Backs to the future. In the rubble of Port-au-Prince, neurosurgeons apply a forward-thinking method of spinal stabilization surgery to earthquake victims.

Exhuming a horrific past. In Tokyo, newly discovered bones prompt an investigation into the nightmarish Second World War-era medical experiments of "Unit 731".

A valley provokes a summit. Two damning reports mark a low point in the history of the Irish Catholic Church -- so the Pope demands a meeting with the country's bishops.

Degrees of difficulty. Extreme heat has long been a problem for anti-malaria vaccines -- but a British pharmaceutical company may have found a solution.

When the Lévy breaks. French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy thought he had a friend in a fellow thinker he recently cited -- until that friend turned out to be faux.

And...many a true word is said in gestation. If you spoke two languages while your baby was in utero, she may now be burping bilingually.

As It Happens, the Wednesday edition. Radio that still doesn't recommend anything more strenuous than a tête-à-teat.

Necessity is the mother of invention. No one knows that better than the many doctors in Haiti forced to work in less-than-ideal conditions.

One team of neurosurgeons in Port-au-Prince have had to adapt to difficult circumstances. In the absence of high-tech equipment, they've brought a state-of-the-art spinal stabilization technique to the victims of the Haitian earthquake.

Dr. Michael Wang is a neurosurgeon with the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He returned this week from working at the Medishare Field Hospital in Port-au-Prince, but we reached him in Orlando, Florida.

This week, Pope Benedict summoned Irish bishops to Rome. And the circumstances couldn't have been more grave.

The Pope scheduled a two-day summit with the clergymen, in an attempt to deal with outrage that has been growing steadily in Ireland since last May. That's when a study called the Ryan Report was published, which concluded that rape and sexual molestation were "endemic" in Catholic-run schools and orphanages in Ireland, for more than three decades. Then, the Murphy Report, issued shortly thereafter, outlined a series of cover-ups by Church hierarchy.

Irish Senator Frances Fitzgerald has been an advocate for the victims of abuse. She's also the Leader of the Opposition in the Irish Senate. We reached her in Dublin.

In philosophy, one often deals with the central questions of existence. For example, René Descartes's contentious dictum "I think, therefore I am."

Well, a recent controversy surrounding a new book by renowned French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy has shown that thinking someone exists does not mean he am. Because, in the book "Of War in Philosophy" Monsieur Lévy has cited the work of an intellectual named Jean-Baptiste Botul -- who happens to be fictional.

Frederic Pages can tell us a bit more about Monsieur Levy, and Monsieur Botul. He's a journalist with the satirical weekly, "Le Canard Enchaine", and we reached him in Paris.

Well, in the words of Jean-Paul Sartre, "Hell is made-up people."

That's not exactly what he said, but if Bernard-Henri Lévy can use made-up quotations, so can we.

Bien sûr. And we'll leave you to ponder that while you listen to coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, next on CBC Radio One. You can keep pondering it during the news. And then you can stop, when we return with these stories.

A long-buried secret is unearthed. Exhumed bones in Tokyo lead to an investigation of the horrifying deeds of Japan's so-called "Unit 731".

Last night, Gerald Steinberg gave us his opinion of various NGOs he says are anti-Israel. Tonight, we'll get a second opinion.

Is it hot in the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, or is it just me? Scientists at an American lab create matter that measures about four trillion degrees -- and that's Celsius, not Fahrenheit.

Stay tuned. I'm CO.

And I'm BB.

Hello again, I'm CO.

And I'm BB. This is As It Happens, Part Two.

Coming up:

Point counter-point: Gerald Steinberg says al-Haq, and other NGOs, are anti-Israel -- but our guest tonight does not agree.

Pint counter-pint: two European breweries engage in a war -- and the casualties are anyone who drinks their unbelievably strong beers.

Those stories are still to come on As It Happens.

