of Garzon and built a five-room hotel and restaurant that debuted in 2004 and has attracted the jet set to that dusty town ever since.

TICKETS

BARCELONA, SPAIN

Ferran Adrià has not abandoned his cultish fans. Not long after he announced that he would close El Bulli, his wildly acclaimed restaurant, in 2012, he and his brother, Albert, signed on with the chefs who own the landmark Spanish seafood restaurant Rías de Galicia. This month, the team plans to open a contemporary tapas bar called Tickets, as well as a cocktail bar, in the Parallel neighborhood. Tickets will be far less formal than El Bulli, though its food and space will embrace a sense of the theatrical, with “stages” set up throughout the restaurant. At one, classic seafood tapas, like red shrimps from Costa Brava and razor shells from Galicia, will be showcased; at another, more-experimental small plates will star, like artichokes with smoked Idiazábal cheese serum.

WILLOWS INN

LUMMI ISLAND, WASH.

Willows Inn, on the tiny San Juan island of Lummi, is about two hours from Seattle by car and ferry. Yet it is about to become a destination restaurant, thanks to its new chef, Blaine Wetzel. The 24-year-old, formerly the protégé of Rene Redzepi at Noma, the Copenhagen restaurant that was ranked the “best restaurant in the world” for 2010 by S. Pellegrino, took over the kitchen at Willows last year. The restaurant itself reopens in February; expect a menu with an obsessive focus on local ingredients, in the style ofNoma. Since he was hired, Mr. Wetzel has been working with a farmer and an urchin diver who work solely for him.

A version of this article appeared in print on January 9, 2011, on page TR4 of the New York edition.

Científicos descubren que reproducción de células madres permitiría revertir la ceguera

Científicos descubren que reproducción de células madres permitiría revertir la ceguera

26 DICIEMBRE 2010 3 COMENTARIOS

En un estudio pionero con retinas de ratones y cadáveres humanos, investigadores de la Universidad de Toronto, en Canadá, probaron que las células madres pueden reproducirse, lo cual es visto como un paso significativo para revertir la ceguera.

El profesor que lideró el estudio, Derek van der Kooy, publicó una investigación hace diez años, en la que se probaba por primera vez la existencia de células madres en las retinas de ratones adultos y otros mamíferos.

Ahora, con la ayuda del Banco del ojo de Canadá, el experto señala que su equipo de investigadores está reproduciendo células madres retinales a partir de donantes.

“Tenemos que tener acceso (a los ojos del donante), en las 24 horas después de su muerte. De esa manera, podemos aislar alrededor de 10.000 células madres del ojo de un sola persona”.

La investigación podría tener un impacto importante en tratamientos para revertir la ceguera o para retardar la aparición de la degeneración macular, que destruye los tejidos en la retina y es la principal causa de ceguera en mayores de 60 años.

Sin embargo, el profesor Van der Kooy advierte que trascendentales desafíos quedan pendientes, en parte porque sólo alrededor del 5% de las células madres retinales sobreviven.

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