i have lou gehrig's disease. g-e-h-r-i-g apostrophe s. >> reporter: ben bier was 31, an actor and a play right when he was diagnosed with lou gehrig's disease, als, a disease that is always fatal. he began a video diary that ultimately turned into this full-length documentary that he called "indestructible." >> they have -- they have more treatment for the -- the -- the flu than they do for this disease. >> reporter: did you know -- >> nothing. >> reporter: -- what that was? >> absolutely nothing. i had no idea about als. i mean, i'd heard about people having als and it was a horrible disease, and i didn't want to know any more. >> reporter: steven and barbara byer were his parents. >> at the time, mind you, this was eight or nine years ago, ben was given what we call the als speech, which is now still given, but in the as frequently as it was then. and the speech is, gee, i'm terribly sorry, you have als. you're going to die in one to three years. >> my body is about 15% dead, but i'm also 85% alive. >> reporter

what he has in common with babe ruth and lou gehrig. >>> are you surprised there doing so well despite injuries? >>> the a's yes because they're not projected to do well this year, the giants is disappointing, how you look at they are supposed to be contenders. magic johnson leads the l.a. dodgers. >>> that does it for this edition of eyewitness news 60 minutes next. happy mother's day. good night. ,,,,,,,, [ female announcer ] safeway presents real big deals of the week. or how to keep from driving all over for the best deals. you don't need to run around. safeway gives you real big club card deals each week. right now, a sweet price on honey nut cheerios, just $1.88. starbucks coffee is only $7.77. that's less than a quarter for a great cup of coffee. and fage greek yogurt is just a buck. real big deals this week and every week.

what does he have to do with babe ruth and lou gehrig to yankees grates?>> the religion of the new guy is out and yahoo board members may have had good reason to have a motive? coming up at 630 another reason board members wanted scott thompson out. that is it for eyewitness news, happy mother's day will see you in half hour and a 10 and 11. news updates @ cbs s f. com good night. ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

. >> eric: still ahead the amazing story and life of a one time guitar player stricken by lou gehrig'sfelong friends how the struggle with a life-threatening disease forever changes the lives of two young women. >> eric: a richmond musician that has defied the odds of medicine is the traffic is new documentary. we've been following the remarkable of the life of jason becker more than a decade. ♪ >> there is nobody better than that. >> people hear them and they say what the heck was that. >> he could play it that way. >> he was on his way to becoming a really big rock star. >> reporter: but that didn't happen. at age 20 jason becker was diagnosed with als. it slowly robbed him of the ability to control his body. doctors gave him three to five years to live. when we first met him in 1996 he had proven the doctors wrong. now she 42 years old. almost more incredible during all those years, even though jason can't move or speak, he has continued composing spectacular music. ♪ >> that music has fans all over the world from heavy metal guitar lovers to ballet companies. he talked about why he

he played for the yankees with babe ruth and lou gehrig as she grew and she talked a lot with her uncle in the military. >> and i heard so many stories and i got enhanced with his stories. >> reporter: she joined the women's army corps. during world war ii, she worked at the ordinance depot in texas. >> and loading bombs to diesels. >> reporter: she rose through the ranks to become an officer. >> how were you treatd? >> just like the officers. just like the officers. >> reporter: after the war ended, she was sent to europe, assigned to gresham ordinance depo near frank photo. >> very dirty and greasy. >> reporter: a particular gentlemen she met kept visiting. >> and that is when i realized there was something between us. >> reporter: they were married in 1950s and retired in the '60s and travelled through the panama canal, the last trip together before he died and she still studies each picture from this life. >> what do you think about being 104? oh, e everybody tells me you look great, you look great. i don't feel as well as i look then, i say. >> reporter: the remedy? >> and what is

. >>> now there may be hope for sufferers of als or lou gehrig's disease after japanese researchers took the first steps in unraveling the mechanism of the illness. this could lead to an eventual cure for the muscle-wasting disease. als destroys a motor neurocells eventually taking away the ability to breathe and leading to death. the exact cause of the disease is not clear but it is thought to be genetic. kyoto university researchers re-created the process of cell death brought by the disease. they created moto neuron cells from human embryonic stem cells. the neuron cells contained a gene responsible for 2% of als cases. they found that the cells used in the experiment died in the same way as the cells affected by the disease. and the team re-created cell death by introducing culture taken from a type of cell blamed for the worsening of the condition. the culture killed motor neuron cells just as in cases of als. the experts hope their results will show how neuron cells are killed by the disease and lead to a breakthrough. >>> astronomiers have discovered some asteroids between march a

