And there are lots of drug companies that are working on cure or medicine.

Now, what tends to happen is that the stories get hyped. And the medicines are not quite as revolutionary and as dramatic as they seem to be. But, certainly, various phases of this problem are being attacked by the pharmaceutical companies.

Well, there are two kinds of stem cells: adult stem cells, which you can get from any part of a grown body, and embryonic stem cells. These are the inner- core of days-old embryos that can develop into any kind of cell.

The right-to-life movement and the Roman Catholic Church are saying that it is better to destroy these embryos, or preferably have them adopted - which is not going to happen - than to use them for research.

Medicine can only cure curable disease, and then not always

Europe's citizens do not seem convinced that the bitter medicine of continued structural reforms will cure the stasis that afflicts much of the Continent. It is a failure of politics that people have not come to see that the more they want to retain the attractive European way of life, the more the way they work will have to change.