Irwin the red kangaroo is a very special marsupial. Not only does he not live anywhere near Australia, he is cared for as if he were a child by his loving companion, Christie Carr. The 25-pound kangaroo is named after famed Australian animal expert, Steve Irwin, and he has been a comfort to Ms. Carr who had been suffering from severe depression.

Irwin has been partially paralyzed since he ran into a fence and fractured his neck, which caused severe brain damage. Irwin doesn’t know he isn’t a child and Ms. Carr isn’t about to tell him. He never leaves the house without first getting dressed, and rides with her in a car seat, dressed in a little boy’s shirt cut and sewn to accommodate his neck, sometimes a tie, and jeans or slacks with a hole cut for the tail. His doting caretaker never loses sight of her beloved charge.

Christie Carr is unable to work a full-time job due to health problems of her own. She adores caring for Irwin and changes his diaper three times a day. She feeds him salads and raw vegetables as well as kangaroo chow, popcorn and the occasional Cheez-Its or a handful of Cheetos.

The one-year-old marsupial never leaves Carr’s side for more than an hour, often accompanying her on errands and going out to eat. Carr’s therapist certified the animal as a therapy pet under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

It was love at first site when the two met at the animal sanctuary and the kangaroo was just a baby. Ms. Carr took Irwin home and nursed him back to health. The kangaroo cannot as yet stand or walk on his own, but he is slowly gaining mobility and under her devoted care, he is now able to hop three or four times in a row with assistance. The bond between the two is powerful and poignant.

Broken Arrow, Oklahoma city officials are worried that poor Irwin could become a public safety risk and Ms. Carr is actively seeking an exemption from city council. They two have given each other a purpose in life and to separate them now seems an act of terrible cruelty. The up and coming council meeting determining the outcome is expected to overflow with supporters for Irwin and his companion.

Of Mice and Men may be an American classic tale, but Of Women and Kangaroos remains a love story yet to be written.

If your kid won’t eat vegetables and neither will his or her parents, there is hope in the form of a new “bitterness blocker” that will improve the tastes of those green leafy things. If the ultimate hope is for broccoli to taste like an ice cream sundae, one can forget about that, but scientists at the American Chemical Society are seriously working on a way to make healthier foods better tasting.

An enhanced “bitterness blocker” called GIV3616, was presented at the national conference of the American Chemical Society. When added to food, it targets particular taste buds and prevents them from recognizing bitter tastes known as “off notes”. Until now, these bitter tastes in processed foods have often been masked with unhealthy ingredients, such as excess salt, sugar and fat.

Food scientists refer to people with a heightened sensitivity to bitter foods as “supertasters,” and while this figure only covers about 25 % of the population, probably 100 % of all children fall into this category. Food colorings and cute shapes cannot override a dislike for the taste of some foods and it is hoped that GIV3616 can change all that.

The special compound is expected to go on sale this coming summer and it is likely that the first products to contain it may well be diet drinks. Food products are invariably next, and it is possible that in the very near future children may actually crave vegetables! (Or will it be the chemical improving the taste of the vegetables?)

The health benefits of such a situation are immeasurable at this point, but this new breakthrough can only mean healthier eating for future generations.

The day may well come in the near future when children watching an old Popeye cartoon will think the old man is nuts for not liking spinach.

We all know that every package of cigarettes bears the admonition: The Surgeon General has determined that smoking is hazardous to your health, but is the next step a similar warning to be placed on condoms about that age-old pleasure, sex?

A new study conducted by Dr. Issa Dahabreh of Tufts Medical Center in Boston, the results of which appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association, analyzed data from 14 studies looking at the link between exercise, sex and the risk of heart attacks or sudden cardiac death.

In the case of people who do not exercise on a regular basis, intense and sudden physical activity (jogging or sex and maybe even intercourse while jogging) can significantly increase the risk of a heart attack.

Although doctors have known for years that physical activity can cause heart problems, this study has helped to quantify the risks involved. It is important to balance the indications of this study with data from other studies. While people may be 3.5 times more likely to get a heart attack or have sudden cardiac death when they are exercising compared to when they are not, other data indicates that regular physical activity reduces the risk of heart attacks and sudden cardiac death by 30%.

Jessica Paulus, another Tufts researcher involved in this study, believes that the time period of increased risk is very brief (from one to two hours during and after sex).

While many may argue about the study’s far reaching implications, it does make the point that people who do not exercise regularly need to begin any regimen slowly, increasing the intensity of that workout (whatever and wherever it may be) slowly over time.

Boston’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, was the site of the first full facial transplant operation conducted in the United States. The patient is a 25-year-old man from Texas named Dallas Wiens, whose entire face was burned off by contact with a high-voltage wire in a 2008 electrical accident.

An organ donor, whose name was not released, made the transplant of nose, lips, facial skin, muscles and nerves possible for the stricken man. The surgery required more than 15 hours to complete and was conducted last week by more than 30 physicians, nurses and anesthesiologists.

According to Betty Nable, the president of the hospital, the surgery could not have been possible without the organ donation that represents the “most selfless act that one human being can do for another.”

Dallas Wiens is making significant progress since his surgery. He is still in the hospital where he will remain for an indefinite period of time, but he is talking on the phone with his family and friends and walking around. He will need to start eating before he can expect to return home to Texas. Doctors are optimistic that he will regain most of the sensation on the right side in his forehead and cheek, but on his left side, where the damage was the most severe, he may experience less feeling.

Although that old adage about beauty being only skin deep might have its place, for this young man, the true beauty lies in the opportunity to have a life and a face to live for.