1. My college friend Liz, who has been fighting lung cancer for the past year, received some good news this week: A PET scan showed “marked improvement” in her lungs. You can follow Liz’s amazing story on her blog.

Also please consider supporting the Lance Armstrong Foundation by contributing on Liz’s behalf to the Livestrong Challenge (click here).

2. From today’s New York Times: Cigarette Company Paid for Lung Cancer Study. Previously legit-seeming research is exposed as having been funded by a tobacco company. The newspaper uncovered this credibility-shredding conflict of interest in a review of tax documents. How much more of this goes on that we don’t find out about?