. >>> there may be hope for sufferers of als or lou gehrig's disease. japanese researchers took the first steps in unraveling the mechanism of the illness. this could lead to an eventual cure for the muscle wasting disease. als destroys motor neuron cells taking away the ability to breathe and leading to death. the exact cause of the disease is not clear. but it is thought to be genetic. researchers re-created the process of cell death brought on by the disease. they created motor neuron cells from human embryonic stem cells. they found that the cells used in the experiment died in the same way as cells affected by the disease. the team also re-created cell death by introducing culture taken from a type of cell blamed for the worsening of the condition. the culture killed motor neuron cells just as in cases of als. the experts hope that their results will show how neuron cells are destroying -- destroyed by the disease and lead to a breakthrough in the treatment of als. >>> south korean exports like samsung and lg are famous around the world, but south

tied lou gehrig's restaurant playing in 130 consecutive games. and it was a number that seemed impossible to break. and the night that he tied it, that day, throughout the year they had in back of the park at oriole park camden yards the big ban their would if you recall out and say he was at 2102, 2110, whatever. when it became an official game and went to 2130, it was just chilling for everybody, in the whole stadium, that this event that harkened back to this sort of magical time, and this great figure and lou gehrig and all that, was not upon us again. and ballplayers tacked about that too, afterwards and seeing it. then we had the whole steroid era came in baseball. and a lot of the great numbers that we think about like babe ruth home run, 714, and all that, they're gone. and what was left standing was 56. >> rose: and will it remain standing. >> i think it will. i say it is the most unbreakable of the theoretically breakable records because it is really just as easy by all evidence to hit in 56 straight today as it was then which means not

countries and counting he's looking for more this is obviously a debilitating disease known as lou gehrig's it's one that's affected his family personally so he's raising money for charity including a raffle he's got a big goal he's trying to meet we know a lot of our viewers are his readers so you can check out his blog to find out more you know it's global economic analysis we want to make sure you don't miss that and much much much lighter your feedback let's get to my very favorite viewer comment that maybe we've ever received show me the money says capital account is by far the most new wants financial and economic show on television i'm constantly amazed at their ability to produce such smart show hosts without talking down to their audience i have learned so much from watching this show every day since december of last year bravo and thank you and show me the money i think you know that is the nicest comment it made my day this is a lot of what we hope to achieve the things that you. touched on is very nice to know that it's resonating with a dedicated viewer like yourself we want to

the goals with a fully equipped handicapped accessible van for a woman named claudia with lou gehrig's and another van for mindy who has stage four, lung, bobbi and liver cancer we raised $83,000 dollars in 50 hours. the donations were coming in six a minute. >> reporter: both ladies will be getting their vans soon but melton says it is the people around the world who donated who are getting the real gift in mother's day. >> if we adopt mother teresa's saying which is we can do no great things but we can do small things with great love and that is what we proved during these love flash mobs. everybody has something to give and that, when we all add our little offerings together, that they can make a difference. >> almost like a theme this morning, moms when they put their heads to it can really get things done. >> she certainly has. besides her blog, she also writes for the huffington post and is working on a book as well. so good luke to her. >> she looks like a younger adriana huffington, doesn't she? much younger. >> a little bit. >>> a magazine featuring president obama sparking a

this mother's day love flash mob was a fully equipped handicapped accessible van for a woman with lou gehrig'sease and another for a woman with stage 4 lung, bone and liver cancer. >> we raised $73,000 in 50 hours and so yes, the donations were coming in six a minute. >> reporter: both ladies will be getting their van soon, but melton says it's the people around the world who donated who are getting the real gift this mother's day. >> it's we adopt mother teresa's saying which is we can do no great things, but we can do small things with great love and that's what we prove during these love flash mobs. everybody has something to give and that when we all add our little offerings together that they can make big miracles. >> and glennon melton maybe the biggest miracle of all when she walked away from life of bulimia and alcoholism cold turkey and turned to a life of family and service to others. she also writes for the huffington post and is now working on a book and if i have to work on a mother's day to spend a moment with you and glennon, it was amazing. >> i'm blown away by how one person -

