In 1952 Jonas Salk (1914-1995) and Albert Sabin (1906-1993) raced to come up with a vaccine for poliomyelitis--a virus that causes inflammation of nerve cells in the spinal cord, which can cause paralysis, atrophy of the skeletal muscles and death.

FORBES: 85 Innovations 1939-1955

Meanwhile, the muscles that girls need to assert their strongest feelings and opinions atrophy.

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Arya had spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA, a progressive and fatal disease in which the nerves that control the muscles slowly waste away.

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