It's been more than sixty years since the end of the Second World War. But even now, if you mention "Unit 731" in Japan, people will respond with fresh shock and disgust.

Unit 731 was the name of the Imperial Army's notorious medical research team. It's alleged that the team carried out secret experiments on people -- experiments of nearly unimaginable cruelty. Representatives of Japan's right wing constantly deny the allegations -- and successive Japanese governments have shied away from broaching the subject.

But now, Japanese authorities have announced that they'll open an investigation into Unit 731 -- after bones, thought to have come from from victims of those notorious experiments, were discovered in Tokyo.

Julian Ryall, a journalist based in Japan, has written about these new developments. We reached him in Yokohama, Japan.

You may recall that, last October, we ran a story about a London-based company called Today Translations. The company was seeking someone who could translate the "Weegie" tongue. That's "Glaswegian" to you and me.

Well, after four long months, and a lot of barely comprehensible slang, that search is over. Twenty-six-year old Jonathan Downie has won the coveted position -- and becomes the world's first Glaswegian interpreter.

Jonathan will be talking with Carol tomorrow. So, if you're from Glasgow, and wish to affirm Mr. Downie's credentials -- or you have a question about some arcane piece of Glaswegian dialect you can't make head nor tail of -- then call our Talkback line. The number is 1-866-481-5718. Or email us at aih@cbc.ca, with your best effort at transcription of the Glaswegian expression in question. We'll see just how good Mr. Downie is.

If you've ever met a newborn baby, you probably thought, "Cute, sure, but not much going on in there." After all, infants are considered adorable partly because they're not capable of much besides eating, sleeping, and filling diapers.

But it seems some of those newborns may actually be bilingual -- even though they're months away from learning to talk.

A new study out of the University of British Colombia shows that babies who were exposed to two languages in the womb recognize both as their mother tongues. Krista Byers-Heinlein is the psychologist who was the lead author of the study. We reached her in Vancouver.

Dateline... Fraserburgh, Scotland.A Scottish brewery is making waves -- and setting records -- with its latest beverage.

Last year the company -- BrewDog -- set the beer world in a tizzy when it unveiled a beer containing thirty-two per cent alcohol, called Tactical Nuclear Penguin. It was a terrible idea. Nevertheless, a German brewery called Schorschbrau issued its own super-potent concoction: a beer called Schorshbock. It was described by reviewers as "very strong" -- probably because it contained forty per cent alcohol.

Now, other breweries might have just given up and set off to drown their troubles. But we're talking about people who thought Tactical Nuclear Penguin was a good idea in the first place. So BrewDog has returned for another round with a beer called "Sink the Bismarck". It costs about sixty-five bucks Canadian, and an untold number of brain cells -- because it's got forty-one per cent alcohol.

Needless to say, it's already generated worldwide buzz -- as well as buzzkill. Critics have called the Scottish brewery irresponsible, scolding it for its promotion of binge-drinking. BrewDog's response might leave a bitter taste in your mouth. Says managing director James Watt, "It is important that you be careful with this beer and show it the same amount of skeptical, tentative respect you would show an international chess superstar, or clown."

Which means that both the new beer, and the brewery's endorsement of it, are equally hard to swallow.

Good leaders inspire. Great leaders show by example. And the greatest lead with pharmaceutical products.

You may remember a baseball player named Mark McGwire: In 1998, he set the record for the most home runs hit in a single season. At the time, many accused Mr. McGwire of using steroids to help him accomplish the feat. He simply refused to discuss the issue.

Until three weeks ago, that is -- when, suddenly, he called a press conference and announced to the world, that yes, he had been cheating the whole time.

Many wondered why he had come forward now, seeing as he'd been retired from baseball for more than eight years. Perhaps he'd had an epiphany. Perhaps he was tired of the guilt.

Or perhaps he was forced to, in order to get a job.