it is babe ruth and lou gehrig. but it has some condition issues.uld look like at 100 years old. the ball is in tough condition. that's a big problem with it. that being said, i'm on the record as saying i would like to bring the yankee baseball back home to new york. >> all right. did you bring it back home? >> i did. >> all right. >> i can't reveal what i paid for it because it's coming out on the show. >> we have items here. you're going to help us figure out what makes something special. for example, first of all, we've got these shorts signed by pablo picasso. then we have an alexander calder wire car. one is worth $10,000 and the other is worthed $100,000. i'm guessing that the picasso is worth $100,000 and the wire car is worth $10,000. >> well, picasso is the big guess because it's the iconic name but it's the car. it's the car. they did these mobiles and stationery cars. and he was known for his sculptures and this one just in the process of authenticating. if it's right, it's $100,000. >> because it's an actusculptur. >> yes. >> next we ha

but when you really look at the history and see that there were only 16 guys to do it, lou gehrig and mike schmidt, you realize how big a feat it is. if you hit a curveball for a home, you'll not see another good pitch. hamilton was hitting balls that would have been balls, he hit curveballs and slighteders and sinkers. and anything they threw at this guy, he's hit 18 home runs now. he plays his 35th game tonight. only one other player has hit 18 home runs after 34 games, and that guy wasn't named ruth or barry bonds. so he's having an amazing year. >> lebron james. we should be impressed by this, too. third player of the year. >> he's the best. he deserves it. if you want to say, oh, but he hasn't won a championship, remember, the mvp award is the regular season, most valuable player. there's no argument you can make that lebron james wasn't the best regular season player. that is the guy who all his career, it's going to have hanging over his head until he wins a championship that he's never won a big one. but that's unfair. if you're an icon, which lebron james is, if you've never

so for people with spinal cord injury, with brain stem stroke, with a.l.s., lou gehrig's disease, these are all injuries or diseases. from the person who has this injury or disease is perfectly weak or alert, able to appreciate everything in the environment, able to think and has every desire to move and communicate. it's for those types of injuries or diseases that this early initial research is being focused. >> warner: so in other words, the brain's motor cortex, as it's known, that still has to be intact and functioning? >> well, we're recording right now from the motor cortex, which is one of many parts of the brain that are involved in the control of movement. so while we're learning a lot and really we've gotten to this point the result of more than 40 years of publicly funded science and clinical research, tond how this part and other parts of the brain work. but it's quite possible that this same array or other technologies would be able to record from other parts of the brain that are similarly involved in the control of movement displarg could this also work for amputees? >>

and i have a good friend who played a long time who is going through lou gehrig's disease.e has als. and from the head trauma from him will, something i worry about with him, as well. hopefully he feels the love and support that he doesn't have to go down this path. and no one knows what was going on in junior's mind but junior. and it's sad and there will be all kind of speculations and stuff. so hopefully we can get some answers after everything settles down and find out what exactly was going on and with the research that they're able to do now a days on guys' brains, they're able to come to some conclusions. >> mark, forgive me, i know you've justless your friend. i have to interrupt you. we'll follow it up. i have to interrupt you because we have to go to this, newt gingrich speaking live about quitting the race for president. >> -- 179,000 donors who helped us at newt.org. i should single out my brother, randy, and his wife, jill, who are here. randy has gone all over the country campaigning for me and i'm very grateful. and i want to mention that bob walker's wife, b

he played for the yankees with babe ruth and lou gehrig.talked a lot with her uncle who was in the military. >> i heard him tell so many stories. >> reporter: she joined the women's army corps. during world war ii, she worked at the red river ordinance depot in texas. >> loading bombs on to diesels. i realized i was more than. >> reporter: she rose through the ranks to become an officer. >> how were you treated? >> just like the officers. just like the officers. >> reporter: after the war ended, she was sent to europe, assigned to grisham ordinance depot near frankfurt. >> very dirty and greasy. >> reporter: when she left for an assignment in berlin, a particular gentleman she met kept visiting. >> there was a little something between us. >> reporter: they were married in 1950, both retired in the 1960's. they traveled, this picture is from a cruise through the panama canal. it was their last trip together before he died. she still studies each picture from this life. >> what do you think about being 104? >> i turn my nose up at it. oh, eve

