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A library of interviews with the world’s biggest thinkers.
3mins
We must confront our national obesity crisis, warns NIH director Francis Collins, or face a decrease in life expectancy.
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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.
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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 […]
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“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.
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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.
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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.
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Animal studies allow neuroscientists to study the brain at the level of individual neurons, unlike human brain-imaging studies.
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The amygdala is responsible for implicit memories, but these are different from what Freud called the unconscious.
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The neuroscientist gives a short primer on the brain’s emotional processor.
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“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 […]
8mins
From a neural standpoint, memory structures “are in of themselves rather dumb,” says Damasio. “It’s not that they know anything consciously. What they know is they have a sort of […]
12mins
“We do have a measure of control,” says Damasio, “but it is not true that we have full control and it is not true that when we are executing an […]
39mins
The USC neurobiologist and novelist speak about various topics on neurology and memory.
7mins
Philosopher Kwame Athony Appiah talks about the difficulty of growing up gay in Ghana and why he is optimistic about the future.
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In 100 years Americans will look back with horror at our current penal system. The U.S. incarcerates one-quarter of world’s prisoners despite having only 4% of its population.
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Philosopher Kwame Anthony Appiah weighs in on the “Jersey Shore” star.