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Neuroscientist Tony Zador explains how a sound wave is converted into neural signals that the brain can understand and speculates about the role of auditory attention in this process.
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3 min
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During a conversation at a cocktail party, you have to make one of two choices: actually listen to the person speaking to you, or nod your head in assent while […]
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5 min
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A conversation with the neuroscientist.
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18 min
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Using the tools of philosophic inquiry to ask questions about the world around us can bring clarity of thought of clarity of expression.
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3 min
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Cognitive science forces philosophers to think much more clearly about to what extent emotion and affect play a role in our cognitive economy.
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4 min
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Physicists should find it frustrating and upsetting that they don’t really get what this fundamental mathematical theory tells us about the world.
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5 min
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Traditional philosophical questions are about the way the world works—and the best way to find out how the world works is to observe it in well-defined experimental situations.
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5 min
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If you’re only interested in physics as a tool for engineering, you don’t necessarily need to understand the true nature of what you’re studying. But why wouldn’t you want to?
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4 min
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When they ask the very basic conceptual questions about the physical world, mathematicians, physicists and philosophers are addressing many of the same issues.
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6 min
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A conversation with the Rutgers University philosopher.
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26 min
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Technology is replicating and replacing functions long held in the brain. What does offloading your brain to technology mean for such vital human as memory and creativity?
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3 min
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The higher-order capacity for inwardness and intimacy is vital for humanity, yet these characteristics are evolving away as technology advances.
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5 min
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With a smart phone always at arm’s length, we are connected to the point of addiction. Is the solution more technology, or a digital detox?
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5 min
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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 […]
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4 min
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“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 […]
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4 min
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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.
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5 min
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The NIH chief talks about attempts to factor an individual’s genetic profile into the way the person is diagnosed and treated.
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4 min
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The former director of the National Human Genome Research Institute describes how researchers compare DNA sequences to pinpoint which genes cause which diseases.
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4 min
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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.
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5 min
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We must confront our national obesity crisis, warns NIH director Francis Collins, or face a decrease in life expectancy.
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4 min
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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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4 min
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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 […]
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3 min
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A conversation with the director of the National Institutes of Health.
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40 min
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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 […]
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2 min
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The neuroscientist recounts some of the breakthroughs that have come out of his world-renowned lab.
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5 min
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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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3 min
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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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1 min
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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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3 min
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The neuroscientist gives a short primer on the brain’s emotional processor.
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6 min
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