In case you missed it: spine surgeries, genetic links in dogs, research duo, HIV testing, Dr. Anne Alonso

The growth in minimally invasive spine surgery such as vertebroplasty and a related procedure called kyphoplasty is sparking concern among some doctors that the procedures are becoming the first line of treatment, even though their effectiveness remains unproven and they carry significant, if uncommon, risks, including paralysis or even death.

Using brand new genetic "chip" technology developed by researchers at the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT, where the entire dog genome was sequenced a couple of years ago, Dr. Nicholas Dodman is finally poised to do the experiments he's been waiting years to do, exploring the genetics of complex psychiatric problems in dogs.

They've been married for 34 years, so it's clear that Jon and Christine Seidman (left) know how to work together. But as co-directors of the Seidman Laboratory at Harvard Medical School, with offices just five feet apart, people always ask them the same question: how do you work together?

Also in Monday's Health/Science section, the Galaxy Zoo needs your help, 'green light' laser therapy and compressing a file into nothing.

Massachusetts is resisting a year-old push by federal health authorities to make getting an HIV test as easy as being screened for cholesterol or diabetes, arguing that AIDS remains so freighted with social stigma that a test should not be done without a patient's specific written permission, Stephen Smith writes in Saturday's Globe.

A past president of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, Dr. Anne W. Alonso (left) was widely admired for her ability to lead group sessions, and she reveled in teaching the craft of talk therapy to aspiring practitioners. Dr. Alonso, who founded the Center for Psychoanalytic Studies at Massachusetts General Hospital, where she had worked since 1978, died at the hospital on Aug. 22 of complications from surgery. She was 73 and had lived in Cambridge.