Evolutionary biology. Changing a fish's bony armor in the wink of a gene.

of scientifically testing your methods is still foreign,” Montgomery says. “They think it’s a waste of time and money they could be using to help their patients.” But objectively assessing methods is “the best way to improve them.” The first application of science at RCT is to test which approaches are most effective for which kinds of patients. Some studies focus on torture’s physiological legacy. One effort is to probe changes from falanga, the beating of the soles of the feet. Victims cannot walk far without excruciating pain, even if their feet appear undamaged. Using magnetic resonance imaging, RCT specialists have uncovered a thickening of a tendon in the foot in falanga victims. The finding should help document abuse and may lead to better treatments. Having such forensic tools “can be crucial in some cases,” says David Rhys Jones, a human rights lawyer at the Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture in London. The center’s research is not limited to the lucky few who make it to Copenhagen. Several epidemiological studies are under way, including one to track children of torture victims to assess mental health consequences across generations. Another study focuses on prisons in Nigeria, examining the relationship between guard training and prisoner abuse. (On 28 June, AAAS, publisher of Science, will host a forum on scientific and legal issues surrounding torture and prisoner treatment.) RCT staff members say they are frustrated at how slowly the awareness of how to diagnose and treat torture has filtered out to the wider medical community. Since the Vietnam War, an immense amount of work has been done on posttraumatic stress disorder, a complex of psychological problems that persists after witnessing traumatic events. Yet “almost no data is out there on torture, which causes worse symptoms,” says Labrosse. Hospitals still tend to overlook or misdiagnose torture victims, adds Prip, so “we’re trying to get torture rehabilitation into the standard medical curricula.” Just providing it as an optional course would be “extremely useful,” says Duncan Forrest, a physician at the Medical Foundation, “because there is widespread ignorance among doctors.” One of the most important lessons is that the mental scars never completely heal. Labrosse is worried about Massoud, who canceled an appointment last month. She says that some images of torture in Abu Ghraib are strikingly similar to Massoud’s drawings of his own experiences, and the evocation of his torment has triggered a relapse of anxiety attacks. RCT may be able to piece victims back together, but they remain fragile. –JOHN BOHANNON John Bohannon is a writer based in Berlin. N E W S F O C U S