Search
3mins
NIH has to play a larger role in working with the private sector to get more effective treatments through the development pipeline, approved by the FDA, and into the hands […]
4mins
“Whether or not scientists are believers should not have a whole lot to do with how they conduct science,” says Collins. He wishes more scientists were willing “to stand up […]
4mins
Some scientists see religion as a threat to the scientific method that should be resisted. But faith “is really asking a different set of questions,” says Collins.
4mins
The NIH chief talks about attempts to factor an individual’s genetic profile into the way the person is diagnosed and treated.
4mins
The former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute describes how researchers compare DNA sequences to pinpoint which genes cause which diseases.
5mins
Recent uncertainty about whether federal funds can be used for for human embryonic stem cell research has “cast a cold chill” through the field, says Collins.
3mins
We must confront our national obesity crisis, warns NIH director Francis Collins, or face a decrease in life expectancy.
3mins
Having a smaller budget is forcing the NIH to be even more specific about how it sets priorities, and, in some instances, to close down productive programs.
3mins
The real “return” on research investments is in clinical benefits, diagnostics, therapeutics, and preventive measures. The lead time on those is often measured in years, so they can be hard […]
2mins
“Scientific opportunity has to be a big part of it,” says Francis Collins. Sometimes when a rare disease hits that moment of scientific opportunity it can reveal things about common […]
40mins
A conversation with the director of the National Institutes of Health.
2mins
Investments in areas like alternative energy sources have a negative cost differential in the short run, even though they may pay off in 20 or 30 years. And what about […]
4mins
The neuroscientist recounts some of the breakthroughs that have come out of his world-renowned lab.
2mins
Some rats are naturally more fearful than others. The neuroscientist’s current research focuses on what these outliers can tell us about the psychopathology of fear in humans.
1mins
Animal studies allow neuroscientists to study the brain at the level of individual neurons, unlike human brain-imaging studies.
3mins
The amygdala is responsible for implicit memories, but these are different from what Freud called the unconscious.
5mins
The neuroscientist gives a short primer on the brain’s emotional processor.
4mins
“The process of consciousness is the process that allows us to run our lives personally and in society the way we do,” says Damasio. “It’s the thing that gives us […]
11mins
Neurologists learned about how emotion originates in the brain from people like Phineas Gage, who had a spike driven into his head. By learning about the specific impairment of a […]