Today, Mr. McGwire started in his new position with the St. Louis Cardinals. But he's not coming back to prove that he can hit a baseball without using drugs. He's going to be the batting coach. That's the person who's responsible for showing players the best way to hit home runs. He'll give advice like: "Here's how you hold it. Don't choke up on it too much. And don't take too many practice swings -- you'll get bubbles in the hypodermic." That sort of thing.

I'm joking, of course. But it is sad that metal bats are banned in the Major Leagues - because Mr. McGwire's best teaching tool may just be irony.

On last night's program, Carol spoke with Gerald Steinberg, the head of NGO Monitor -- a Jerusalem-based group that keeps a watch on non-governmnental organizations which are critical of Israel. Of late, the Canadian organization Rights & Democracy has been on Mr. Steinberg's radar, because of recent changes to its funding practices -- namely, denying grants to three human-rights organizations it had previously funded. Mr. Steinberg applauded Rights & Democracy's decision because, he argued, those three groups are human-rights organizations in name only.

Not everyone agrees with Mr. Steinberg's view. Bill van Esvald is a researcher with Human Rights Watch in Jerusalem. We reached him on his cell phone.

It's one of the biggest challenges in medicine in the developing world: getting vaccines to people who need them, in areas where there is no refrigeration to store them. But now that challenge has been met: a team of British scientists has come up with a simple way to keep vaccines and other medicines stable, even at tropical temperatures.

John Seaton is a spokesman for Nova Bio-Pharma Technologies, the company that has developed the technique. The research is to be published this week in the journal, Science Translational Medicine. We reached him in Leicester, England.

According to journalists who work there, Morocco has been tooting its own horn for too long. And that horn should be muted.

While the country consistently presents itself as a relative haven of freedom of the press in the Arab world, some members of the press insist that's not the case. Over the past year, bloggers and journalists have been jailed or fined, and their access has been restricted. And journalists aren't the only ones raising the alarm. So is Human Rights Watch: in its yearly report, it reported that Moroccan press freedom had declined in 2009.

Aïda Alami grew up in Morocco, and trained as a journalist in the United States. When she returned to Morocco this fall, she landed a job with a magazine that she believed made a difference. And then the magazine was shut down. We reached Ms. Alami in Marrakech.

DALET: MOROCCAN PRESS CENSORSHIP

In Italo Calvino's book Cosmicomics, the narrator -- a seemingly immortal being with an unpronounceable name -- reflects on the Big Bang. He says, "The first few moments of the universe were like soup. Far too much energy and not enough protons gave it a bit of a peppery taste, but I still loved it. The memory of your mum's cooking when you're growing up gives you such strong memories."

It's unclear who or what exactly that character is. But we can deduce that whatever mouth he used to consume that universal soup was significantly less heat-sensitive than ours. Because if you -- a non-immortal being with a pronounceable name -- had even come within thousands of miles of the soup, you wouldn't even have had time to crumble saltines in it. You would just be atomized by the heat, and then your atoms would have melted.

At Brookhaven National Laboratory, in Upton, New York, they're trying to recreate some of the conditions at the beginning of the universe. Their goal is to figure out, broadly speaking, what holds the stuff of the universe -- protons and neutrons -- together. And in conducting their research, they've created matter at a temperature even higher than the one that melted protons and neutrons into the soup of quarks and gluons they believe filled the universe immediately after it was born. I understood most of what I just said.

Scientists at Brookhaven used an enormous "atom smasher" to force collisions between gold ions. The result was matter whose temperature reached four trillion degrees Celsius.

That's roughly two-hundred-and-fifty thousand times hotter than the sun. Of course, matter that hot isn't exactly stable: it only existed for a fraction of a billionth of a trillionth of a second. Still, it was long enough for scientists to discern that the matter, at that temperature, was, indeed, a liquid -- or soup, if you prefer.

These results are raising questions in the world of quantum chromodynamics. Which I have a lot of questions about, as well. A lot of questions. But instead of asking them, I'll just think about soup. With the help of Hawksley Workman.