Whoever said that the pen is mightier than the sword definitely knew what they were talking about. To humans, words are more than a means of communication, they can shape our beliefs, behaviors, feelings and ultimately our actions. Although swords can coerce us, and threaten, nothing is more powerful than a tool which can shape our opinions.

When it comes to language and communication, the rule is that it’s not what you say, but what people hear.  Words are one of the most powerful tools that we as humans possess; they can ignite revolutions or defuse tension. The problem is that words are underestimated as being central to thought and behavior processing as well as decision making.

As we watch TV, listen to the radio or flip through the pages of a magazine, most of us ignore the relentless onslaught of advertising. But are we in fact being persuaded and influenced by the glossy pages of that magazine or that 30 second commercial? The prevalence of advertising on consumer preference has long been debated by communication and psychology professors alike, none of whom can agree to the meanings of their research, which have all yielded vague and inconclusive results. A new area of study has suggested that human response to advertising is based on our cognitive efficiency instead of marketing manipulation.

Since the 80’s, as the awareness of HIV has increased exponentially, scientists have struggled for a vaccine to quell the rising number of AIDS-related deaths occurring each year. According to an AIDS epidemic update released in December of 2006  by the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNIADS) and the World Health Organization (WHO), there were 39.5 million people worldwide living with HIV. That includes the 4.3 million newly infected individuals that year alone, and not including the 2.9 million deaths from AIDS in 2006.

As our knowledge of biology has increased exponentially, so has our potential to find new treatments and technologies to battle ailments previously incurable. However, many of these expansions of knowledge have faced stalling challenges and hurdles, halting practical applications. Gene therapy has been one of these dreams, touted as having endless potential, yet viable medical treatments were always yet to be developed. This is all about to change, as new laboratory research has seen unprecedented developments in gene therapy.