whatsoever a man into his first year as a graduate student at cambridge when he was diagnosed with lou gehrig'sdisease. then his courtship later to beat jane hawking's come a very moving story because it took place in the context of his coming to terms with his disease and her coming to terms with it. not only with the disease and disability, but the prospect of what at that time was going to be very early debt that we've only been given two years to live. then he goes on to children, the birth of his children, failure of the first marriage and on the things you expect from a. there's just a cornucopia in the book, not only has science, but the science that is most interested in and most influenced him. and then there's all sorts of those wonderful that it is made with his colleagues about the black hole, will he find the concern? can there be such a thing as singularity? is information irretrievably lost in a black hole? i keep encountering bats i never knew he made and then you hear about his settling and with the document with his on it. this is a big activity. and then explain the science a

whatsoever a man into his first year as a graduate student at cambridge when he was diagnosed with lou gehrig'sdisease. then his courtship later to beat jane hawking's come a very moving story because it took place in the context of his coming to terms with his disease and her coming to terms with it. not only with the disease and disability, but the prospect of what at that time was going to be very early debt that we've only been given two years to live. then he goes on to children, the birth of his children, failure of the first marriage and on the things you expect from a. there's just a cornucopia in the book, not only has science, but the science that is most interested in and most influenced him. and then there's all sorts of those wonderful that it is made with his colleagues about the black hole, will he find the concern? can there be such a thing as singularity? is information irretrievably lost in a black hole? i keep encountering bats i never knew he made and then you hear about his settling and with the document with his on it. this is a big activity. and then explain the science a

ripken played, in case you lost breaking the record by lou es, gehrig.tal floss. >>> gayle's in the control room. what's coming up in the next hour? >> i am here. hi, charlie. when she opened up about being gay, the door to country music stardom closed. we're talking to chely wright live in studio 57. >>> what happens when a jazz legend talks to a great music songwriter? >>> marisa mayer was hired by google, and one of the top women in technology and she'll tell us about google's >>> here is sharon gibala with traffic control. >> the west side of the beltway has been the worst all morning. this report is bought to you by the cochran firm. >>> we have a baltimore city school advisory. rosemont middle is closed to students because of an electrical problem. marty is in the weather center. >>> shower activity continues. forecast today will show it will be out of here by this afternoon. we go for a high of 86. it's 79 now. >>> the deatbate over same sex marriage is heating up. they have not turned in twice the number of signatures necessary to put the issue o

ripken played, in case you lost breaking the record by lou es, gehrig.nds at mental floss. >>> gayle's in the control room. what's coming up in the next hour? >> i am here. hi, charlie. when she opened up about being gay, the door to country music stardom closed. we're talking to chely wright live in studio 57. >>> what happens when a jazz legend talks to a great music songwriter? >>> marisa mayer was hired by google, and one of the top women >>> marisa mayer was hired by google, and one of the top women in technology and she'll tell us [ creaking ] [ male announcer ] trophies and awards lift you up. but they can also hold you back. unless you ask, what's next? [ zapping ] [ clang ] this is the next level of performance. the next level of innovation. the next rx. the all-new f sport. this is the pursuit of perfection. perfect golden color. rich in fiber. my dad taught me, and i taught my son out there. morning, pa. wait... who's driving the...? ♪ 99 bushels of wheat on the farm, 99 bushels of wheat ♪ [ male announcer ] yep, there's 8 filling layers of wh

ripken played, in case you lost breaking the record by lou es, gehrig.iends at mental floss. >>> gayle's in the control room. what's coming up in the next hour? >> i am here. hi, charlie. when she opened up about being gay, the door to country music stardom closed. we're talking to chely wright live in studio 57. >>> what happens when a jazz legend talks to a great music songwriter? >>> marisa mayer was hired by google, and one of the top women in technology and she'll tell us about google's alates >> time for the news headlines from cbs five. presidential candidate mitt romney will be in hillsboro today for a fund-raising event at the historic carolyn mansion. he secured the republican nomination yesterday after winning the texas primary. an arsonist has been sentenced to eight years in prison for the 2010 fire at trace elementary school. is under review. the saber cats are dealing with the unexpected death of a teammate who was found dead in a hotel room days after scoring a game winning touchdown against game winning touchdown against chicago. >> good