The first time Dr. Paul Ridker appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, he wasn't yet a doctor. In fact, he hadn't even graduated from high school.
That's because Ridker made his debut in the prestigious medical journal not as an author but as a research subject. He was nine years old, just returned from living in India and suffering from symptoms that none of his doctors could explain. He became the subject of a study at the National Institutes of Health, where doctors finally diagnosed his problem--a novel immune disorder that allowed certain parasites in his body to flourish--and...