There are potential drugs out there, including a drug and development that is an opioid. It has been stripped of the properties that would otherwise make it addictive. Pain is a signal that's incredibly important to understand. Until we know the basic neurology behind things like chronic pain and even acute pain, it is going to be a difficult balancing act to try and find useful, meaningful solutions.
Our correspondent reports from
eastern Congo, where a three-decade-long conflict has killed thousands, and forced more than five million people from their homes--with no end in sight. Researchers are searching for better
analgesics: ones that reduce pain without the risk of addiction or corollary physiological damage. And a contest in southern Alaska to select the internet’s favourite
fat bear.