In some ways, this is a family story. Peter Kovatchev was a naval engineer who raised his son, Boris, as a problem solver, and who built model ships with his granddaughter, Anna. He also suffered from a form of diabetes in which the pancreas cannot make enough insulin. To control the concentration of glucose in his blood, he had to inject insulin several times a day, using a syringe that he kept in a small metal box in our family's refrigerator. But although he tried to administer the right amount of insulin at the right times, his blood-glucose control was quite poor. He passed away from diabetes-related complications in 2002. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]