Science
Biology
DOORS OPEN AT 6PM. In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Kate Winslet’s character erases painful memories of her ex-boyfriend. Could this be possible in real life? Neurotechnology, like decoded neurofeedback, offers ways to modify or erase unpleasant memories. Advocates believe it could improve mental well-being and heal emotional trauma. Forgotten memories co...
The mysteries of brain health are hidden deep within the ridges and grooves of the cerebral cortex. Join Mount Sinai Health System neuroscientists in this discussion of new techniques, innovative therapies, and lifestyle changes that unlock the brain’s secrets and boost your performance and longevity. Presented by Mount Sinai
Vision, hearing, touch, taste, and smell are the five human senses most of us are fortunate enough to know intimately. We like to say that intuition is our sixth sense, but Emma Young, an award-winning journalist who writes extensively about science and health, delves into research that has uncovered many others. In Super Senses: The Science of Your 32 Senses and How to Us...
When it comes to biomedical research, Earth’s gravity can be an obstacle, making it harder to program stem cells into viable organs, obscuring the crystalline structure of proteins, and interfering with cellular communication channels. The possibility of using space to advance science is no longer an exercise in imagination as biotech start-ups begin sending experiments in...
It is easy to take for granted the remarkable human ability to see, hear, smell, touch, and taste. Yet engaging fully with these remarkable tools of perception deepens our understanding of the world and paves the way to more mindful living. In her new book, Life in Five Senses: How Exploring the Senses Got Me Out of My Head and Into the World, author Gretchen Rubin draws o...
Aromas can trigger memories more forcefully than any other sense. The ability to smell allows us to enjoy nature’s riches, protects us from food gone bad, warns of gas leaks, and provides the perfume of intimacy. It is also the primary communication tool that animals use in the wild. Yet the superpower of smell has historically been under appreciated, the sense people gene...
As the planet warms, wildfires will proliferate in forests, grasslands, and even urban areas — threatening flora, fauna, and finances around the globe. The good news is that we aren’t helpless, even in the face of all-consuming conflagrations. Leading fire scientists share the best strategies we have for managing — and ultimately taming — the flames.
The recent leaps of science—sequencing the human genome, advancing the world-changing technology of CRISPR, deepening knowledge of the brain—owe much to Francis Collins’s brilliant mind and steady hand. Who better, then, to talk about what transformative discoveries come next? Genomics, immunotherapy, precision medicine, new uses for mRNA technology, and other interdiscipl...
Knowledge about the human microbiome, those trillions of bacteria, viruses, and other microbes that inhabit our bodies, is revolutionizing medicine just as mapping the human genome continues to do. Indeed, what we are learning could take us even further because the microbiome can be altered by diet, exercise, and stress control. Computational biology, DNA sequencing, and o...
For decades, public health experts warned of a coming pandemic and developed recommendations to prepare—yet when it arrived, the response was a catastrophic failure. With better surveillance, perhaps we could have slowed the worldwide spread of the virus. Had the threat become less politically charged, a consensus-driven strategy might have slowed it down. Certainly, stron...
Jennifer Doudna and her Berkeley lab collaborators are not alone in their quest to understand nature. As scientists with profound curiosity, leaders of labs across the globe have found themselves in an intense race to determine how to manipulate our genetic makeup, designing new technologies that can alter the course of disease or even design a human child. But with the de...
As the COVID-19 virus began to burn across the globe last year, virologist Nathan Wolfe had been studying how viruses cross over from wild animals to humans. He was also among the scientists and public health experts sadly prescient about something that is now abundantly clear: The world is woefully unprepared to prevent the spread of novel viral threats. In this conversat...
What is life? Where do its boundaries begin, and where do they end? These are some of the simple yet daunting questions science writer Carl Zimmer explores in his new book, Life’s Edge: The Search for What It Means to Be Alive. From the coronavirus to consciousness, Zimmer seeks to demonstrate that biology, for all its advances, has yet to achieve its greatest possible tri...
Thanks to the genius of biochemists such as Jennifer Doudna, who’s credited with the co-discovery of CRISPR, our biggest scientific advances in the near future may easily come by way of the genome-editing technology. CRISPR enables scientists to change or remove genes quickly, with a precision only dreamed of just a few years ago. But just how far are we willing to go to e...
While researching an article on the US Memory Championships, writer Joshua Foer was equally dubious and intrigued by one contestant’s claim that even an average memory, if used properly, could win the contest. After a year of memory training, under the tutelage of the world’s top memory athletes, he won the competition. Foer uses a live demonstration to show that there’s m...
Williams, Jordan, James, Brady. They’re among a growing class of the superstar athletes delivering career-best performances well past what's been considered peak age for their sports. As this phenomenon becomes more common, it begs the questions how and why now? How are experience and maturity winning out over inevitable, natural physical decline? Athletes in the 30s and 4...
Excelling as an elite athlete isn’t just about performance — it’s also about not getting hurt. In this session, two Stanford researchers discuss how DNA data can help athletes predict propensity for injury. From genetic tests of 100 NFL linemen and collegiate cross-country runners, the researchers are using DNA sequencing, algorithms, population data sets, and evidence of...
The ability to endure is the essential trait in every extreme athletic endeavor. Hundred-mile races, Himalayan Mountain expeditions, and cross-continental treks all require humans to push harder and achieve more than we ever thought possible. How important is the delicate interplay between mind and body in the struggle to keep pushing despite an agonizing will to stop? Wha...
With advances in testing and technology, the world of professional sports is beginning to use data to evaluate athlete health and to predict — and ideally, prevent — injury. Experts equipped with 3D motion capture technology are now essential members of team training staffs. Are these new technologies and recovery interventions increasing player longevity? Will cost-effect...
When it is complete, the Human Cell Atlas will be a comprehensive searchable map of our cells — a “Google map for the human body.” By combining elegant science and painstaking work in the trenches, the Atlas will portray the basic unit of life in all its staggering diversity, including every cellular subtype, how one type of cell can become another type, which genes are sw...